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Off My RockerRecommendations from a Book NutNuns (June 2004) |
According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, the definition of "nun" is as follows: "NOUN: A woman who belongs to a religious order or congregation devoted to active service or meditation, living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience."
We tend to have an image of nuns as quiet, subservient, deferential creatures but this is not necessarily the case. These women were the first to compete with men, in however limited a sense. They achieved power and education when it was denied to other women and even to many men. Research, fiction and non-fiction are beginning to acknowledge the power and contributions of these women.
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 SOR JUANA’S SECOND
DREAM, by Alicia Gaspar de Alba
This is a fictionalized account of the life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz who lived and prospered for a while in the convent of Santa Paula of the Order of San Jeronimo. It follows her life from the time she lives with her wealthy uncle’s family; through her presentation at the age of 15 to the newly arrived Vicereina, Doña Leonor Carret, who made her one of her ladies-in-waiting; to her entry into the convent; her lionization by Mexican society on account of her beauty, intelligence and literary accomplishments; persecution by the Archbishop of Mexico; and finally her death in 1695. Sor Juana remains one of Mexico’s important literary figures and an example of what an educated woman could achieve in a society where she had no real place. IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE, by Rumer Godden This book was published in 1969 which doesn’t seem all that long ago until you realize that it was 34 years ago! It remains one of my favorite reads – a book about nuns that is far more realistic than, say Hulme’s A Nun’s Story. There’s no melodrama here beyond that of human aspiration and human strength. The women in this story are very human creatures who bring all the baggage of their past lives with them to the convent and struggle daily to release that baggage as they strive to live lives of perfection according to the Rule of St. Benedict – lives "without sloth or haste." If that sounds a bit tame, you’re not reckoning with Dame Philippa Talbot who has spent her life successfully competing with men on their own territory and who, yet feeling an emptiness in her life, decides to give it all up for something that she knows is more. But can she give up the habit and need to give orders and control how things are run? And then there are Dame Veronica - a talented poet with a questionable past; and the young and lovely Dame Cecily, she of the glorious, soaring voice who struggles to leave an earthly love for a greater one. More fiction about nuns follows. A Vow of Silence, by Veronica Black, St. Agnes's Stand, by Tom Eidson, Absolution by Murder : a Sister Fidelma Mystery, by Peter Tremayne, Special Intentions, by Mary Pat Kelly, The Reeve's Tale, by Margaret Frazer. |
