In a Carmelite monastery outside present-day Los Angeles, life goes on in a manner virtually un-changed for centuries. Sister John of the Cross has...
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Sep 06, 2011
Sarah
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Sister John is a Carmelite nun who, after years of dedicated service, begins to experience visions of the divine in ecstatic, crystalline clarity. But these visions are accompanied by terrible headaches, and Sister John is encouraged to seek medical attention. When told by a neurologist that her experiences are likely the result of (curable) epileptic seizures, Sister John is forced to rethink everything she knows about spiritual life.
On the surface, this seems like a(nother) religio More...
On the surface, this seems like a(nother) religio More...
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May 13, 2008
Jeana
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Dec 08, 2007
Anna
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What a beautifully written book, written with such respect and curiosity for the monastic experience!
Basically, it is about a Carmelite Sister who learns that her religious visions (and migraines) might come from a small benign braintumor, and will she take it out, and risk loosing these visions?
I was afraid that it might be one of those science vs religion, easy-answers books, but it wasn't. It is a beautiful story about faith, doubt and everything in between.
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Basically, it is about a Carmelite Sister who learns that her religious visions (and migraines) might come from a small benign braintumor, and will she take it out, and risk loosing these visions?
I was afraid that it might be one of those science vs religion, easy-answers books, but it wasn't. It is a beautiful story about faith, doubt and everything in between.
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Jul 10, 2008
Keleigh
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Salzman's writing is quiet and precise, as unobtrusive as a nun's rustling skirts. It went a little slow at first, but gradually I grew accustomed to the slow and meditative pace, and became entirely engaged in the cloistered life of his characters. Sister John of the Cross faces a stark predicament involving a health condition, a form of epilepsy that produces rapturous mental states--a phenomenon shared by Dostoevsky, who described it in 3rd person in The Idiot:
"He remembered More...
"He remembered More...
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Mar 14, 2008
Happyreader
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A humane portrayal of the struggle to connect to something beyond oneself. A central question posed by this book is what makes a spiritual life worthwhile. Are positive religous states beneficial or addictive? As the priest says in response to Sister John's fears about losing her mystical experiences: "The problem is, you're still looking out for number one." Contrast that to the doctor's confession about almost quitting medicine during his first year of residency because he realize
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Mar 27, 2011
Marialyce
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What happens to your faith and your closeness to God when you find out that this closeness might be a result of a brain tumor? Do you go ahead and have the operation thinking that this rapture might end? These are the questions one finds portrayed in Lying Awake.
Although quite a short book, this novel packed quite a few things that people have wondered about for ages. Does God exist in our minds and hearts and if so is that enough to get one totally devoted to him? Sister St John of More...
Although quite a short book, this novel packed quite a few things that people have wondered about for ages. Does God exist in our minds and hearts and if so is that enough to get one totally devoted to him? Sister St John of More...
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Jan 09, 2011
Stephen
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This was a good one to read on the heels of The Power and The Glory, which I finished a couple weeks ago. Both novels concern hypervigilant, self-critical souls questing for God and unable to take comfort in potential signs of having made progress.
Salzman's character is a cloistered nun who for almost 30 years has devoted herself to chanting liturgies, meditating, and writing poetry about the soul's aspiration. She has now begun having severe headaches, which she almost welcomes as a More...
Salzman's character is a cloistered nun who for almost 30 years has devoted herself to chanting liturgies, meditating, and writing poetry about the soul's aspiration. She has now begun having severe headaches, which she almost welcomes as a More...
Jun 06, 2010
Valerie
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The setting for this book is a convent, a nun in turmoil. These are some quotes from the book that I liked.
God planned everything down to the smallest details, and everything He did had a positive meaning and coherence.
And her actions were all beautiful. She turned even the most ordinary tasks, like pulling maps down or emptying the pencil sharpener, into sacraments. On the other hand, she could talk about faith in a way that made it sound like common sense. She made divi More...
God planned everything down to the smallest details, and everything He did had a positive meaning and coherence.
And her actions were all beautiful. She turned even the most ordinary tasks, like pulling maps down or emptying the pencil sharpener, into sacraments. On the other hand, she could talk about faith in a way that made it sound like common sense. She made divi More...
Aug 12, 2009
Marvin
rated it:
A wise, gentle book with a very different feel from Salzman's earlier book, The Soloist. It is unashamedly filled with religious language, rendered faithfully and sympathetically. We really feel like we get inside the religious struggle of a longtime nun--and do so, miraculously, without psychologizing. This nun, who struggles for 25 years to know God, finally has a spiritual breakthrough just as she develops severe headaches that turn out to be caused by mild epileptic seizures. Does this mean
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Jun 10, 2009
Rachel
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One of the best books I have read in a long time. I LOVED IT. The story revolves around a nun who comes from a troubled home. As a child she clings to the nuns at school and decides to become one. (Btw this is not the cruel or goofy depiction of nuns we often see. They are good, holy women). As an adult she begins having violent visions of God where she feels compelled to write about what she has seen. To help others she publishes her writings, and they become popular. Unfortunately she
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Feb 02, 2010
Khaya
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Sister John is a nun who, having struggled with doubt and disillusionment for years, is finally reaching the spiritual heights she envisioned when she first joined the convent. She is an inspiration to those around her, writing prolific devotional poetry to critical acclaim. When a neurological explanation for her newfound spirituality comes to light, everything is suddenly cast into doubt and she struggles with the dilemma of whether to relinquish her gift and have the brain surgery her docto
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Nov 05, 2009
Nancy
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When I am wavering between stars, I have decided to rate 'up.' This is a short and rather provocative - in that it is thought-provoking - little read. The story is pretty narrow, in that it is about a Carmelite nun, so there is not a lot of extraneous material, fitting the spare life of the nun. Questions are raised about faith and personal quests to find God. I liked learning about Sister John of the Cross's history, a little about how she came to live the life of a religious, her struggle to f
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Feb 06, 2010
marg
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This novel's concept gets four stars, execution, three.
