Reading Break: George Saunders, “Hypocrites”

George Saunders has written an entertaining short piece for the New Yorker about an Amazon nun and a supposedly gay preacher he catches French kissing in the sacristy. If you don’t question your religious practitioner, it might be time to start.

Now here she was, French-kissing Father X, while Father X pinned her against the black-topped counter, one leg riding up between hers. Something about their position suggested a mother bird feeding her young. She was reaching down to give him something; he was reaching up to take it. Behind them, aghast, sat the holy implements.

Father X, it had been rumored, was gay. He was pale, slight.

Hereby that rumor was refuted.

Or at least complicated.