Letter to Sister Benedicta

by Rose Tremain

From the author of The Gustav Sonata

Fat and fifty, educated only to be a wife and mother, Ruby Constad has reached a point of crisis. Her husband, Leon, lies in a nursing home after a stroke that has left him paralysed; her grown-up children are gone. In her anguish Ruby appeals for help to a half-remembered figure from her colonial Indian girlhood - Sister Benedicta. Gradually the events leading up to Leon's stroke are revealed and a woman emerges whose capacity to love, hope and understand are far greater than she realises.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Dame Rose Tremain is an acclaimed English novelist and short story writer, celebrated for her distinctive approach to historical fiction and her focus on characters who exist on the margins of society. Educated at the Sorbonne and the University of East Anglia, where she later taught creative writing and served as Chancellor, Tremain has produced a rich body of work spanning novels, short stories, plays, and memoir. Influenced by writers such as William Golding and Gabriel García Márquez, her narratives often blend psychological depth with lyrical prose.
Among her many honors, she has received the Whitbread Award for Music and Silence, the Orange Prize for The Road Home, and the National Jewish Book Award for The Gustav Sonata. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Restoration and has been recognized multiple times by the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. In 2020, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature. Tremain lives in Norfolk and continues to write, with her recent novel Absolutely and Forever shortlisted for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize.

Reviews

[Judy Croome · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nearly 200 pages of predominantly prose, with little dialogue and white space, and yet, I could hardly put the book down. Different to the other Rose Tremain's I've read & loved (particularly The Colour and Music & Silence), the Letters to Sister Benedicta trace the inner rambles of Ruby's fracturing self after a traumatic year bringing her safe, ordinary and quietly unhappy life tumbling down. That destruction ultimately frees Ruby to begin a journey of self-discovery. We don't get to see that journey, only the events leading up to Ruby's first tentative steps outside the cocoon of her previous life in which she was smothered by personalties far less sensitive and far more selfish than she.

Her parents, mean & miserable with their fading memories of previous glory; her urine soaked grandmother in the crumbling manor house; her domineering & unfaithful husband; her ghastly mother in law- an eternal victim; her morally bankrupt children; her weak English lover, supplanted in his wife's affections by a swarthy skinned & passionate foreigner and the ominously silent Sister Benedicta all play their part in deepening the confusion Ruby experiences around who she is and what kind of life she's capable of living.

On the surface, this is a novel of hope, but there's an oppressive thread of melancholy interwoven in this story. Ruby, too, is so passive, so very smothered by her lack of self-love and her desire to please/help everyone but herself that even the beginning of her Great Adventure at the end of the book leaves one with a niggling doubt that, here too, she fell into that path rather than actively choosing it for herself.

This short but complex story has excellent characterisations and provokes deep thinking - Ruby, in her self-destructive passivity, having been so cowed & diminished by the "soldiers" in her life, is the perfect analogy for the countries colonised under Queen Victoria's push towards the Great British Empire: India, in particular, as India is where Ruby & her parents lived, but also Zimbabwe & South Africa, all left with a low self-esteem about their abilities, their true natures and their warm vibrant passions so unlike the cold superiority of the colonising western empire. In Ruby's ambivalence about Leon's dying - her almost unrecognised longing for freedom, buried in her Pavlovian responses of sacrificing her identity & her needs to serve her dying husband, and in her first tentative steps towards an independent self-hood free of the smothering rules and demands so alien to her true nature, I see an echo of the path previously colonised countries had to walk when the conquering soldiers finally left.

Another gem from Rose Tremain, even if its depths are not immediately clear in the quiet ordinariness of Ruby's sad existence.

