Reply To: What parts of The Grey Wolf resonated with you the most? Why?
I am going to go with all of Chapter 19. For me, this chapter includes several really heartfelt scenes. First, it covers the arrival of Armand and Jean-Guy at the monastery after their truly harrowing flight. Armand and Jean-Guy both recall their last time on that dock, in this place, the conflict between the two men at the time and their lasting feelings and memories. “They were both recalling, reliving, the last time they had stood on this dock. On this very spot. When Dom Philippe had told him about the grey wolf, and Jean-Guy had made a choice.” “What Armand saw in those familiar, those beloved eyes was shame.” “‘It’s okay. We’re okay,’ he said quietly to Jean-Guy.”
Next, the descriptions of both Armand and Reine-Marie when they initially believe Armand may have died in a plane crash after his cryptic text. Armand is initially unable to send a follow up to reassure her and Reine-Marie struggles not only with her own feelings but also with what to tell their children fixing dinner in their kitchen. As always, their concern for one another is palpable.
Finally, there is the description of the monks as they sing Vespers. It would be easy to make them caricatures, reduce them to oddities. Instead, they are described as men of purpose even if not one most people would choose; “men who believed with all their heart and soul that what they did was divine.” And Jean-Guy is able to “let the words, the music and the peace wash over him.”
