Book Review
Oct. 24th, 2007 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariMariette in Ecstasy
by Ron Hansen
This short novel concerns a rural convent in 1906 and the entrance into it of a 17 year old postulant, Mariette Baptiste. Hansen's beautiful prose manages to be both spare and lush with sensual detail, revealing the life of the convent and its residents in a series of images and brief episodes. Mariette's entrance into the convent causes some disruption, as would be expected given the quiet atmosphere and repeated cycles of cloistered life. But Mariette soon brings an even greater disruption when she begins experiencing religious ecstasies and visions and then manifests stigmata.
I loved the way that Hansen never resolves the question of whether Mariette's mysticism and miracles are real or just the fabrications of an unstable young woman hungry for attention and esteem. There are plenty of hints and evidence for both sides, but no clear answers at any time. The nuns have a variety of reactions and opinions, but their views ultimately reveal more about the nuns themselves than about the veracity or falsity of Mariette's experiences. Hansen thus raises profound questions about the nature of faith, religion, and miracles, but gives no answers, leaving it all up to the reader.
by Ron Hansen
This short novel concerns a rural convent in 1906 and the entrance into it of a 17 year old postulant, Mariette Baptiste. Hansen's beautiful prose manages to be both spare and lush with sensual detail, revealing the life of the convent and its residents in a series of images and brief episodes. Mariette's entrance into the convent causes some disruption, as would be expected given the quiet atmosphere and repeated cycles of cloistered life. But Mariette soon brings an even greater disruption when she begins experiencing religious ecstasies and visions and then manifests stigmata.
I loved the way that Hansen never resolves the question of whether Mariette's mysticism and miracles are real or just the fabrications of an unstable young woman hungry for attention and esteem. There are plenty of hints and evidence for both sides, but no clear answers at any time. The nuns have a variety of reactions and opinions, but their views ultimately reveal more about the nuns themselves than about the veracity or falsity of Mariette's experiences. Hansen thus raises profound questions about the nature of faith, religion, and miracles, but gives no answers, leaving it all up to the reader.
