Damien the Leper, Dan England and the Noonday Devil, The Franciscans

Dan England and the Noonday Devil was Myles Connolly’s favorite of his five books. Indeed, with the profound philosophic sensibility and keen artistic vision that marked Connolly’s craft in the outstanding Mr. Blue shining out even brighter here, one can easily see why. Dan England is a merry and magnanimous man, whose occupation in life is the forging of friendships and the spreading of joy. Believing totally in the capacity of his friends to reach the heroic heights of sainthood, Dan himself is beset by doubts as he battles against that most insidious of foes: acedia, or the “noonday devil.”