Praise for An Honorable Profession:
"Compelling … Miles Bannon attains something most of Hawthorne's Puritans go to their graves never knowing: the assurance that one is forgiven because one has been able to confess that, yes, my sin is real, my sin as well as that of my fellows. The acknowledgement will not neutralize the presence of wrong in the world or eradicate its effects … but the frank admission of responsibility is for Miles the first step toward mitigating those effects, toward achieving … dignity."
—Michael Lee, The National Catholic Reporter
"The larger triumph of this powerful book is that [L'Heureux] has taken a sordid moment in a high school locker room … and told a heroic story about a very vulnerable man, who by his suffering and courage redeems both himself and his school."
—Raymond A. Schroth, Commonweal
"The quality that pleases me most in a novel, after wit and brevity, is plot. An Honorable Profession, by John L'Heureux, has plot galore, including, most important, moral plot. … He writes about how right and wrong present themselves in the real world, qualified by context and conscience…. His novel illustrates the alchemy that takes place in the human heart, transforming despair into hope."
—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Magazine
"L'Heureux brings real comic authority to his description of life at Malburn High—the 2:30 bell triggers so many slammed desktops, kicked lockers and shouts in the corridors that it 'sounds more like a jailbreak than the end of the school day'; the 'carnival of grief that a teenager's funeral inspires;… 'the afternoon smell of the school—floor wax and hairspray and sneakers.' … L'Heureux dislikes cant in any form, whether it comes from a reformed alcoholic or a school board supervisor, and he cuts through false piety with energy and grace. His portrait of Eleanor Bannon, Miles's mother, is touching and tender."
—Molly Giles, San Jose Mercury News
"A moving and gripping novel … The story unfolds at a white-hot pace. Many lives and loves are seared in the process and L'Heureux tells the tale with consummate skill. There is redemption at the end, though the ending can scarcely be called a happy one. L'Heureux has exposed our not very lovely humanity to the light. And yet, throughout the book, there are glimmers of transcendence, care, and compassion. … A deeply compassionate book about forgiving oneself and others."
—Theo Foros, Communication
WORKS BY JOHN L'HEUREUX
QUICK AS DANDELIONS
RUBRICS FOR A REVOLUTION
PICNIC IN BABYLON
ONE EYE AND A MEASURING ROD
NO PLACE FOR HIDING
TIGHT WHITE COLLAR
THE CLANG BIRDS
FAMILY AFFAIRS
JESSICA FAYER
DESIRES
A WOMAN RUN MAD
COMEDIANS
AN HONORABLE PROFESSION
THE SHRINE AT ALTAMIRA
THE HANDMAID OF DESIRE
HAVING EVERYTHING
THE MIRACLE
for my wife,
Joan Polston L'Heureux