This book was a bit antiseptic. The author tells the story in a seeminingly factual way but without any real dramatic impact. If you're interested in a report without scandal or drama, then this is for you. It is my suspicion, however, that this story would have required an allowance of scandal and factual drama to make it truly accurate!

The author presents himself as a benign observer of the Vatican, claiming not to be an apoligist for it. Don't believe it. While his tone is measured and far from strident, he clearly views the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church as the sine qua non of Christianity. For him, the pope is the premier Christian leader who is ultimately responsible for all of Christendom worldwide. Pat Robertson, among others, might disagree.

The book does provide a fairly straightforward description of the structure and functioning of the Vatican as a bureaucracy. And the author does put it all in some measure of historical perspective (for instance, he observes that about 150 years ago the Vatican was very much pro death penalty to the point of having it's own, well oiled guillotine--now blessedly warehoused). But most of his take on the Vatican is from a deeply admiring, pro-Catholic angle. Criticism is light and glossy.

Now about the writing style...if you like cliches, you will worship the ground this book walks on! The author has a cliche up every sleeve, which is more than you can shake a stick at! It got so bad that I had to put the thing down every few pages to keep from screaming. Doesn't this man have an editor?

So if you want a minimally informative, superficial description of how the Vatican operates on a daily basis, this book might be for you (assuming you love cliches like the plague). A bonus is that the dust cover design is very nice (would look stunning on your coffee table next to the holy water bottle).

But if you want something substantial that peers well behind the black curtain of obfuscation, go for Garry Wills' "Papal Sin: Structures of Deceipt". Now there's a book you can sink your triple tiara into!