Vestments

Starred review from June 14, 2010
In this potent debut about a wayward yet devout young priest who struggles to reconcile his faith with longings of the flesh, Reimringer has crafted a suspenseful, illuminating, and highly readable saga. James Dressler, a Catholic working-class kid from St. Paul, Minn., with a barroom brawler father and a "piece of work" mother, sees the Catholic Church as both his salvation and his moral compass. Following his ordination, James gets assigned to Saint Hieronymus Church in Pretty Prairie, Minn., alongside his friend and cynical, skirt-chasing fellow priest, Mick. James joins a poker group run by fellow priests, and the internecine conflicts and accommodations within the clergy are artfully depicted, as are James's efforts to square his earthly cravings with his priestly station—he's basically a regular guy who loves sports and drinking, and yearns for female companionship. Soon enough, James ends up in trouble and goes back to St. Paul, where an old flame awaits. Reimringer excels, most notably, at revealing how the sensual delectations of Catholic ritual and the forbidden delights of the flesh are part of the same continuum, as sin and repentance feed off each other.

September 1, 2010

This intensely personal debut novel about a priest's fall from grace details the confusing life of an idealistic young man who belongs to a violent, hard-drinking, working-class family. Set in St. Paul, it tells the story of young James Dressler, exploring the experiences that lead him to the priesthood. The plot artfully unveils James's life through a series of flashbacks; James's reverently irreverent, violent, and alcoholic father provides a gripping emotional context, and the descriptions of the geography and history of St. Paul add a useful backdrop. Particularly satisfying are the descriptions of parish priests and how they bond together to support one another in their isolation. As Reimringer describes James's struggles, it seems a far-fetched notion that the young priest will not succumb to his urges, but he comes across as a genuine human being. VERDICT Holden Caulfield meets Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds with some Bukowski on the side, this is a compelling tale that provides a little-seen, interior, first-person point of view of the priesthood. For all readers interested in inner conflict.--Henry Bankhead, Los Gatos Lib., CA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2010
This contemplative, layered first novel takes a decidedly old-fashioned view of the priesthood. Reimringer creates a world in which the priests are athletic, drink Scotch, play poker, and revere the liturgy; their struggles with celibacy revolve solely around women. Just a few years after his ordination and his first assignment as a parish priest, James Dressler is placed on leave. His housekeeper found some letters from a woman and turned them into the archdiocese. For little more than a kiss, he is relegated to a parish in a backwater burg. He opts instead to live back home with his mother in St. Paul until he can come up with a better game plan. But his gritty hometown has its own temptations, and, broke and in need of work, James finds himself renovating apartments and butting heads with his tough, bad-tempered father and attracted once again to his old high-school lover, Betty Garcia. Through his thoughtful themes and lyrical prose, Reimringer effortlessly restores a measure of dignity to the priesthood even as he pays tender homage to the working-class roots of St. Paul.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)