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And Then They Were Nuns
"Beatrice has probably told you that when someone starts talking seriously about staying, we usually send her home for awhile, away from the seductions of these holy hills, so she can decide whether she really wants to plant herself in a nunnery. And to make sure she's not running away. As I was."
JULIAN PINES ABBEY. From 1965 to 2000, women come and stay or come and go in a quiet experiment to remake religious and communal life. No tradition is safe from revision - not the tradition that says God is male, or that women can't be priests, or that nuns must be celibate.
With a vision both generous and uncompromising, And Then They Were Nuns tells the story of the women who, as Sister Anne says, come for all the wrong reasons and - if they stay - stumble on good ones, while they struggle, sometimes hilariously, with love, sex, community, snakes, neighbors, outhouses, poverty, goats, sanity, sobriety, sisterhood, compost, and the life of the spirit.
JULIAN PINES ABBEY. From 1965 to 2000, women come and stay or come and go in a quiet experiment to remake religious and communal life. No tradition is safe from revision - not the tradition that says God is male, or that women can't be priests, or that nuns must be celibate.
With a vision both generous and uncompromising, And Then They Were Nuns tells the story of the women who, as Sister Anne says, come for all the wrong reasons and - if they stay - stumble on good ones, while they struggle, sometimes hilariously, with love, sex, community, snakes, neighbors, outhouses, poverty, goats, sanity, sobriety, sisterhood, compost, and the life of the spirit.
204 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2003
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57 people want to read
About the author
Susan J. Leonardi
5 booksLeonardi is an academic, a professor of English at the University of Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 29, 2021
This is an absolutely delightful novel about a maybe-abbey of mostly lesbian nuns in the California Sierras. This funny, insightful, and very well written book (I swear, I don't know the author) fascinated me.
I am familiar with old-fashioned nuns, but I have never met totally post-Vatican II nuns like these. Their story reads like a story about women on the land, because that's what it is. This is a tale about nuns who have left traditional convents to live a warmer, freer, more loving life in community.
Different chapters tell the stories of different members of the community. As a lesbian who has spent much time in women's groups (but has never been a nun), I found the stories familiar and moving.
I am familiar with old-fashioned nuns, but I have never met totally post-Vatican II nuns like these. Their story reads like a story about women on the land, because that's what it is. This is a tale about nuns who have left traditional convents to live a warmer, freer, more loving life in community.
Different chapters tell the stories of different members of the community. As a lesbian who has spent much time in women's groups (but has never been a nun), I found the stories familiar and moving.
February 19, 2011
I stole this book from my sister's stash, hence the lesbian-nun theme. Here's a list of 5 reasons I did like this book:
1. I tend to like first person narrative.
2. There were very sad aspects to some of the character's stories, but they were told the way most people deal with their sadness - nonchalantly, in a "that's just how it was" kind of way.
3. I finished it fairly quickly for me - maybe 6 days?
4. I found something to relate to in each of the women
5. The last chapter
5 reasons I didn't like this book:
1. Just about each chapter is written by a different narrative... but it doesn't read that way. For the most part it's the same voice pretending to be different people.
2. It didn't seem like any body came from any kind of happiness. One could become philisophical and say maybe that's why the women were searching for the things they were searching for, but I just can't get into character's who can't focus on anything positive, which is to say the author. For example, this quote:
"Every morning my father said, 'Donna, it's time for Daddy's coffee.' He didn't say much else. He never touched me."
"Maybe," Beatrice said, "it's just as well."
If the nicest thing you can say about you childhood as that you weren't molested, something is seriously wrong!
3. I kind of hated myself for not being able to put it down. I mean, once I did, it didn't stay with me at all, and it wasn't like I couldn't wait to pick it up again, yet somehow once I picked it up, I kept myself up too late reading.
4. I found something I loathed about each woman.
5. The last chapter could have been the first of a much more interesting book. I don't want to include any spoilers, because the last chapter is really very good, but other then that one, I'd say you could read the chapters in any order and have just as good a read.
Note: I put this on my memoirs shelf, because even though it's a novel, it is written as memoir almost throughout.
1. I tend to like first person narrative.
2. There were very sad aspects to some of the character's stories, but they were told the way most people deal with their sadness - nonchalantly, in a "that's just how it was" kind of way.
3. I finished it fairly quickly for me - maybe 6 days?
4. I found something to relate to in each of the women
5. The last chapter
5 reasons I didn't like this book:
1. Just about each chapter is written by a different narrative... but it doesn't read that way. For the most part it's the same voice pretending to be different people.
2. It didn't seem like any body came from any kind of happiness. One could become philisophical and say maybe that's why the women were searching for the things they were searching for, but I just can't get into character's who can't focus on anything positive, which is to say the author. For example, this quote:
"Every morning my father said, 'Donna, it's time for Daddy's coffee.' He didn't say much else. He never touched me."
