The Sunken Cathedral

By John F. D. Taff

(Grey Matter Press, August 2015)

Reviewed by Stevie Barry

John F. D. Taff‘s “The Sunken Cathedral” is a disconcerting, gut-wrenching, heartbreaking novella of abuse and survival. The protagonist, Jake, narrates the history of molestation he suffered at the hands of the family priest when he was a child, and the ways in which it quietly destroyed him. Young and sheltered, he does not initially understand what Father Matt really wants of him, but, as a good altar boy, Jake wants to please the priest—no matter how wrong some of his requests might seem. The tale swiftly becomes deeply claustrophobic, and is rendered more complex by the revelation that Father Matt was himself abused by his priest, addressing the fact that, all too often, abuse is cyclical. As an adult, he thinks that perhaps his parents suspected something, because the family stopped going to church, but the issue was never formally addressed—something also all too common in reality.

The sinking of the titular cathedral is something only Jake is witness to, but it could easily also be read as a delusion of his increasingly fractured psyche. He wants to escape, but he is uncertain what it is he must escape from, and the cathedral is not risen from the water until he returns to the source of his personal demons and faces them.

Beautifully written, emotionally draining, this tragic story ends on an uplifting note, leaving the reader—and Jake—with hope rather than despair. Nevertheless, it might be best to have Kleenex on hand before sitting down with this one.