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One More Sunday
Welcome to the Eternal Church of the Believer, where devout workers operate state-of-the-art computer equipment to solicit and process the thousands of dollars that pour in daily . . . where hundreds of prayers are offered by armies of believers . . . where some people give much more than they should.
Its home is Meadows Center, some very expensive real estate on the outskirts of a sleepy Southern town, a jealously guarded complex of offices, houses, schools, and, of course, churches.
Meet John Tinker Meadows, who heads the church now that his father is secretly dying . . . the Reverend Joe Deets, who lusts after very young women . . . Walter Macy, pompous and self-righteous, who blackmails his way to his secret ambition . . . the Reverend Mary Margaret Meadows, a powerhouse in her own right. And pity poor Roy Owen, an outsider who comes to Meadows Center on a desperate search for his wife, the journalist who vanished after asking some hard questions about the inner workings of the Eternal Church of the Believer . . . .
"Brilliantly done." -- The New York Times Book Review
Its home is Meadows Center, some very expensive real estate on the outskirts of a sleepy Southern town, a jealously guarded complex of offices, houses, schools, and, of course, churches.
Meet John Tinker Meadows, who heads the church now that his father is secretly dying . . . the Reverend Joe Deets, who lusts after very young women . . . Walter Macy, pompous and self-righteous, who blackmails his way to his secret ambition . . . the Reverend Mary Margaret Meadows, a powerhouse in her own right. And pity poor Roy Owen, an outsider who comes to Meadows Center on a desperate search for his wife, the journalist who vanished after asking some hard questions about the inner workings of the Eternal Church of the Believer . . . .
"Brilliantly done." -- The New York Times Book Review
437 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1984
About the author
John D. MacDonald
547 books1,273 followersJohn D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pa, and educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, where he took an MBA in 1939. During WW2, he rose to the rank of Colonel, and while serving in the Army and in the Far East, sent a short story to his wife for sale, successfully. He served in the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. After the war, he decided to try writing for a year, to see if he could make a living. Over 500 short stories and 70 novels resulted, including 21 Travis McGee novels.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
May 24, 2014
Written late in his career, at about the time of "The Lonely Silver Rain", "One More Sunday" has some of MacDonald's most careful plotting and best-delineated and most sympathetic characters. The introduction of '"Moses", pp.111-113 in the hardback, is at least as brilliant as anything in the Travis McGee series. Far from writing a mere parody of tele-evangelists, MacDonald raises questions of love versus lust, true calling versus mere opportunism, honesty versus deception (often self-deception). This is an absolutely stunning work. It demonstrates that the late great John D. was not merely a "genre" novelist -- rather he was among the finest fiction writers of our time.
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June 20, 2008Though this book is an excellent book my fascination lays more in the author himself. McDonald is one of those men that has a grasp of humanity that so few seem to share with him. He seems to have an unwavering realism about the vulgarity of human nature that is tempered with an optimism that we, humans, may be avarice filled secret loving bastards but we are not without hope. McDonald may not always write pulitzer prize winners but he will always give you a great read and a unflinching view of humanity.
March 4, 2015
Meh. Great writing as usual but very padded.
June 7, 2010
Written in 1984, it reads like it could be written today. A deeply detailed portrait of a mega church with resonances with the giant religious churches of today..And yet there are real elements of life crucial and true to the mid-1980s. The Meadows Clan run a big Church with high pressure tithing operations and a mixture of true faith, lost faith, wavering faith and pure atheism all the while immersed in the panoply of sins found in the ten commandments. MacDonald has a real talent for character and this novel is filled with the same.
October 9, 2012
An interesting departure for MacDonald, as he explores the world of big-money religion.Those who remember the mid-80s will recall how cable TV devoted tons of channels to the likes of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and other stars of the mega-churches. MacDonald exposes hypocrisy, no surprise, and puts his MBA to work once again in detailing a complicated swindle. Personally I prefer his usual setting of hedonistic Fort Lauderdale and surrounding areas, but this is a nice attempt at trying to get into the heads of both real and fake believers.
