Chicks On Lit discussion
Group Reads & Discussion
>
In This House of Brede
date
newest »
newest »
I finished Chapter 1 and am enjoying it so far. An introduction to the Abbey and its inhabitants plus a little mystery thrown in. The writing is fine, not fantastic, but it works. (I just finished a Sillitoe book and the writing was outstanding, so I’m a little jaded).
My first impression is that this will be a quiet, compelling story that will serve as an anxiety reducer in this busy time of year. We will see.
I have not started yet. I never heard of Sillitoe. I will have to look up that author
I started this last night. I am struggling to keep all the nuns straight. I read 4 chapters, about 25% of the book. It is slow; nothing much happens, but that does reflect the pace of life in this cloistered monastery. In this day and age, it is hard to imagine 90 nuns in an enclosed community. But 1957 was the hayday of religious life. It is interesting to see the reactions of families to various postulants. You have to wonder what was so attractive in 1957 that no longer is. These girls were not being pushed into religious life by their families as was the case a thousand years earlier. These girls often faced opposition from families. I think it is interesting to have the protagonist be a 42 year old woman. It gives her the maturity to look at her situation and her internal reactions with greater clarity than would be the case for a 19 year old.
I am through Chapter 8 and am not sure where this is going- which may be the point. This is a slow, comfortable read with nothing much to complain about. It seems the author wrote the book in gratitude to the nuns of Stanbrook Abbey for their prayers and support of her daughter. I think this is a very beautiful thank you note!
I am at the same place, just finished chapter 8 before bed last night. And, I agree, a very minimal plot. Nice descriptions of monastic life. I wonder what the abby did for the author's daughter to make her want to write a novel in gratitude.I thought Philipa would be more central to the story, but she fades into the background muchof the time. This really is the monastery's story, not that of any single character.
I appreciate that this novel does not sensationalize monastic life. It seems to me that most novels that feature a monastery either depict it as sinister (abusive, a murder setting, repressive) or as exotic (a bastion of feminist empowerment, the setting for supernatural events, etc). This is a normal place. The women are not fleeing abuse in the larger world, they are not heroic saints or demonic sinners; they are average women with a full range of motivations. There are jealousies, and friendships, tears and laughter, prayer and hard work. For me, although I was born as this era in the church was changing, it is familiar to me. I wonder how someone who is not Catholic, for whom religious life is not normal, would find this novel.
I was surprised that the abbess and cellarer were familiar with the work of this younger sculptor. We don't see magazines or books coming into the monastery. So, how did they learn about his work. I was also surprised that the former abbess was anticipating the liturgical changes of the Second Vatican Council. Again, how are they learning of these things?
I finished chapter 14 last night. I don't want to say too much because I don't know how much you have read, but I found some of the coincidences that moved the plot along to be so far fetched that they landed us in the country of Hokey.
I just finished this Nov. read and enjoyed, but didn't love, this novel. I read in the preface that Rumer Godden had written to the nuns at Stanbrook Abbey requesting prayers for her daughter and unborn child after being told that her daughter was too weak to carry the pregnancy to term. After a normal delivery of infant and successful recovery of her daughter, Rumer went to the monastery to thank the nuns for their support. One of the nuns told her that she wished an author would write a book about nuns as they really are and not as the author wants them to be. This book is the result.
I agree with you, Irene, that the finding of the jewel, the latent literary talent of Dame Veronica etc... was just a little too convenient. The Penny/Donald storyline was weak too. Phillipa is the under appreciated, uber-talented, well connected heroine that comes through in the end.
This novel was a nice, slow read where nothing really earth shattering happens. I have nothing to complain about, but nothing to recommend either.
My favorite question to muse in this read about a contemplative order of nuns ..."Is it easier to be than to do?"
