Jon Hassler may be the most famous Catholic novelist in Minnesota. He’s certainly made an impact on the national scene after nearly three decades of storytelling. Father Andrew Greeley, a renowned sociologist and novelist himself, once described Hassler as “one of the leading lights of contemporary Catholic fiction.”
Hassler turned to his Catholic faith in developing some memorable characters in his 13 novels. Beloved Agatha McGee, a crusty, old woman who struggles with the changes of the post-Vatican II Catholic Church and falls in love with a priest, appears in five of Hassler’s novels.
“Agatha is a combination of my mother; my Aunt Elizabeth, a spinster schoolteacher who lived with us in the summer; and myself,” said Hassler, who was born in Minneapolis in 1933.
“It’s fun to work her into a novel, and writing about Agatha’s struggles with the church actually released me from my own hang-ups with Catholicism — it’s been quite freeing,” he said. [snip] Catholic Spirit
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