September 19, 2014
An extraordinarily deft and unforgettable yarn of modern intrigue, set behind-the-scenes in one of America's infamous 'mega-churches'. Superb. Perhaps my favorite MacDonald title of all time. He really nails it!
January 13, 2022
This book is about religion and BIG church preaching. Love it or hate it, it is there. Common sense needs to be used when listing to preachers. Once heard all preachers need our prayers more than the average layman inasmuch as the devil is after them more than us. Common sense or whether you believe that or not. I am not a fan of religious doctrine! Not since went o a church that had a female pastor who dyed her hair black along with her daughter who played the piano. Then spoke evil of women who used makeup - that is hypocritical. Sex - men have needs. Well, I could go on and on - this book is about religion.
March 15, 2019
Predatory womanizers, embezzlers, liars, and other purveyors of corruption permeate a multi-million dollar enterprise, in this case the gigantic Eternal Church of the Believer, as the mysterious disappearance of a journalist rattles the small southern community that is home to the sprawling church compound.
While a few characters afford the novel a moral center, it is oddly difficult to name a protagonist in this cast of (mostly) miscreants. Hypocrisy seems to be the most common character trait among them, and the task of maintaining the favorable public image of the church is always the first priority.
Most of the villains in this tale escape the justice they deserve, and the truth plays second fiddle to reality throughout, but the fate met by the most twisted member of the cast provides a bit of very dark and absurd humor at the end.
While a few characters afford the novel a moral center, it is oddly difficult to name a protagonist in this cast of (mostly) miscreants. Hypocrisy seems to be the most common character trait among them, and the task of maintaining the favorable public image of the church is always the first priority.
Most of the villains in this tale escape the justice they deserve, and the truth plays second fiddle to reality throughout, but the fate met by the most twisted member of the cast provides a bit of very dark and absurd humor at the end.
April 3, 2018
A long involved story of evangelical religion and what happens as it gets large enough to exert power outside its proper areas. A prime example of power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Despite being very conservative, the younger Meadows son is a womanizer as are several of his administrators who have all been ordained. It all starts to fall apart when a reporter disappears and really unravels When her body is found at the bottom of an abandoned well. But life goes on, tithes continue to roll in, and the search for a mainstay preacher to deliver the televised sermons to the large tabernacle audience also continues, so far without success.
July 7, 2013
An excellent late novel from JDM. It was new subject material for him, as he portrays the machinations of a mega-church. There's a murder as well, but it takes a backseat to the financial and sexual shenanigans of the church's hierarchy. My big problem with this novel is that there are just too many characters, and that the book loses a little bit of steam by not focusing more on one central character. But the writing is amazing.
July 3, 2014
I am not a fan of the Travis McGee books for which McDonald is so famous. However, a friendd's review of this one caught my attention and I decided to give it a try. I'm awfully glad I did. while not especially memorable, it provided an intriguing mystery with well drawn characters and enough complexity to keep me totally engrossed.
March 1, 2016
A powerful book about the business of religion, any religion, and ideological movements, including environmentalism, animal rights, human trafficking.... There will be individuals in the organization who won't forget the mission, but they will be few the six sigma deviations.
Cleanly drawn characters. Couldn't put it down.
Cleanly drawn characters. Couldn't put it down.
November 27, 2016
I have very mixed feelings about this book. The dialog at times seemed very stilted. The characters were often more caricatures. The subject was not particularly interesting to me. Yet I look back and think I might try another of JDM's books...
May 17, 2024
John D. MacDonald wrote many standalone novels, besides twenty-one books in his popular Travis McGee series. One More Sunday is one of them. Published in 1984, it concerns the Church of the Eternal Believer – a big fundamentalist business using all the tricks of the religious trade.
