“Howard’s End” is an old friend

Some books are like good friends from high school. You look them up every now and again because you know them so well and they never fail to make you happy. “Howard’s End” is one of those books for me.

It is a particularly important book for me because of the way I first encountered it. Not as the book, and not as the movie, but as a two-person show presented (it seemed at the time) in the middle of the night in a seminary in southern Indiana.

Let me explain.

Waaaaay back in 1989, I spent almost a week visiting St. Meinrad College in tiny St. Meinrad, Indiana. I was considering going to the school, where I would consider going to the seminary there. As a married man with six kids, I guess it’s pretty clear it wasn’t my destiny to be a priest, but at the time, I wasn’t so sure.

The day I arrived, I met some students, toured the beautiful campus and archabby and went to Mass a good half-dozen times. And that night, I joined the students and a good number of the Benedictine monks who lived there in watching a husband-and-wife duo perform “Howard’s End.”

Now, there are probably a dozen characters in the book, and keeping track of who the actors were supposed to be at any moment was hard at first. Still, I was very impressed with their performance, and enjoyed the night immensely.

It seemed very late at night, and it was scorching hot. I sweltered in my best suit. I was far away from home for the first time, in a strange land of priests and monks, and the whole thing took on a very surreal feel.

After, I was introduced to the performers at a quaint little reception. I remember how pleased they seemed at being treated so well by their small, strange audience. It occurred to me there may not be many venues for their kind of work.

Anyway, I read the book shortly after returning home (convinced I was no priest-to-be), and loved it.

I would love to know the name of the duo that performed that night. I wonder if they’re still on the road someplace. Anybody know?