Memorable quotes:

"Leon had such a sure sense of his own identity and was so absolutely purposeful in all that he did, that within a very short time I had put away most of myself"

"Godmother Louise being “a good Marxist” and found it rather strange. I think I decided that she was only a good Marxist deep down in her soul and that she let the rest of herself be rather a bad Marxist. And the bad Marxist in her kept on and on going to five-star hotel rooms where enormous bouquets arrived “courtesy of the management” and where she sipped away, guiltless, at the finest champagne a bourgeois capitalist society can produce. At least she had been right about India. Her loathing for the idea of empire had been as strong as Queen Victoria’s love of it. She despised my parents for their snobbishness and their loveless ways. It was a kind of sickness, she said, their terrible pride and reserve, and I must be cured of it. I must forget the school for the daughters of the high-ranking officers, no longer think of myself as a daughter of a high-ranking officer, or even as a Catholic, because these were the masks to hide behind and until I threw them away, these masks, threw them away and never put them on again, I wouldn’t know myself. “This is why so many of us are lost, Ruby,” she said, “this is why your mother and father are so lost: they are crouching down behind their masks; they believe they are their masks and without them they will be nothing!”"

"No one in India seemed to have a feeling for helpfulness, only a feeling for what is right, and it took me a long time to see that almost everything they thought was right was actually not all that right, but in fact rather wrong. And this deficiency in helpfulness, I mean, I’ve had it all my life and I blame India, but who can say if it was India or if it wasn’t born in me..."

[Abi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby is 'fat and fifty' and her husband is dying in hospital of a stroke. Ruby is writing to Sister Benedicta, a nun who was kind to her when she was at convent school in India, before it was made independent. Leon, Ruby's husband has had the stroke because his son, Noel is not the mirror image of him that he had hoped - far from it. I loved Rose Tremain's imagery - of Ruby being like a snail, and her descriptions of heart-broken neighbour Gerald Tibbs. I read it in a day and am so sorry not to still be hearing Ruby's about Ruby's confessions and her worries.

[Barbara]

So much poignancy packed into such a sort book - only 175 pages. I felt so sorry for Ruby. What a sad life she had, but what a lovely way to put it all down in writing to Sister Benedicta. It left me feeling quite sad and drained, but glad she made the decision in the end to return to India, and hope she found some happiness there.
I've read several of Rose Tremain's books and they have all covered different topics. I would put this as one of the best.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was really a 3 1/2 star read. I found out after I had read it but this was Rose Tremain’s second published book, and that made sense. Whilst it is of course well written, it never hits the heights of restoration, music and silence, the Road home, sacred country, et cetera. And while the star is good, it doesn’t quite feel like finished Rose Tremain. More like Rose Tremain trying to write like Muriel Spark or Barbara Pym.

[Gaenor Bagley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strictly the book should be entitled letters to sister Benedicta, as each chapter being a separate epistle written almost daily from the day Ruby’s husband Leon suffers a stroke and is hospitalised.

In the letters Ruby reflects on her upbringing in India, where the convent school and the patient listening of sister Benedicta were a welcome escape from a boorish military father and cold mother. The family return to England after independence. Ruby meets Leon at the house of her godmother, Aunt Louise. The godmother is a beacon of life and hope in the novel.

thank God you lived, Louise, and showed me a life that was so joyful and unafraid. I so often remember you. You are the nicest memory I have.

Through the course of Ruby’s reflections on her life, she recognises she has set aside her own identity to Leon and remained faithful to this duty, even in the face of Leon’s unfaithfulness and neglect.

I know that I have been like a big snail, lumbering round the corners of his life with half myself inside me.

Ruby has become estranged from her children, and she clearly misses them dreadfully. Her mind takes her to sometimes bizarre nightmares of visits to her daughter, or her sons travels in Europe. Her son is named Noel (a reversal of Leon’s name). Leon is determined that Noel will follow in his footsteps, against which Noel rebels. Although Ruby feels that Noel is nothing like Leon, he is like him in his careless attitude to love, exploiting the loving nature of his sister to enter into an incestuous relationship, which he abandons when no longer useful to him. It seems that Alexandra is a passive lover. She was surprised by the attentions of both Sue and Noel; she loves who loves her.

Many letters include descriptions of Ruby’s dreams and imaginings in which either she or her children are lost. The dreams bring a bit of a surreal aspect to the book. In many of the dreams either she or her children are lost.

and an image came to me on the bus of Leon’s crocodile shoes floating down the Ganges on the feet of a dead man

Leon is Jewish and Ruby has been bought up a roman catholic. Her faith was one thing that Ruby did not subsume to Leon’s will, and as Ruby writes and reflects she reflects on her ambivalent relationship with her faith. At the end of the novel, Ruby realises she is free lose all ties, to travel back to her beloved India and to leave her faith behind.

