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36th out of 381 books
—
440 voters
The Cloister Walk
A New York Times bestseller for 23 weeks A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
"A strange and beautiful book...Part memoir, part meditation, it is a remarkable piece of writing." -The Boston Globe
"The Cloister Walk is a new opportunity to discover a remarkable writer with a huge, wise heart...Norris resonates deeply for a lot of people: She's one of those writers who de...more
"A strange and beautiful book...Part memoir, part meditation, it is a remarkable piece of writing." -The Boston Globe
"The Cloister Walk is a new opportunity to discover a remarkable writer with a huge, wise heart...Norris resonates deeply for a lot of people: She's one of those writers who de...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
April 1st 1997
by Riverhead Trade
(first published 1963)
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Oct 13, 2008
booklady
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
all believers
Recommended to booklady by:
The Common Reader
Read this book many years ago but I can't recall exactly how many. I'm 99% sure it was in the late '90's. In any event, I was still so ignorant about my own Catholic heritage at that point I hadn't even heard of The Rule of St. Benedict,* which I promptly went out, bought and read from cover-to-cover. (Now I have three -- or four -- copies of it!) When I think of a good 'rule of life' I think of St. Benedict's Rule and I am grateful to this Protestant woman for teaching me about it!
The Cloister...more
The Cloister...more
I was rather uneasy with this book, although I did manage to struggle through to the end.
There were a few definite mentions of Orthodox Christianity when referring to "ancient" saints, but everything else was the black-and-white Protestant/Catholic divide. I don't know about many Protestant monastic communities, but there are several Orthodox monasteries in the United States. While I stop short of insisting she be completely inclusive, I thought it odd that Orthodoxy was relegated to antiquity,...more
There were a few definite mentions of Orthodox Christianity when referring to "ancient" saints, but everything else was the black-and-white Protestant/Catholic divide. I don't know about many Protestant monastic communities, but there are several Orthodox monasteries in the United States. While I stop short of insisting she be completely inclusive, I thought it odd that Orthodoxy was relegated to antiquity,...more
This book changed my life.
It's hard to explain. You really have to read it. (Based on my experience, it helps to be a Catholic who loves books.)
Kathleen Norris is a poet and has a poet's perspective on Catholicism and the ways of Benedictine monks. But she's also a Protestant, with a refreshingly level-headed outsider's perspective on the seemingly impenetrable world inside a monastery. The monks and nuns she describes are real, honest, witty and faithful people, with great stories and a passio...more
It's hard to explain. You really have to read it. (Based on my experience, it helps to be a Catholic who loves books.)
Kathleen Norris is a poet and has a poet's perspective on Catholicism and the ways of Benedictine monks. But she's also a Protestant, with a refreshingly level-headed outsider's perspective on the seemingly impenetrable world inside a monastery. The monks and nuns she describes are real, honest, witty and faithful people, with great stories and a passio...more
Norris is introducing us, one by one, to the core religious aspects of Christianity as she comes to know and understand them. We explore every key dimension of monastic life with her: Why celebacy; why community; why Scripture reading; why choir and music; why poverty; why we are not perfect. I think, like many people, I expected this book to be a straighforward description, something like, "This was my year in the monastery. We ate beans and prayed, blah, blah, blah..." However, we as readers r...more
Jul 21, 2008
Suzanne
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those interested in monastic life
Shelves:
spiritual
Recently reread after completing In This House of Brede. Norris is a married Protestant poet and a Benedictine oblate. As a poet and a Benedictine she is drawn to the Psalms in the Bible and their poetic imagery. This book is about the time she spent studying at a Benedictine monastery in the 1990's. Sadly, I find her prose uninspiring. I didn't "feel" the joy that comes through the pages of Merton and Godden. It just seemed forced to me.
I remember this book from when I first started working at Politics and Prose. This was one of the big, non-fiction best-sellers in the store. I remember, in particular, Kathleen Norris coming to speak and sign at the store. It was a very interesting event. I was intrigued by the subject matter and I loved the cover (I have always loved this picture of trees). At the time I was living with my ex and kids in an apartment at Bishop's Gate - an old Church and oblates' residence that had been turned...more
I write this review in joyful tears. This book is such a mysteriously profound, simple, surprising and timely read. I shouldn't be surprised. It touches and inspires much like Dakota, The Virgin Of Bennington and her collections of poetry. Kathleen Norris has grown to become one of my favorite authors.