Reverend John Tinker Meadows is the leader now; Matthew, the founder, his father, is in the throes of dementia. ‘But the face was like a castle where once a king had lived, a castle proud and impregnable. But the king had left, the pennons were rags, the gates open, moat dry, and an old wind sighed through the empty corridors’ (p56). Alongside John is his sister Mary Margaret, strong and devout.
The New York Times considered the book ‘highly topical and controversial’. John’s sermon at the outset probably justifies that comment: ‘Once upon a time our nation was great. Now we sag into despair. The climate changes, the acid rains fall, the great floods and droughts impoverish millions, taking the savings of those who thought they could be provident in these times. We see all our silent factories, all the stacks without smoke, like monuments to a civilization past. Selfish owners refused to spend for modernization. Selfish unions struck for the highest wages in the world. We see rapist and murderers and armed robbers turned loose after a short exposure to that prison environment which gratifies all their hungers and teaches them new criminal arts. We see an endless tide of blacks and Hispanics entering our green land illegally, taking the bread out of the mouths of those few of us still willing to do hard manual labour’ (P11) – and so on...
Ray Owen is an investment broker taking leave from his work. He is trying to find his missing wife, Lindy, who had been writing an article on the Church of the Eternal Believer for her New York magazine Out Front.
Glinda Lopez works for the Church, using a voice synthesiser, imitating Matthew Meadows, and telephones Church members delinquent in their tithes.
Joe Deets is a computer nerd – and clever. He has programmed the computers to cream off some funds donated to the Church. He is also a sexual predator of young women. ‘There was a beast in a cage in the back of his mind, in the shadows, pacing tirelessly to and fro, showing only the glint of a savage eyeball, the shine of a predator’s fang’ (p43). He was presently indulging himself with Doreen, one of the Church’s ‘Angels’.
The Meadows family lives well, travels first class, and have their own jet planes. All thanks to the generous donations.
Within these pages you’ll find hypocrisy, greed, pathos, anger, murder, redemption and hope.
MacDonald masterfully presents a fairly large cast of characters, all individual, each with their own past and failings, their hopes and dreams.
It would seem that not much has changed in the last forty years since this was written.
Reverend John Tinker Meadows is the leader now; Matthew, the founder, his father, is in the throes of dementia. ‘But the face was like a castle where once a king had lived, a castle proud and impregnable. But the king had left, the pennons were rags, the gates open, moat dry, and an old wind sighed through the empty corridors’ (p56). Alongside John is his sister Mary Margaret, strong and devout.
The New York Times considered the book ‘highly topical and controversial’. John’s sermon at the outset probably justifies that comment: ‘Once upon a time our nation was great. Now we sag into despair. The climate changes, the acid rains fall, the great floods and droughts impoverish millions, taking the savings of those who thought they could be provident in these times. We see all our silent factories, all the stacks without smoke, like monuments to a civilization past. Selfish owners refused to spend for modernization. Selfish unions struck for the highest wages in the world. We see rapist and murderers and armed robbers turned loose after a short exposure to that prison environment which gratifies all their hungers and teaches them new criminal arts. We see an endless tide of blacks and Hispanics entering our green land illegally, taking the bread out of the mouths of those few of us still willing to do hard manual labour’ (P11) – and so on...
Ray Owen is an investment broker taking leave from his work. He is trying to find his missing wife, Lindy, who had been writing an article on the Church of the Eternal Believer for her New York magazine Out Front.
Glinda Lopez works for the Church, using a voice synthesiser, imitating Matthew Meadows, and telephones Church members delinquent in their tithes.
Joe Deets is a computer nerd – and clever. He has programmed the computers to cream off some funds donated to the Church. He is also a sexual predator of young women. ‘There was a beast in a cage in the back of his mind, in the shadows, pacing tirelessly to and fro, showing only the glint of a savage eyeball, the shine of a predator’s fang’ (p43). He was presently indulging himself with Doreen, one of the Church’s ‘Angels’.
The Meadows family lives well, travels first class, and have their own jet planes. All thanks to the generous donations.