I often felt, growing up, that if I were Christian I most likely would have been a nun. The attraction of a life all about God and fully spiritually focused is appealing as well as the peace and serenity that comes from stripping yourself of all materialism. The discipline, the ascetism, all of it has its attraction and all of that is beautifully captured in Salzman's book which made it much more appealing than the typical text about More...
I often felt, growing up, that if I were Christian I most likely would have been a nun. The attraction of a life all about God and fully spiritually focused is appealing as well as the peace and serenity that comes from stripping yourself of all materialism. The discipline, the ascetism, all of it has its attraction and all of that is beautifully captured in Salzman's book which made it much more appealing than the typical text about More...
Mar 02, 2008
Celia
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A short and beautiful book about a nun who realizes that her holy experiences are the result of a curable epileptic illness. I have always favored books that tackle the big questions. To me this book was about coming to terms with the failure of one's vocation, something I think most adults struggle with, as we accept that our lives look very different than we imagined they would as we made our choices.
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Apr 09, 2010
booklady
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Have you ever longed to know God? I mean really know Him, feel close to Him, sense His presence within or near you?
Sister John of the Cross, a cloistered Carmelite of middle age, waited for many dry years to know her Bridegroom. Then a few years ago she started having migraine-like headaches. With the onset of the headaches, she became able to engage in deep meditation and began having Divine encounters, which led to a best-selling book and notoriety for her convent just outside More...
Sister John of the Cross, a cloistered Carmelite of middle age, waited for many dry years to know her Bridegroom. Then a few years ago she started having migraine-like headaches. With the onset of the headaches, she became able to engage in deep meditation and began having Divine encounters, which led to a best-selling book and notoriety for her convent just outside More...
Jan 08, 2012
Shelley
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This is a beautifully written, book with a lot of backbone. Mark Salzman writes in a way that forces you to slow down and enter into the deep silence in which these women live. But, it asks a lot of its readers. What does it mean to die to self and live for others, for example.
I am not sure how a male author, seeped in Chinese studies, managed to portray a contemplative nun so naturally. I loved the truly human, and often mundane, issues these "Professional Religious" women More...
I am not sure how a male author, seeped in Chinese studies, managed to portray a contemplative nun so naturally. I loved the truly human, and often mundane, issues these "Professional Religious" women More...
Nov 24, 2008
Powells.com
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Sister John of the Cross is a nun with special gifts; she is filled with poetry, with love for God and the Innocent Spouse, and with pain (real pain in the form of blinding headaches that give her no rest, but during which she has visions). Something like a hammer in her skull reveals to her that humans are "God dreaming" and other flights of breathless grace, but when the Sister discovers that there may be a more earthly component to all of this, she is forced to make a choice that is
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Oct 13, 2011
Nancy (NE)
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Sr. John is a cloistered nun who, upon entering the life of a Carmelite, is not finding the spiritual growth and maturity she had expected. She comes from a dysfunctional family, who were probably a strong influence in her choice to become a religious. Years later, she begins to experience visions, powerful meditative states in which she has felt a divine presence, periods of intense creativity and writing, all of which eventually are diagnosed as a form of epilepsy related to a small tumor. Is
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Apr 14, 2011
Susan
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I read Lying Awake for the Book Nook Cafe's April group read, where there is a great discussion happening. This novel about a cloistered Catholic nun is probably not one I would have picked up otherwise. It's a short read, fewer than 200 small pages, and an easy read. Sister John of the Cross is devout but has times of doubt. And an illness causes her to questions what she has experienced, what is real. She comes across as someone I would like to know.
Not being Catholic, I lea More...
Not being Catholic, I lea More...
Sep 14, 2009
Lianne
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This is a short book (less than 200 pages) about life inside a Carmelite convent in Los Angeles. The main character is Sister John of the Cross who has become known for her mystical experiences and her poetry of ecstasy. The novel traces her individual path to her vocation and the challenge she faces when is diagnosed with a brain tumor. She is concerned that her feeling of being close to God will be taken away from her.The book portrays every day life in the religious community surrounded by th
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Jul 03, 2010
Heather
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Lying Awake is a moving foray into the world of the cloistered nun. Salzman does an incredible job of writing from a female narrator's perspective. How he knows how a cloistered nun feels or lives is beyond me, but it's very believable. Beautifully written, this book questions the nature and origin of faith. Though I'm not very positive towards organized religion, this book opened my mind about the beauty of dedication to a path, and again, reaffirmed my feelings about a strict, organized faith.