I finished last night also. I had heard that this was considered a 20th century Catholic classic in some circles, so I was expecting something more. As you said, nothing horrible to complain about, but nothing much to recommend it. I thought we were going to get more well rounded characters when the novel began. Phillipa's early thoughts about her struggle to adjust made me hopeful that we would have depth. But it quickly settled into stock characters, the quietly ever-wise abbess, the angelic Cecelie, the unbelievably competent Phillipa, the range of outstanding talent in every area of life, it stopped being realistic. Even with Veronica's temper and dishonesty, this community seemed too all around good to be true. There is so little chaffing under the yoke of community life. I was surprised to see that 15 years passed from the beginning to the end. I thought it was only 10 years until it said that Phillipa was 57 when she headed to Japan as the new prioress. Although we are told of some of the tension over the changes from Vatican II, we don't feel them at all and we don't see the dramatic shift that occurred in most religious communities in the late 60s and early 70s with the mass exodus of so many community members and the dramatic reduction in new aspirants. The second half just descended into convenient coincidences: a hidden ruby worth a fortune, Phillipa's smaller fortune suddenly materializing and the gift of the sculptor, the call for a foundation in Japan which just happens to match Phillipa's background. I also thought the hinting at Kieth's death for so long before giving us the story was a silly toying with the reader. Why not just tell us of Phillipa's history so we can understand her reactions as the story unfolds? I am glad I read this because I had heard that it was significant in the world of Catholic fiction. But I would not give it a place of prominence. I think it was rather sweet. I believe that the author tried to write about monastic life as it really was, but that she was unable to do that as an outsider. This was more about how she imagined it to be. I have never lived in an enclosed monastery, but I did live for 7 years in a Benedictine monastery, one that was not cloistered (cloistered Benedictine monasteries of women in the US are very rare). I can't speak as an expert about the cloistered experience, but Ican make some extrapolations from the Rule as I experienced it. And this is not a realistic depiction.
Irene, you are such an eloquent writer. Your descriptive summary of this book is wonderful. You have the ability to put into words exactly how I felt about this book. I hope you work in some sort of writing/editing job as you do it so beautifully! I always enjoy reading your “What did I just finish” columns.
O gosh, thank you so much for those kind words. Actually, I work for a Catholic parish running the faith formation program. So, you nominated this book. What made you want to read it?
My nominations are not very thought out and really just a means to get the stack of unread books off my nightstand. I had been given an e-bay gift card by my sister and just went down a list I had made of recommended books and purchased a few. After reading some books with this group, I think I just look at nightstand and pick one that I think may be of interest. I hope this method isn't too disappointing.I am just starting Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady for another FB book read, but look forward to reading with you and others in December.
If this is not too personal, are you Catholic? There is such a strong Catholic culture in this novel. The author obviously has a positive opinion of the monastic life. So much of what happens in this story only makes sense in a Catholic world view. I am wondering how accessible this novel is to someone who does not share its way of viewing reality and responding to reality from that perspective.
Irene, I am a converted Catholic as I married into a very large, devout Catholic family. I was raised in the Methodist church, but converted after my son was born when I was in my mid 40’s. (I am 59 now). Honestly, I am not a very religious person, but am very grateful for the sense of community offered through the parish. For me, that service to community (washing of the feet, per se) is the most spiritual part of Catholicism.As for the book, I understood the feast days, church calendar etc…but some of the grand significance is lost on me. I really didn’t realize how important the Latin liturgy was to the nuns.
I felt that forgiveness was a big theme in the book and I did love how the older nuns were telling the younger ones that what they were doing might be right, but was it nice.
All in all, I like to read all genres of writing and don’t seek out, nor avoid, religious themes. It does seem like my picks have been leaning that way though with Jack and By Fire, By Water and now this one. It’s all a happy accident.
Thank you for sharing. I know that the idea of a life dedicated to liturgical prayer seems strange, even irresponsible to those outside the tradition. For many who don't practice this type of liturgical prayer, the idea of chanting prescribed words does not sound like prayer, but like empty ritual or a performance. Kneeling before the abbess or a superior, watching the 92 year old nun on her knees waxing the abbess's alcove, the total obedience to the abbess, so much of this life is in contradiction to most of what the larger society would value. I can't imagine how all of this looks to someone outside the faith tradition. I wanted the author to go more deeply inside the heads/hearts of various members of the community to explore what brought them to give up so much and cloister themselves. Veronica's desire for social standing, to flee from her sense of being on the lower rung of the social ladder, was a motivation that a reader might understand. Many of us have been told that the monastery was the only place where a woman could escape unwanted marriage or could pursue an education or could leave the oppressive nature of patriarchy. But what made Phillipa leave everything? I did not get the impression that we were supposed to assume that she was fleeing her grief. And what about Cecilie? She obviously loved Larry and he was the escape from her mother. What made her decide to be cloistered after that friendship in France? By 1957, a woman who felt that only religious life could afford her an opportunity for an education or a real profession outside the home could easily join an apostolic order: a teaching or nursing or missionary order. That would not have made Veronica a Dame, so that might not have been enough for her, but why the others? The author never explores any of this.
I also wish she would have delved more into the tension in the community over the changes enaugerated by the Second Vatican Council. We are told that there are thos members that want to see changes, that love the idea of the priest facing the people, for example, and those who find the changes jarring. But she made it sound as if they had a meeting, people voiced their opinions and then alljust accepted things and moved along. Common sense makes it clear that it could not have been that easy.
In This House of Brede