Within these pages you’ll find hypocrisy, greed, pathos, anger, murder, redemption and hope.
MacDonald masterfully presents a fairly large cast of characters, all individual, each with their own past and failings, their hopes and dreams.
It would seem that not much has changed in the last forty years since this was written.
October 8, 2020
What an amazing book. I've read so much of MacDonald's work, from the whole Travis McGee series, to crime mysteries and thrillers, to fantasy and science fiction. But I never heard about this one. Yes, there is a murder to solve, and other crimes, but the book is the best indictment of those slick televangelists I've ever seen. It's disguised as fiction, but John D. held nothing back about those pleas for money, about the idea that tithing and giving money to an earthly organization would guarantee someone a place in heaven. About the fleecing of those who could least afford it, those poor or with heavy medical debt, and they just keep asking for more money, and more, and more, and it doesn't stop. And the churches are ornate, and the computers keep track of who donated and who didn't and how much money came in, to pay for the jets and the cars, and the luxuries and the travel. And, of course, the sexcapades, and graft and lies and half-truths and the preachers who may have believed at one time, but sinned greater than their combined congregations. And, who weren't above murder to cover their lust and protect their empire. Hallelujah! Praise God and Jesus, but don't forget to send lots of money.
January 27, 2023
A different kind of novel....I've tried hard to get into MacDonald, but it sure isn't easy. Cape Fear was masterful, so I thought I'd try one more and settled on this one. The first half of the novel consists of several subplot threads which you sense must be interlocked, but there's little hint as to how. When the various threads start coming together, there's little suspense or surprise and the ending of the novel feels flat, like a sophomore English short story. MacDonald does a decent job of keeping his characters as multi-dimensional as possible, which is not easy to do when you're writing about televangelists and praise religion, but the storytelling is weak.
April 12, 2024
This book appears to be out of print, sadly. It is a well-written and balanced deep dive into the internal workings of a large and fast-growing evangelical church (the Eternal Church of the believer). The author explores the underbelly of an unaccountable leadership cohort as well as the truth of the interior life of believers at all levels. The plot is structured around the disappearance of a journalist. very interesting read.
September 5, 2020
Really great read, especially having grown up in a church setting. Definitely worth a read. If you haven't already read it, don't go digging through the reviews here, which are often just summaries of the book, and will ruin the suspense.
August 6, 2017
Slow to start but intriguing and thoughtful.
August 29, 2018
Thirty-four years old and still utterly timely about the shameless con that is evangelical Christianity; sprawling but vivid, a "stemwinder" novel.
January 14, 2020
Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 3 out of 10 points.
December 21, 2020
Very heavy read for John D.
Deep dive into TV evangelists and the greedy sidelines to preaching. Not a great ending...
Deep dive into TV evangelists and the greedy sidelines to preaching. Not a great ending...
June 2, 2021
Oddly, one of my favorite JDM novels, written in 1984. I have a 1st edition copy of this book.
August 21, 2023
Crazy/courageous detailed imagining of a southern mega-church. (Boils down to lust overwhelming prayer.)
September 6, 2023
One very interesting book centered around a Born Again style church with it's many sanctimonious characters and a murder in the middle to confuse things.
June 8, 2020
One of his last books and one of his best. The book was published in 1984, several years prior to the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker scandal and Jimmy Swaggart's problems. The book brings together several storylines for a detailed look at the people behind a fictional Megachurch. There's a missing person, power struggles, sex, illegal activities all keeping the church teetering on collapse. Excellent read from one of the all-time great writers.
December 22, 2014
another from macdonald for me...perhaps it is the 5th or 6th...that i know for sure. said in another review that i thought i read some macdonald years ago...don't recall much more than that and given time maybe i can come across a cover/s that look familiar.