I always find it amazing how we find our way to the right books at the right time. Though I've read most of her other works I for some reason never picked up The Cloister Walk until now. She has a...more
I always find it amazing how we find our way to the right books at the right time. Though I've read most of her other works I for some reason never picked up The Cloister Walk until now. She has a...more
Jan 11, 2008
Emilia P
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who are really attached to their religion and would like to have a better sense of why
Shelves:
real-books,
churrrch
OMG.
I got the chills approximately every 5 minutes reading this book. Norris meanders through her stays in a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, her thoughts (and Benedictine thoughts) on the scriptures and on early saints and theologians...the poetry of liturgies and the sacramental and sacred in daily life. Oh, dang, so great.
Norris has lived in DC, Illinois, Hawai'i, Vermont, and NYC, but ended up in South Dakota. There is a peaceful prairie way about her work and a great sense of curiosity...more
I got the chills approximately every 5 minutes reading this book. Norris meanders through her stays in a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, her thoughts (and Benedictine thoughts) on the scriptures and on early saints and theologians...the poetry of liturgies and the sacramental and sacred in daily life. Oh, dang, so great.
Norris has lived in DC, Illinois, Hawai'i, Vermont, and NYC, but ended up in South Dakota. There is a peaceful prairie way about her work and a great sense of curiosity...more
In The Cloister Walk, Kathleen Norris recounts her communal experience with the monks at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota. The author is an outsider to the Catholic faith, especially to the community of celibate men. She is a married woman with a Protestant background, and as a poet, she likens her role to that of a monk, something that the modern world had written off as entirely useless. She writes the book in the pattern of the liturgical year, celebrating the seasons of Lent, Advent, Christmas,...more
I found myself more interested in the beginning of the book and parts of the last third, but I found it hard to get through. I did, however, find many quotes to be very insightful...
“A friend who was educated by the Benedictines has told tme that she owes to them her sanity with regard to time. ‘You never really finish anything in life,’ she says, ‘and while that’s humbling, and frustrating, it’s all right. Liturgical time is essentially poetic time, oriented toward process rather than productiv...more
“A friend who was educated by the Benedictines has told tme that she owes to them her sanity with regard to time. ‘You never really finish anything in life,’ she says, ‘and while that’s humbling, and frustrating, it’s all right. Liturgical time is essentially poetic time, oriented toward process rather than productiv...more
I would definately recommend "The Cloister Walk" for a person who wanted to read something of a spiritual nature, or a book suitable to a priest, rabbi, or minister.
Kathleen Norris is known more for her poetry and prose than for her books of non-fiction. This book is quite unusual in that Kathleen was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, and when she entered adulthood she found that, although she did not lose her faith, she became lack in practicing her religion. It was only in later life that...more
Kathleen Norris is known more for her poetry and prose than for her books of non-fiction. This book is quite unusual in that Kathleen was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, and when she entered adulthood she found that, although she did not lose her faith, she became lack in practicing her religion. It was only in later life that...more
This collection of meditations prompted by the author's year-long stay in a Benedictine monastery and her formation as a Benedictine oblate is at its best when it is examining the experience of living with liturgy. As a poet, Norris is deeply attentive to what it means to wake up every morning listening to the repetition of certain words, to return to the same words in the afternoon, and again in the evening, having one's whole year structured by the reading of certain passages at certain times....more
I first discovered Kathleen Norris in the late 90's, and her books were primers for me when I first started indulging a new desire to go to church - with nuns - in spite of what felt like a pretty clear disbelief in any kind of personalized god. Norris is a poet, and her 20's found her living the secular artist's life in NYC. But in the 80's she moved to back to South Dakota, where sure suddenly found herself living in her grandmother's home and attending the small-town protestant church of her...more
I read this book quickly, and wish I had read it slowly. Maybe I'd give it five stars then. Norris speaks with great affection for and attention to the small things. My favorite chapter is where she speaks about the similarities between monks and poets--that both are necessarily "useless" vocations--not productive, but relational. Both make connections where none existed before. I love the image of Jesus Christ as the "ultimate metaphor." This image does not lessen the incarnation, but heightens...more
This is one of the loveliest, most thought-provoking, yet also most calming, and somehow inspiring, books I have ever read. Kathleen Norris, a poet living in South Dakota, joins a monastery in Minnesota as an oblate--basically, a person who makes an oath to the monastery and takes part in liturgical services, but still maintains an "outside" life (Norris, for example, is married). The book is very loosely structured, with some chapters discussing a specific aspect of the liturgy, or biblical fig...more
liked it at the time... but don't remember anything profound. does that say a big something about the book... my brain... or something else? :)
i wonder if books like that have a place anyway because they affect our lives for a moment and maybe help us to become more cemented in what we believe/are... even if we can't consciously remember how we were affected later. thoughts?
i wonder if books like that have a place anyway because they affect our lives for a moment and maybe help us to become more cemented in what we believe/are... even if we can't consciously remember how we were affected later. thoughts?
