Abstract
Before commencing Murray Middleton’s new novel – the follow-up to his Vogel Award-winning debut When There’s No Where Else to Run (2015) – some readers might be taken aback by the title, which evokes a song of the same name.
The lyrics of No Church in the Wild, which opens Jay-Z and Kanye West’s celebrated 2011 album Watch the Throne, describe struggles between a “mob” and a “king”, and a “king” and a “God”.
Struggle is implicit in a title that opposes a place of worship with a wilderness, invoking the division between the sacred and the profane. Tellingly, though, the church is not in the wild, its absence suggesting that Middleton’s fiction is concerned with things that are missing: tolerance, supportive institutions, shared beliefs, even grace.
The lyrics of No Church in the Wild, which opens Jay-Z and Kanye West’s celebrated 2011 album Watch the Throne, describe struggles between a “mob” and a “king”, and a “king” and a “God”.
Struggle is implicit in a title that opposes a place of worship with a wilderness, invoking the division between the sacred and the profane. Tellingly, though, the church is not in the wild, its absence suggesting that Middleton’s fiction is concerned with things that are missing: tolerance, supportive institutions, shared beliefs, even grace.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Specialist publication | The Conversation |
| Publication status | Published - 22 Jul 2024 |