When St. Isidore's Elementary in Staggerford, Minnesota is closed, Miss Agatha McGee, who has taught there her whole life, is thrown back on her friends to sustain her. She finds her friends wanting. Fleeing unhappiness at home, Agatha sets off on a pilgrimage to Italy, unaware that her old soulmate and nemesis, Father James O'Hannon of County Kildare, Ireland, is waiting to meet her. There, in the golden light of Assisi, Agatha and James begin to rebuild their friendship . . . and their love. From the Paperback edition. Hassler returns to his fictional Minnesota town of Staggerford for a quiet story that centers on the themes of loss and spiritual renewal. He populates this new novel with a number of characters who first appeared in his debut novel, Staggerford ( LJ 7/77). Agatha McGee, a Catholic school teacher, faces a number of crises in her 70th year. She must confront her own forced retirement, the realization that her long-time Irish pen pal (the James of the title, for whom she was nurturing more than Platonic feelings) is a priest, and the fact that the world still harbors a host of evils--from the Irish Troubles, to terrorism, to the petty jealousies that ruin lives in a small town. Hassler's usual facility with language is not as powerful as in earlier works, but his characters can still intrigue. This is a work that resonates best in context with the earlier works. Recommended for large fiction collections and collections of regional fiction. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/93. - Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Hassler's seventh (North of Hope, 1990, etc.) again delivers the goods: this time, Agatha McGee (who first appeared in A Green Journey, 1985) travels to Italy to visit her old friend and pen-pal James, a Catholic priest. Sandwiched between the parts of this European journey is the usual assortment of gently comic portraits of the denizens of Hassler's mythical town of Staggerford, Minnesota. Miss Agatha McGee finds herself at loose ends when St. Isidore's Elementary School closes and she's faced with a sort of late-life crisis. In the novel's first section, we meet Lillian Kite, Agatha's neighbor who will go to Italy with her, along with Sylvester Juba, a wealthy retiree who proposes marriage to Agatha; French Lopat, a shell-shocked Vietnam vet who stays at Agatha's house while she's away; and Lillian's daughter Imogene, who's envious of Agatha and finds a way to compromise the latter's sterling reputation. The story then moves on to Italy, where James is recovering from intestinal cancer. Hassler has a good deal of fun,   la Innocents Abroad, satirizing the tourist trade (Agatha has no reverence for antiquities); Agatha also finds a ``present contentment'' with James. Later, back home in Staggerford, she must undo the damage that Imogene has done her, though she also decides to go to Ireland, where James is on a lecture tour. By the close, Agatha will attain, as James does, a late-life poise and sense of forgiveness that she's able to irradiate the town with. Old-fashioned storytelling at its best. Hassler satirizes both Minnesotan and European types, but his affection for his people is evident in the great good humor that's pervasive. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. dore's Elementary in Staggerford, Minnesota is closed, Miss Agatha McGee, who has taught there her whole life, is thrown back on her friends to sustain her. She finds her friends wanting. Fleeing unhappiness at home, Agatha sets off on a pilgrimage to Italy, unaware that her old soulmate and nemesis, Father James O'Hannon of County Kildare, Ireland, is waiting to meet her. There, in the golden light of Assisi, Agatha and James begin to rebuild their friendship . . . and their love. From the Paperback edition. Jon Hassler is now an English teacher and writer-in-residence at St. John's University in Minnesota.