I loved this short, reflective book. Another example of the versatility of Rose Tremain.

[Rebekah McKinnon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm never really sure how to rate literary fiction, but I think I've settled on 3 or 3.5. It was a fine book, but I doubt I'll think much of it again, and I'm not going to rush out to buy more of Rose Tremains books. This book reminded me a lot of another literary fiction book of similar length that I read a long time ago - Vinegar Hill. I feel the narrators characters are almost identical between those books and I feel much the same way about both. I liked them, but an average amount. I'm glad they weren't longer.

I thought the author did a good job of giving a really clear insight into the thoughts of the narrator and creating empathy in the reader for her. I also thought the author did a great job of covering a lot of intense topics somehow casually, but not in a way that was too casual to be appropriate and/or meaningful. It was artful and interesting.

The style of prose was also interesting. There were lots of very long run-on sentences such that it read much like a stream of consciousness. I assume this was intentional given that the book was written as a series of unsent letters, i.e., effectively a diary, and so I think it was a nice touch. It certainly worked well to make me feel like I understood how the narrator felt.

[Connie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book in epistolary form, though they letters go only one way: Between the narrator and a (probably dead) nun she knew in her chidlhood in India. The personal created by the author rings true throughout, self-deprecating and occasionally, surprisingly hilarious. She tells the story of her life and loves as her husband, a successful entertainment attorney, lies disabled by a stroke in a nursing home. She makes an attempt at re-engaging the Catholicism of her childhood, but decides, after her husband's death and other disappointing events, that since God doesn't appear to listen, she will end the attempt and listen only to herself.

I loved this book and read it in less than 24 hours. I'm going to search out all Rose Tremain's books and I have a feeling I'll be equally captivated by them.

[Elyse Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, but one of the saddest books I've ever read. One, long continuous "letter" addressed to a nun that the narrator had as a teacher and mentor years ago in a convent school in India. The almost stream of consciousness narration is mesmerizing, even though some of the language is quite coarse, and some of the actions of the characters are unsavory. Yet the conceit works, and we are drawn into narrator Ruby's thoughts and feelings. Ruby is the British wife of a successful barrister. He is unfaithful to her, and their grown children have no more use for them (staying away even on holidays). There is a little glimmer of hope at the end, a hint that Ruby's life will improve. But still, so sad.

[Sara McC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this a very dark and dreary book, to be honest. Maybe that was the writer's intention. The characters' lives felt empty, depressing. Even the font of the book was depressing. It made the pages seem antique and dirty. The book was not easy to read on many levels. I finished it because I heard Rose speaking on CBC and was intrigued. I should try one more of her books.

[Andréa Lechner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this correspondence, to the lonely marriage of the protagonist and the sense of total detachment from her grown children. A depressing book yet with a glimmer of hope at the end. I admired Tremain's ability to create believable and compelling characters.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very gentle unfolding of the disintegration of a 'nice' family as told in a series of letters to a long-ago teacher in a past life.

[Michelle Witcombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read

[Hayley Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

A delightful read, deals with a myriad of social / family issues.

While surprisingly uplifting, I didn’t find it enthralling or gripping - I suppose I was carried away with Ruby’s nonchalance, which was a shame and is what holds it back from a 4 star rating.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

God I love Rose Tremain. Do yourself a favor and read everything she's written.

[Cath · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really stand the test of time. At least it was short.

[Nessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb novel. Funny poignant and perceptive with a very human heroine.

[Christine Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this story - it kept unfolding a bit more and more of her life.

