The Red Nun: A Tale of Unfinished Desires

This novel follows three generations of students and nuns from a Catholic girls' school. The stories unfold by skipping around chronologically, but sort of telescoping from the present day back to specific influential events from 1950, and from 1931. It opens in the present day, circa 2000, with the blind, aging headmistress nun reflecting back to a catastrophic freshman class from 1950. That...more

This novel follows three generations of students and nuns from a Catholic girls' school. The stories unfold by skipping around chronologically, but sort of telescoping from the present day back to specific influential events from 1950, and from 1931. It opens in the present day, circa 2000, with the blind, aging headmistress nun reflecting back to a catastrophic freshman class from 1950. That class was in turn closely influenced by events that happened within their mothers' class of 1931. It's interesting not only for the depiction of the spiritual and social struggles of the individuals, but also for the portrayal of the nuns as humans, with their own flaws and vanities. I like Gail Godwin's writing because of the humanity of her characters. However vain or egotistical, you can still empathize with them, even for those you'd love to hate. The headmistress who not-so-humbly prides herself on her energy and accomplishments excuses herself (and all of them) by saying, "We're all a work in progress." Still, that doesn't stop her from expelling a few girls who embarrass her...a turn of events that she spends the next 50 years trying to understand and deal with. It's also interesting to see how the girls themselves deal with it all through their own aging years.   hide