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Apr 11, 2011
Mad Dog
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Wonderful!! This book is like a warm and thoughtful friend: a real jewel. I'd rather have this book under my bed than a gold brick. If you are in wonderment at the big questions of life (i.e. the 'God questions') and don't claim to have the answers or are struggling with these questions, then this book may also be a good friend to you.
I rooted real hard for our 'hero' Sister John. She is a thoughtful, sensitive, struggling, obedient and disciplined person who (among other things) is More...
I rooted real hard for our 'hero' Sister John. She is a thoughtful, sensitive, struggling, obedient and disciplined person who (among other things) is More...
Jun 30, 2009
Raelene
rated it:
This was equal parts mystery and hope, faith and doubt. So much of it - the daily rituals, thoughts, experiences of cloistered life - is a completely foreign world. Still, as seeking and loving God are paramount, the central theme rings true.
I do wish I knew better what the chapter titles might mean. Most are references to Catholic Saints, but seeing as I am unfamiliar with the dogma and saintly history, their connections to Sister John's experience remained lost to me.
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I do wish I knew better what the chapter titles might mean. Most are references to Catholic Saints, but seeing as I am unfamiliar with the dogma and saintly history, their connections to Sister John's experience remained lost to me.
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Jun 27, 2010
Davie
rated it:
The most lyrical book I've read in a long time. Simple, beautiful, full of contemplation, still, small voices, and questions about the life of faith.
"Lying Awake" is the story of a Carmelite nun living in a Los Angeles cloister and the struggle she finds herself in after years of commitment to God and her religious order. This is a simple plot, fleshed out with winning insights into the life of a very specific type of nunnery and pleasing musings and meditations about what a More...
"Lying Awake" is the story of a Carmelite nun living in a Los Angeles cloister and the struggle she finds herself in after years of commitment to God and her religious order. This is a simple plot, fleshed out with winning insights into the life of a very specific type of nunnery and pleasing musings and meditations about what a More...
Jul 12, 2010
Karendale2
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This book is a quick read. It reinforced my faith and personal philosophy. Though mine is a Judeo-Christian faith, this book can be enjoyed by anyone who wants to believe in a higher cause than themselves. Mark Salzman succeeds at describing the daily life in a community of nuns. The daily life of a nun differs in many ways from the layperson, but similar in a daily rhythm of ups and downs. Specifically, it is the story of Sister John who is stricken with an illness that may affect her religious
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Mar 22, 2011
Sherry (sethurner)
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"Sister John of the Cross pushed her blanket aside, dropped to her knees on the floor of the cell, and offered the day to God."
I'm not sure why, being raised Protestant, I wanted to read this slim novel, but I did. Perhaps I was curious about the daily life of a cloistered Catholic nun, or perhaps it was simply that I enjoyed Salzman's other books. I enjoyed this one too. Sister John is an interesting person, not at all certain of either her faith or her vocational choice. More...
I'm not sure why, being raised Protestant, I wanted to read this slim novel, but I did. Perhaps I was curious about the daily life of a cloistered Catholic nun, or perhaps it was simply that I enjoyed Salzman's other books. I enjoyed this one too. Sister John is an interesting person, not at all certain of either her faith or her vocational choice. More...
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Mar 07, 2011
Asya
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A gorgeous prose poem, a companion piece to the devotional/passionate/erotic poetry of the Beguines, St. John of the Cross, the testaments of all the mystics, medieval to modern, who have balanced sense and ecstasy and tried to make it a narrative and a life, put it into words, make it a daily experience you could live with. I found Sister John believable, human, and hard to pinpoint - traumatized girl, fat girl, mystic, middle aged woman, epilepsy victim, aging nun. For me, Salzman's narrative
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Dec 30, 2009
Savvy Suz
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Mar 18, 2010
Kate
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"Pure awareness stripped her of everything. She became an ember carried upward by the heat of an invisible flame. Higher and higher she rose, away from all she knew. Powerless to save herself, she drifted up toward infinity until the vacuum sucked the feeble light out of her.
* * *
A darkness so pure it glistened, then out of that darkness,
nova.
More luminous than any sun, transcending visibility, the flare consumed everything, More...
* * *
A darkness so pure it glistened, then out of that darkness,
nova.
More luminous than any sun, transcending visibility, the flare consumed everything, More...
Oct 07, 2008
Cat
rated it:
Mark Salzman seems like the kind of person who could get along in any crowd. He is a martial arts expert who speaks Chinese and knows Bible like the back of his hand. And I got all that out of just two of his books. I see some similarities between his writing and that of Barbara Kingsolver. They both exhibit a vast curiosity and wide range of knowledge in many different fields.
Lying Awake examines the struggles and confusion that faith can put upon people. I find this topic part More...
Lying Awake examines the struggles and confusion that faith can put upon people. I find this topic part More...