I picked up this book for two reasons. First, our pastor has referenced Kathleen Norris a number of times. He's been one of my spiritual guides so I pay attention to writers and books that he references. Second, one of my books-to-read is the Rules of St. Benedict and KN's book is about her experience as a Protestant living in a Benedictine monastery for six months. This was an engaging book for me but unfortunately it is checked out from the library with a number of other books that I am lookin...more
Kathleen Norris has an uncanny way of being theologically astute and real-world practical at the same time. This book was amazing. It was hard to put down. Her chapters were usually short, but the book was over 350 pages. It provided a lot of bite-sized chunks of wisdom gleaned from interacting with monks as an oblate, living life in a small, South Dakota town, and being a professional writer and poet.
Norris would usually tackle an issue concerning monastic life, such as celibacy, for example,...more
Norris would usually tackle an issue concerning monastic life, such as celibacy, for example,...more
What a fascinating book. There is a blurb on the cover from The Boston Globe which says in part "This is a strange and beautiful book." and I have to say I agree completely with that sentiment.
The book is strange because of the variety of things included. Some chapters are basically journal entries from the author, diary entries of her life. Some chapters are her thoughts about the Benedictines that she has spent time with, about their beliefs, their practices, their lifestyle, etc. Some chapte...more
The book is strange because of the variety of things included. Some chapters are basically journal entries from the author, diary entries of her life. Some chapters are her thoughts about the Benedictines that she has spent time with, about their beliefs, their practices, their lifestyle, etc. Some chapte...more
I slogged through this one. Memoirs are definitely not my favorite genre. I find this one repetitive, rambling and poorly written. I really don't need to know all these messy details of her life.
It might be a decent book at about 1/3 of the number of pages - with some hard editing.
I can't help contrasting it with another book I was reading at the same time - The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich, which is fiction. However, I found it much more conducive to a meditative experience than I did The C...more
It might be a decent book at about 1/3 of the number of pages - with some hard editing.
I can't help contrasting it with another book I was reading at the same time - The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich, which is fiction. However, I found it much more conducive to a meditative experience than I did The C...more
Dec 13, 2009
Ellen
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
autobiography-memoir,
spirituality
Wonderfully moving and engaging book describing Kathleen Norris's experience living in a cloister. I read this book years before I converted to Catholicism, so it's clearly not required to have "insider knowledge" to relish this book.
There was a passage somewhere in the book that has stayed with me. I can't remember enough of the wording to even Google it successfully. Norris was speaking to a monk, I believe, who had a view of the many and varied people walking by. She asked him, given that the...more
There was a passage somewhere in the book that has stayed with me. I can't remember enough of the wording to even Google it successfully. Norris was speaking to a monk, I believe, who had a view of the many and varied people walking by. She asked him, given that the...more
The Cloister Walk offers “food” for the soul at a time when many of us are hungry. Norris’s book chronicles her experiences as a lay oblate at St. John's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Collegeville, Minnesota. What makes this book fresh, wonderful, surprising, and completely relevant to people of all faiths (or non-faith) is that Norris is not—-as one would anticipate—-a Catholic, but rather a Protestant filled with spiritual doubt.
