SOURCE: “Delmore Schwartz Was a Fan,” in Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 2, 1994, p. 4.

In the following review, McGonigle discusses the moral difficulties explored in Testimonies.

Questions are being asked as Testimonies opens. Something terrible must have happened. Questions do not get asked when something good has happened. Does one believe the testimony that is given? Well, that depends on the telling, on the sense of veracity that the author creates within the voice of the character.

Testimonies, published more than 40 years ago to mostly very good reviews, has been returned to print because of Patrick O'Brian's recent great success as the author of a series of, to this moment, 16 novels devoted to the adventures of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin during the period of the Napoleonic wars. These novels have been hailed as being among the greatest historical novels ever written.

When a novel is being revived...