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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2004)
BY LOIS WADSWORTH Six Young Visionaries In a troubled world. THE MIRACLE DETECTIVE: An Investigation of Holy Visions by Randall Sullivan. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004. Hardcover, $25. Eugene reading at 7 pm on April 20 in the Knight Library Browsing Room, UO campus. C alling his new book “a reconciliation of faith and doubt,” contributing edi- tor to Rolling Stone magazine, Randall Sullivan, further noted to a Publishers Weekly interviewer, “You don’t have to give up doubt to have faith.” I had never seen the loaded terms “doubt” and “faith” used in this way before, much less deployed in the same sentence. But I was willing to give Sullivan the opportunity to dispel my skepticism in his thoroughly researched investigation into contemporary holy visions and apparitions of the Virgin Mary. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must tell you that I have read only a quarter of this fascinating, 442 page account. I intend to fin- ish the book before Sullivan’s 7 pm, April 20 reading at UO Bookstore. Based on the publisher’s notes, I have not yet read far enough to learn what happens to Sullivan when a short information gathering trip to Bosnia at the end of the 1990s war in the former Yugoslavia turns into a seven- week-long visit. It took Sullivan another eight years to digest his experience in Medjugorje (Medge-you-gor-yi-a) and put it in the largest possible context. Randall’s experience rests on his extensive understand- ing of the history of the region, the history of religious sightings, and hundreds of hours of interviews with theologians and historians with expertise in the study of holy appari- tions. Sullivan had access to the Vatican’s postulators from the Sacred Congregation of the Causes for Saints, for example. Sullivan’s account of the six teenagers who witnessed the first of the apparitions in Medjugorje is fascinating, even to a non- believer. These kids were not the devout Catholics whom the priests might have believed, They were regular teenagers, sneaking cigarettes for a clandestine smoke, hurrying to grow up. Their reports were given in plain language. And yet, when ques- tioned separately, each described the visions using the same words. My attention was arrested by two specif- ic details each of the kids reported after the first appearance. Lights signaled the approach of the image, then they saw a woman, wearing a robe. She held a baby in her arms. First, she uncovered the baby, then covered it, and uncovered it again before she left. Second, none of them could see her feet. She seemed to hover in the air. The unusual, ritualistic activity of show- ing and covering the baby remind me of the strange, mystical details that occur in dreams that contain numinous figures. Likewise, the figure’s invisible feet seems authentic to me, not something kids would make up. Sorry I can’t tell you more about the book. But this is enough to keep this skeptic reading for another 300-plus pages. Portland resident Sullivan is the author of numerous short pieces and two other books, The Price of Experience: Power, Money, Image, and Murder in Los Angeles and LAbyrinth, A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.. ew 30 APRIL 8, 2004 BOOK NOTES (A p r il 8 t hr o ug h Ma y 6 ): Ha r r ie t R ub i n (Dante in Love) reads at 7 pm on April 13 at Barnes and Noble. …UO Honors College professor H en r y Al l e y reads his short story, “The Rembrandt Brotherhood,” at 7:30 pm on April 13 in the Robert D. Clark Library. M ic h a e l C ur ti s Fo rd (The Last King: …M Rome’s Greatest Enemy) reads at 7 pm on April 13 at Borders Books. …Literary histori- an P a u l Co l l in s (Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism) reads at 7 pm on April 14 in the UO Bookstore…Poet M ax i n e S ca t e s and her workshop students read at 5 pm on April 17 in Tsunami Books. …Friends of the Eugene Public Library’s A n nu a l B oo k S a l e April 17 (9 am-4 pm) and April 18 (9 am- 4 pm), Lane County Fairgrounds, Wheeler Pavilion. …Local poets J i l l L i nn i n ge r, J os e C h av e z and K a re n F o r d read at 4 pm on April 18 in Tsunami Books. …Investigative reporter R a nd a ll S u ll iv a n (The Miracle Detective) reads at 7 pm on April 20 in the Knight Library Browsing Room, UO campus. …Poet M au ry a Si mo n (Ghost Orchid) reads at 7 pm on April 20 in the Eugene Public Library, downtown. …UO medievalist W ar re n G i ns b er g reads from Chaucer and Dante at 4 pm on April 20 in Alumni Lounge Gerlinger Hall, UO. …National Book Award for Poetry finalist C a r ol M us ke - Du k e s reads at 7:30 pm on April 21 in Wieden+Kennedy Atrium, Portland. Tickets: (503) 227-2583. …Novelist F re d e ri ck B us c h (A Memory of War) reads at 8 pm on April 22 in the Knight Ba r b ar a Library Browsing Room, UO. …B E rh e nr ei ch (Nickel and Dimed) speaks at 7:30 pm on April 22 in LaSells Stewart Ne al Center, OSU campus, Corvallis. …N Ba sc om b (The Perfect Mile) reads at 2 pm W il l ia m L. on April 25 in UO Bookstore. …W Su l li va n reads from his book, Cabin Fever and shows slides of building a long cabin from scratch at 7 pm on April 28 in the Knight Library Browsing Room. …Garden columnist A my St e wa rt (The Earth Moved) talks about earthworms at 1 pm on May 1 in A ri e l Down to Earth Home and Garden. …A Go r e (Whatever, Mom), editor of Hip Mama magazine, reads at 7 pm on May 4 in the UO Bookstore. …Poet and recent National Book Critics Circle Award-winner B . H . Fa i rc h i ld (The Art of the Lathe) reads at 8 pm on May 6 in Knight Library Browsing Room, UO D aw n G . St u ar t talks about book campus. …D marketing in the 21st century at 6:30 pm on May 6 in Baker Downtown Center.