[Liz Coles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book by Rose Tremain, wrriten in the form of a long letter. Colloquial, amusing, down-to-earth! Thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Lesley Potts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim novel, which appears to have been on my to-be-read shelf for a couple of decades, follows on, chronologically, from Chesil Beach. It’s set in the mid 1970s, over the course of a couple of months, during which the protagonist’s husband is hospitalized with a stroke. To help cope with the stress and uncertainty she writes unsent letters to a nun, Sister Benedicta, who taught her at a convent school in India during the last days of the British Raj. In the letters, which become a kind of journal, we learn about her life and marriage prior to the stroke and also about the lives of her two children who are about the age I was in 1970s. A lot of social reconstruction took place during that time and there are a couple of adult themes that I was hijacked by. I’ve read several of Rose Tremain’s novels and enjoyed them all. Her writing is intelligent and her plots interesting.

[Gemma Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good read all in all, but not the best of Rose Tremain's. I have always been really impressed by her books, less so with this but then it is one of her first. The story is narrated by Ruby who is writing to a nun she remembers from her childhood in a convent school in India as she waits by the bed of her husband, paralysed by stroke. It is an interesting and absorbing story - the trouble for me was the voice of Ruby which is occasionally twee and irritating. As a heroine I found Ruby only intermittently sympathetic as at times she struck me as coy and self-pitying. Obviously, we don't have to like the characters in a book, but I think we are meant to like Ruby. The book strikes the odd false note in this respect but certainly was not dull or dislikeable. I enjoyed it up to a point, and probably would have reviewed this more generously if it were not that all her other books are much much better. I recommend any of them but especially Music and Silence or The Swimming Pool Season.

[Et · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dismal life of a wife of a lawyer who lived in India as a child & was educated by nuns. Writing to sister b was her way of expressing herself. Two kids who became incestuous & a husband who had affairs & died of a stroke.
Not a joyous read but a good portrait of an average life, ending was her redemption as she returns to India.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started this book I suddenly realised that the main character, Ruby, was actually a minor character in The Road Home, which I'd read recently. In this book Ruby is 50, however, The Road Home is set 30 years later, so this may have influenced how I read it. At times reading this I found it intensely depressing, but I think it's a testament to the quality of the writing that I still wanted to read on. In the end it was ultimately uplifting and hopeful. I think I would have preferred not to have known how Ruby's life ended up 30 years later, but nonetheless I thought this was a thoroughly well-written and engaging book.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like all of Rose Tremain's novels. She seems to have a wide breadth and depth of knowledge on everything from the Australian gold rush to 17th Century England. This novel, while much slighter than her others in many ways, including length, is still an interesting read about a middle aged woman trying to find her voice in England in the 1970's. Tremain has an interesting take on how colonialism in India has had its effect on British culture, and in particular on the main character who grew up in India as the daughter of a British officer in the military.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ruby Constad is feeling conflicted about her life. Her husband has suffered a stroke, and is convalescing in a nursing home. Her adult children are distanced from her and their father. Where will she get the support she needs? Ruby writes jouranl entries to a Sister she had as a teacher while growing up in India while her father was in the foreign service. Included in her musings are other relationships that were never resolved. Her usual sibling rivalry is in play.

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about love and selfhood. The narrator thinks about her love for a nun she knew as a child, her love for Jesus, her husband, her children, her neighbours, her country, her friends and her 'affair' and reflects on the love and lack of love she sees between the people she knows. Through all this, and through the varied failures and deaths of love, she moves towards a greater love of herself. However it is a caring, positive and humanitarian book about trying to find direction.

[Alison]

lonely fat wife sits by bedside of husband who's had a stroke, and writes to nun she knew at convent school in India. estranged from her son and daughter ( who have committed incest) and not really satisfied with her life,- husband had affairs. but she breaks free, after husband dies, and travels to India. rather dated now.

[Jan Laney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart-rendingly sad. A life where there is no love-from mother, husband, children- the only glimmer of such a possibility was with her godmother but somehow she didn't get close enough. Sex at every level is guilt-ridden, dirty, unsatisfying. This sounds bleak but the writing carried me along and the theme of the importance of self-love came through very positively.

[Lwg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what I thought of this, but Rose's character kept me reading. It was beautifully written, as you would expect from Rose Tremain. I gradually liked Rose more and more, and the ending was beautiful

[Barbara Day]

Pl

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough to keep me reading. Well written as with all Rose Tremain novels but not superb. It's a bit slight. J