When I first read The Cloister Walk and Dakota (also by Kath...more
When I first read The Cloister Walk and Dakota (also by Kath...more
Just lately, I've been catching up on the spiritual memoirs of about twenty to fifteen years ago. I'm about half-way through this. I enjoy dipping into it. The journal entries generally hold my interest but the book isn't really a coherent narrative. It's more like a novel reference book in journal form. Today, reading about the Early Church's Virgin Martyrs, I learned a few things. Norris is always pointing things out that are interesting. I expect that at the pace I've been following, which is...more
The manner in which Kathleen Norris navigates through both her story, the liturgical year, and the unfolding of life is laced with humor, brilliance, integrity , and humility. She beautifully balances the duality of life in a monastic community along with life in northwestern South Dakota. This is a book I hope to revisit often; the wisdom and graced explored in this books translates to many arenas and experiences while still being uniquely her own. I think I will find myself continually thinki...more
Another Kathleen Norris book. This one is a collection of reflections based on the author's extended stay with a Benedictine monastery community over 2 nine month periods. She uses the liturgical calendar as a layout for her book, highlighting from time to time various saints days during the year. I found this liturgical focus intriguing. Similar to her layout in "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography" where she uses weather reports during the course of a year to help move the reflections forward.
Many o...more
Many o...more
How does a poet with the thoroughly 1950's Protestant background wind up becoming an oblate at a Benedictine monastery? That question is the hook to draw the reader into this book. There are no straight forward answers, and instead The Cloister Walk is a series of mediations on various subjects both theological, monastic, secular, and autobiographical -- with plenty of literary references and quotes thrown in -- following as Norris participates in Benedictine worship thoroughout an entire liturg...more
Kathleen Norris is a poet and prose author who, in spite of her Protestant religious background, became an Oblate of Saint Benedict, a station of life open to those who want to lead a more prayerful life in a secular world through association with a Catholic, Benedictine monastery.
Chapters are often very short and easily read in less than five minutes. However, I resisted the temptation to sail through several in a single sitting. Norris's sparse prose reveals large ideas. As I have felt many ti...more
Chapters are often very short and easily read in less than five minutes. However, I resisted the temptation to sail through several in a single sitting. Norris's sparse prose reveals large ideas. As I have felt many ti...more
For once in my life I am breaking Nancy Pearl's rule and abandoning this book before I reach the 50-page mark. So I'll leave open the possibility that I didn't give it a fair shot, and if I get through the rest of my library books before my husband goes to the States, I may pick it up again.
When I started this book, I was hoping for something akin to Through the Narrow Gate A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery, which I loved. Instead, my reading experience felt more like Girl Meets God A Memoir -- lo...more
When I started this book, I was hoping for something akin to Through the Narrow Gate A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery, which I loved. Instead, my reading experience felt more like Girl Meets God A Memoir -- lo...more
The Cloister Walk really deserves 2.5 stars. As food for my closet infatuation with Catholicism, the book was wonderfully enjoyable, but my Protestant mind and spirit won't let me give it three stars.
Norris observations on Christianity and monasticism were telling and often surprisingly insightful, but she missed the core purpose of Christianity--Christ. As she herself admits, she has difficulty believing in a literal Jesus, so she sees Christianity as a religion that reminds human beings that t...more
Norris observations on Christianity and monasticism were telling and often surprisingly insightful, but she missed the core purpose of Christianity--Christ. As she herself admits, she has difficulty believing in a literal Jesus, so she sees Christianity as a religion that reminds human beings that t...more
The Cloister Walk is not a linear book, although it has some organisation by date. In many ways it is like an incredibly reflective journal: not a diary or a daybook, but the journal of someone who sits down to write and simply lets their thoughts go.
I felt an initial connection to this book because of its major setting: the Benedictine Community of St John's Collegeville, Minnesota. It's a town I've driven through; I've seen their belltower from the car. I've read stories set in the University...more
I felt an initial connection to this book because of its major setting: the Benedictine Community of St John's Collegeville, Minnesota. It's a town I've driven through; I've seen their belltower from the car. I've read stories set in the University...more
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Kathleen Norris was born on July 27, 1947 in Washington, D.C. She grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, as well as on her maternal grandparents’ farm in Lemmon, South Dakota.
Her sheltered upbringing left her unprepared for the world she encountered when she began attending Bennington College in Vermont. At first shocked by the unconventionality surrounding her, Norris took refuge in poetry.
After she grad...more
More about Kathleen Norris...
Her sheltered upbringing left her unprepared for the world she encountered when she began attending Bennington College in Vermont. At first shocked by the unconventionality surrounding her, Norris took refuge in poetry.
After she grad...more
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“I wonder if children don't begin to reject both poetry and religion for similar reasons, because the way both are taught takes the life out of them.”
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14 people liked it
“Only Christ could have brought us all together, in this place, doing such absurd but necessary things.”
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6 people liked it
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Dec 19, 2009 07:51am