"welcome to the eternal church of the believer"...reminds me of The Gospel Singer from Harry Crews...at least the brief story description..."meet john tinker meadows, who heads the church now that his father is secretly dying..." even has a name...j.t.m...much like crews's southern gothic story...in crews's yarn there is a quote men to whom god is dead worship one another.
there's three quotes before story begins...one from rabindranath tagore...another from jung...and one from van gogh...none optimistic and all suggest the telling takes a dim view of mankind. should be interesting, macdonald's take...related to all that i've read before. onward and upward.
later that day, an update...13 dec 14
this is a good story...up to about page 125...a number of conflicts or storylines are developing...you got this large church a business actually...someone is embezzling...the founder is losing his mind, age, senility...his children run the show...one of the pastors is chasing the pure young virgins and making headway...a mystery couple meets in a trailer and is watched...one lady who works in the mail room is in danger of being exposed for her lifestyle...another pastor and his wife have designs on being top dogs...what else? seems like there could be another storyline...
...and too...there is something inherently comical about a man telling folk they are "fornicatin' in the dark in parked cars...sweatin' and gruntin' in the dark." heh! so the story does contain a comedic vein, southern gothic, if you will. though we know that comedy is not the monopoly of the south.
update, complete, 14 dec 14
this is a really good story. the other storyline is the lady reporter who disappeared...all those storylines, all manner of conflict and resolution (of sorts)...great story, not simply good. i don't know how it could be better. i'm trying to think here now...were all of the conflicts resolved? hmmmm...seems like there's a loose end or two...yes...definitely a loose end or two, but all-in-all, good story. onward and upward.
"welcome to the eternal church of the believer"...reminds me of The Gospel Singer from Harry Crews...at least the brief story description..."meet john tinker meadows, who heads the church now that his father is secretly dying..." even has a name...j.t.m...much like crews's southern gothic story...in crews's yarn there is a quote men to whom god is dead worship one another.
there's three quotes before story begins...one from rabindranath tagore...another from jung...and one from van gogh...none optimistic and all suggest the telling takes a dim view of mankind. should be interesting, macdonald's take...related to all that i've read before. onward and upward.
later that day, an update...13 dec 14
this is a good story...up to about page 125...a number of conflicts or storylines are developing...you got this large church a business actually...someone is embezzling...the founder is losing his mind, age, senility...his children run the show...one of the pastors is chasing the pure young virgins and making headway...a mystery couple meets in a trailer and is watched...one lady who works in the mail room is in danger of being exposed for her lifestyle...another pastor and his wife have designs on being top dogs...what else? seems like there could be another storyline...
...and too...there is something inherently comical about a man telling folk they are "fornicatin' in the dark in parked cars...sweatin' and gruntin' in the dark." heh! so the story does contain a comedic vein, southern gothic, if you will. though we know that comedy is not the monopoly of the south.
update, complete, 14 dec 14
this is a really good story. the other storyline is the lady reporter who disappeared...all those storylines, all manner of conflict and resolution (of sorts)...great story, not simply good. i don't know how it could be better. i'm trying to think here now...were all of the conflicts resolved? hmmmm...seems like there's a loose end or two...yes...definitely a loose end or two, but all-in-all, good story. onward and upward.
September 19, 2023
A reporter's disappearance threatens to reveal the multiple secrets within a mega-church -- both institutional and personal. This book has a lot of characters, which I personally enjoy, but some readers may want a more straightforward and focused story.
August 14, 2013
John MacDonald was a super mystery writer which he proved in his standalone novel In One More Sunday, in which the target is an evangelistic church. As the Church grows, more & more of the people in control are involved in all sorts of sexual escapades, murder, hypocrisy, financial misdeeds, and other immoral behaviors. There are a number of the faithful who are good meaning with the best of intentions, but go overboard in their application.
April 3, 2008
This book could have been set right here where I live - the central Bible Belt of FL. It used a lot of local sites and could have had our relatively new local mega church as the inspiration. MacDonald really socked it to the fundamentalist televangelist cash cow. With Church Without Walls falling in Tampa, it's as appropo today as 20+ years ago.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews