In intermingling biography and lore, culture and history, and sympathy with academic examination, Green accomplished a beautiful and impressive biography of Francis of Assisi. In short straight-forward chapters, Green examines Francis' short life, from beginning to end, bringing to life the world he lived in at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The end result is a beautiful examination of a man and his belief--not only in God, but in the wonder of the world around him and in the goodness of people. More related to simple goodness than to religion, the book explores what belief means by centering on the transformation that occurred in Francis' life, and whether the book finds readers who believe or disbelieve in the possibility of miracles, it will find a way to touch the spirit of any reader through this straight-forward and careful depiction.

Touching, smart, and detailed, this book is, very simply, worth reading.

Absolutely recommended. ( )

St Francis for real ( )

This is an English language translation by Peter Heinegg from Julien Green's French language original entitled 'Frere Francois,' published by Editons du Seuil of Paris, France in April 1983. This Perennial Library paperback edition, published by Harper & Row in 1987, was designed by Don Hatch. The cover design by Alan Mazzetti shows a small colour photograph of a statue of the hooded Francis. It has a 'Word from the Author,' and a short Select Bibliography near the end of its 274 pages.

"Julien Green's book...is beautifully written, well researched, and altogether a masterpiece. Readers of it have the privilege not just of learning all about St. Francis, but of seeming to participate in his sublimely crazy ministry. To say that it is finely done is not enough; it is enchanting,' said Malcolm Muggeridge quoted on the back cover.

Green is also described by an anonymous writer on the back cover as 'a pivotal figure in the Paris literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s, [who] became in 1971 the only American writer to be elected to the Academie Francaise.'

He was introduced to me in a course on major 20th century Catholic writers that I took under the direction of Professor Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis while studying at the University of San Francisco in the eighties.

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