"Maybe," Beatrice said, "it's just as well."
If the nicest thing you can say about you childhood as that you weren't molested, something is seriously wrong!
3. I kind of hated myself for not being able to put it down. I mean, once I did, it didn't stay with me at all, and it wasn't like I couldn't wait to pick it up again, yet somehow once I picked it up, I kept myself up too late reading.
4. I found something I loathed about each woman.
5. The last chapter could have been the first of a much more interesting book. I don't want to include any spoilers, because the last chapter is really very good, but other then that one, I'd say you could read the chapters in any order and have just as good a read.
Note: I put this on my memoirs shelf, because even though it's a novel, it is written as memoir almost throughout.
October 19, 2010
This is a well-written book, but disappointing. It is supposedly about nuns living in a small, remote convent in Southern California -- but there is almost nothing in the story itself about faith or spirituality. I don't think it would have been that much different if the author had called it a novel about a small eco-feminist commune. The only time that faith -- formal or otherwise -- seems to appear is when the women are in tension with formal Catholicism, but there is nothing about the women's personal beliefs, or even reflection on spirituality. There is no sense of dedication to a life of spirit, or of any kind of relationship with a higher power. I wouldn't expect that the characters all be perfectly devout and faithful in conventional ways, but I expected them to be "nuns" in more than name.
I'm not saying that these women do not have beliefs and values. Clearly they do. But again, there was nothing about the way those beliefs were expressed in the book that seemed to connect with any kind of calling as a nun, however non-traditional.
I'm not saying that these women do not have beliefs and values. Clearly they do. But again, there was nothing about the way those beliefs were expressed in the book that seemed to connect with any kind of calling as a nun, however non-traditional.
September 10, 2007
Great book, awesome recipes (but steer clear of the curried turnips..), totally hot sex scenes, awesome writing, fast read..basically the perfect escapism novel :)
July 16, 2025
I was hoping for a lot from this book! But most of the characters just ran together and there were a lot of times where the prose got particularly fart-sniffy in the “look how enlightened I am, however I am leaning hard into stereotypes about everyone who isn’t like me” type of way. (Including a throwaway paragraph about a kid with Down’s syndrome who dies two paragraphs later…. In the year 2000 mind you.)
March 9, 2022
This is a strange one for me. Of all the pieces the book talks about - women with women, Catholicism, running, the only one that fits me fully is running. I read the short story that led to this, called "Too Tall for Grace" in "Slow Hands", an anthology by Michele Slung published in the 90s, given to me by a close friend who fit all of these pieces, with a "Make sure you read the last one (this one)" suggestion. Loved it. Waited for a couple years for this to appear and bought it right away.
Hard to characterize what was the draw. The Sierras, for sure; running in the woods with the sights and smells. Very different women, and the camaraderie and the ease that their physical, sensual and erotic, and day-to-day fit together. And absolutely the writing. Susan writes in a way that I can relate, word for word, as she takes something out of the norm for women in that world, as I understand it, and makes it work.
Other reviews aren't wrong; there are piece-parts that don't always fit. But the story, the setting, the interaction is special.
Hard to characterize what was the draw. The Sierras, for sure; running in the woods with the sights and smells. Very different women, and the camaraderie and the ease that their physical, sensual and erotic, and day-to-day fit together. And absolutely the writing. Susan writes in a way that I can relate, word for word, as she takes something out of the norm for women in that world, as I understand it, and makes it work.
Other reviews aren't wrong; there are piece-parts that don't always fit. But the story, the setting, the interaction is special.
November 8, 2013
This book takes the tradition of being a nun, and turns it completely on it's head...I am warning you. It is also very very good, and very well written, and I found it because it just happened to pop up on my APL catalog page randomly. I'd highly recommend it, unless you're offended by (VERY) non-traditional nuns, if you are, then you might want to skip this one. I'm about halfway through, and loving it!
June 10, 2020
The extraordinary thing about this book is how much the form reflects the content. It is not a book dominated by a single character, but by a community of characters. Their struggles are slow, reflective ones, sometimes against the landscape. The story meanders over half a century. It is a beautiful, feminist imagining of what the spiritual life could be like if it were run by a community of women who truly value and respect each other, and not a single, male authority figure.
July 3, 2013
This book is about the love between women - both gay and straight, and the desire to wholly live in those moments. The story is told through the eyes of each nun at Julian Pines, a sort of convent in the mountains of California. It's about breaking tradition and the celebration of community.
I gave it three stars because the writing jumps styles (and thus loses impact) between narrators.
I gave it three stars because the writing jumps styles (and thus loses impact) between narrators.
January 22, 2015
One of the most interesting and compelling books I've read in a long time. With every chapter and every new character, my desire to go to take up the habit and go to the fictitious Julian Pines grew.
May 11, 2007
a good fun read. plus lesbian nuns - who can resist?
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews