What do you think?
Rate this book
The Cloister
From National Book Award-winning writer James Carroll comes a novel of the timeless love story of Peter Abelard and Héloïse, and its impact on a modern priest and a Holocaust survivor seeking sanctuary in Manhattan.
Father Michael Kavanagh is shocked to see a friend from his seminary days named Runner Malloy at the altar of his humble Inwood community parish. Wondering about their past, he wanders into the medieval haven of The Cloisters, and begins a conversation with a lovely and intriguing museum guide, Rachel Vedette.
Rachel, a scholar of medieval history, has retreated to the quiet of The Cloisters after her harrowing experience as a Jewish woman in France during the Holocaust. She ponders her late father's greatest intellectual work: a study demonstrating the relationship between the famously discredited monk Peter Abelard and Jewish scholars. Something about Father Kavanagh makes Rachel think he might appreciate her continued studies, and she shares with him the work that cost her father his life.
At the center of these interrelated stories is the classic romance between the great scholar Peter Abelard and his intellectual equal Héloïse. For Rachel, Abelard is the key to understanding her people's place in intellectual history. For Kavanagh, he is a doorway to understanding the life he might have had outside of the Church. The Cloister is James Carroll at his best.
Father Michael Kavanagh is shocked to see a friend from his seminary days named Runner Malloy at the altar of his humble Inwood community parish. Wondering about their past, he wanders into the medieval haven of The Cloisters, and begins a conversation with a lovely and intriguing museum guide, Rachel Vedette.
Rachel, a scholar of medieval history, has retreated to the quiet of The Cloisters after her harrowing experience as a Jewish woman in France during the Holocaust. She ponders her late father's greatest intellectual work: a study demonstrating the relationship between the famously discredited monk Peter Abelard and Jewish scholars. Something about Father Kavanagh makes Rachel think he might appreciate her continued studies, and she shares with him the work that cost her father his life.
At the center of these interrelated stories is the classic romance between the great scholar Peter Abelard and his intellectual equal Héloïse. For Rachel, Abelard is the key to understanding her people's place in intellectual history. For Kavanagh, he is a doorway to understanding the life he might have had outside of the Church. The Cloister is James Carroll at his best.
367 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 6, 2018
471 people are currently reading
1793 people want to read
About the author
James Carroll
144 books162 followersJames Carroll was born in Chicago and raised in Washington, D.C. He has been a civil rights worker, an antiwar activist, and a community organizer in Washington and New York. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1969 and served as Catholic chaplain at Boston University. Carroll left the priesthood to become a novelist and playwright. He lives in Boston with his wife, the novelist Alexandra Marshall, and their two children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 224 reviews
September 30, 2017
I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
A stunning book, beautifully written. Carroll brings to life the story of Abelard and Heloise, but not to focus on the tragic nature of their romance, which resulted in Abelard's brutal castration. No, he depicts the love that arises when two brilliant people come together, each feeding the other's brilliance. The result of that love echoes through the centuries to change the lives of two people in New York City in the aftermath of World War II: a Catholic priest, left staggered by the return of a friend from his youth, as he realizes his own poignant isolation in the clergy; and a young woman, a Jew from France whose father studied the texts of Abelard, and essentially died for it during the war.
There are layers upon layers here. This book is not a melodrama. It's about nuance. It's about people being people. It's about surviving, at great cost. It's about losing God, and finding him again. It's about the history of Catholicism and Judaism, and how churches--like people--have a difficult time realizing their errors or making an effort to correct them.
This is a book that will haunt me, in the best sort of way. I am left with a profound need to not only read more about Abelard and Heloise, but to look for more of James Carroll's work.
A stunning book, beautifully written. Carroll brings to life the story of Abelard and Heloise, but not to focus on the tragic nature of their romance, which resulted in Abelard's brutal castration. No, he depicts the love that arises when two brilliant people come together, each feeding the other's brilliance. The result of that love echoes through the centuries to change the lives of two people in New York City in the aftermath of World War II: a Catholic priest, left staggered by the return of a friend from his youth, as he realizes his own poignant isolation in the clergy; and a young woman, a Jew from France whose father studied the texts of Abelard, and essentially died for it during the war.
There are layers upon layers here. This book is not a melodrama. It's about nuance. It's about people being people. It's about surviving, at great cost. It's about losing God, and finding him again. It's about the history of Catholicism and Judaism, and how churches--like people--have a difficult time realizing their errors or making an effort to correct them.
This is a book that will haunt me, in the best sort of way. I am left with a profound need to not only read more about Abelard and Heloise, but to look for more of James Carroll's work.
May 10, 2018
The Cloister is a rich and demanding reading experience. Carroll skillfully weaves together three narratives from three historical settings-1950 New York City, Nazi-occupied Paris and medieval France. I found the novel quite engrossing - but because all the characters are grappling with religion and ideas, it demands concentration.
Father Michael Kavanagh and Rachel Vedette both find solace in the writings of Peter Abelard and Heloise, whose love story is one of the narratives. These writings and Kavanagh's conversations with Rachel, help him finally face the history of anti-semitism in the Church and the Church's complicity in the Holocaust. For Rachel, they are a way to hold on to her father, a scholar who studied Abelard, who was killed by a Nazi.
I really appreciate when a novel sends me off to learn more - and this one certainly did! I have already read a few of the letters of Peter Abelard and Heloise and am finding their story fascinating. My only criticism is that occasionally the novel felt like a vehicle for Carroll's message about religion and morality. But overall he pulled it off - beautifully.
Father Michael Kavanagh and Rachel Vedette both find solace in the writings of Peter Abelard and Heloise, whose love story is one of the narratives. These writings and Kavanagh's conversations with Rachel, help him finally face the history of anti-semitism in the Church and the Church's complicity in the Holocaust. For Rachel, they are a way to hold on to her father, a scholar who studied Abelard, who was killed by a Nazi.
I really appreciate when a novel sends me off to learn more - and this one certainly did! I have already read a few of the letters of Peter Abelard and Heloise and am finding their story fascinating. My only criticism is that occasionally the novel felt like a vehicle for Carroll's message about religion and morality. But overall he pulled it off - beautifully.
September 17, 2017
The Cloisters is a novel of ideas that made me feel as breathless and on edge as I do when reading a thriller. With masterful writing and pacing, the author creates two worlds for the characters to inhabit—1140s Paris and the scholastic sphere of the brilliant Peter Abelard and Heloise, and their inevitable, and separate, retreat from the world.
How this all fits into Nazi occupied Paris, concentration camps, and on to post WWII New York City is an amazing literary feat. Entering this hall of mirrors is the Catholic priest Kavanaugh and the Jewish docent for the Cloisters, Rachel. Rachel’s father is the link back to Abelard and Heloise, as before the war he was a scholar in Paris working on a study of Abelard’s work Dialogus inter philosophum, Judaeum, et Christianum, (Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian) 1136–1139. She carries Abelard's book History of my Calamities with her wherever she goes. When the priest seeks the shelter of the Cloisters during a rainstorm, they fall into conversation, and she spontaneously hands it over to the priest.
The themes of obligation and exploitation, retreat and annihilation, manipulation and survival are golden threads to follow through this labyrinth. A beautifully horrifying and shattering story.
Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday. I'd give this novel 10 stars if I could.
How this all fits into Nazi occupied Paris, concentration camps, and on to post WWII New York City is an amazing literary feat. Entering this hall of mirrors is the Catholic priest Kavanaugh and the Jewish docent for the Cloisters, Rachel. Rachel’s father is the link back to Abelard and Heloise, as before the war he was a scholar in Paris working on a study of Abelard’s work Dialogus inter philosophum, Judaeum, et Christianum, (Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian) 1136–1139. She carries Abelard's book History of my Calamities with her wherever she goes. When the priest seeks the shelter of the Cloisters during a rainstorm, they fall into conversation, and she spontaneously hands it over to the priest.
The themes of obligation and exploitation, retreat and annihilation, manipulation and survival are golden threads to follow through this labyrinth. A beautifully horrifying and shattering story.
Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday. I'd give this novel 10 stars if I could.
March 16, 2018
A Catholic grapples with "the Jewish question" for 360 pages.
OY VEY.
Far be it for me to speak for the entirety of the Jewish people, but: as long as you cool it with the murder and the genocide, we don't really give a shit what you think about us. We definitely don't need lengthy, self-back-patting apologia on our behalf. Thanks.
I'm am very relieved to be done with this and to now get to read something that, whatever the author's intention, doesn't reference "the Jew" and "the Christ-killers" about 12 times per page.
OY VEY.
Far be it for me to speak for the entirety of the Jewish people, but: as long as you cool it with the murder and the genocide, we don't really give a shit what you think about us. We definitely don't need lengthy, self-back-patting apologia on our behalf. Thanks.
I'm am very relieved to be done with this and to now get to read something that, whatever the author's intention, doesn't reference "the Jew" and "the Christ-killers" about 12 times per page.
March 15, 2018
The Cloister - James Carroll, Mar 6, 4.56, 384 pages
A well-researched piece of historical fiction written by former priest James Carroll. It is based on historically significant people, fascinating subjects who I’d never before heard of.
It is a multi-layered read that spans hundreds of years and begins with philisopher/nun Holoise d’Argenteuil arriving at the Cloister garden to meet the Abbot where he will lead her to the the body of her much older lover Peter Abelard, reflecting on their doomed affair and condemnation. Fast forward 800 years when priest Michael Kavanagh and Holocaust survivor Rachel Vedette, a docent and scholar have a chance meeting at the Cloister that will change their lives. This was the first I heard of Abelard and d’Argenteuil and their historically important story told through different perspectives and eras was complex and very well-done.
A well-researched piece of historical fiction written by former priest James Carroll. It is based on historically significant people, fascinating subjects who I’d never before heard of.
It is a multi-layered read that spans hundreds of years and begins with philisopher/nun Holoise d’Argenteuil arriving at the Cloister garden to meet the Abbot where he will lead her to the the body of her much older lover Peter Abelard, reflecting on their doomed affair and condemnation. Fast forward 800 years when priest Michael Kavanagh and Holocaust survivor Rachel Vedette, a docent and scholar have a chance meeting at the Cloister that will change their lives. This was the first I heard of Abelard and d’Argenteuil and their historically important story told through different perspectives and eras was complex and very well-done.
June 9, 2018
It was a promising read to begin with, but I had to give it up after 2/3 of the way through. Life is too short to struggle with a cumbersome book when there are so many good books waiting to be read.
March 6, 2018
Carroll has written three story threads in three different time periods. I was ignorant of Peter Abelard and Héloïse but I will never forget them and what they stood for against unbelievable odds. I knew that the Catholic Church had been complicit in the Holocaust but oblivious to the centuries old teaching that as “killers of Christ” they were worthy of scorn, to be wantonly killed - Jews! God’s chosen people!! The second thread takes place during the Holocaust and illustrates the anguish of this evil teaching.
Abelard was an apologist for the Jewish people, portraying them with “total sympathy and respect - an equal to the Christian. The Jew is not an object of conversion, or doomed to an eternity of hellfire.” This is what he taught his students which put him in opposition to the Catholics leaders of France to his physical peril.
The modern day thread follows a chance encounter between a Jewish woman and an Irish Catholic priest who begin a tentative friendship after being drawn together through their fascination with the teachings of Abelard. Both are grappling with grievous issues in their lives that were “out of bounds” but come into focus through conversations about the 12th century lives of Peter and Héloïse. Abelard’s philosophy said “no” to the militant Christ and “yes” to the Prince of Peace, and it was his teachings that opened the door to Father Kavanagh’s inner introspection, though he ultimately credits Héloïse for his greatest understandings.
Carroll, a former priest and practicing Catholic, is not indicting the Church, but he is throwing open the windows and doors and inviting modern Catholics to stop feeling guilty, and to see that more is present, not in the sacrament or in the Church but in the people of the parish themselves, to celebrate. Kavanaugh finally recognized that God’s love for him was no longer contingent on his being a priest. This book is brilliant and certainly more intellectual than I am capable of processing in one reading, all the philosophy and theology, a book of challenge and hope.
Abelard was an apologist for the Jewish people, portraying them with “total sympathy and respect - an equal to the Christian. The Jew is not an object of conversion, or doomed to an eternity of hellfire.” This is what he taught his students which put him in opposition to the Catholics leaders of France to his physical peril.
The modern day thread follows a chance encounter between a Jewish woman and an Irish Catholic priest who begin a tentative friendship after being drawn together through their fascination with the teachings of Abelard. Both are grappling with grievous issues in their lives that were “out of bounds” but come into focus through conversations about the 12th century lives of Peter and Héloïse. Abelard’s philosophy said “no” to the militant Christ and “yes” to the Prince of Peace, and it was his teachings that opened the door to Father Kavanagh’s inner introspection, though he ultimately credits Héloïse for his greatest understandings.
Carroll, a former priest and practicing Catholic, is not indicting the Church, but he is throwing open the windows and doors and inviting modern Catholics to stop feeling guilty, and to see that more is present, not in the sacrament or in the Church but in the people of the parish themselves, to celebrate. Kavanaugh finally recognized that God’s love for him was no longer contingent on his being a priest. This book is brilliant and certainly more intellectual than I am capable of processing in one reading, all the philosophy and theology, a book of challenge and hope.
March 6, 2018
Religion, Philosophy and Romance
After an unsettling meeting with an old friend from seminary, Father Kavanagh wanders through Central Park. To escape the rain, he takes shelter in The Cloisters. He’s hoping to be alone, but Rachael Vedette, a museum guide, wanders into his sanctuary. Their unexpected conversation changes their lives.
Rachael is a survivor of the Holocaust in France. Her father, a Medieval scholar, studied Abelard in the hope of bringing Abelard’s ideas to the modern era and garnering him the honor he deserves. Rachael protected her father’s work throughout her own ordeal, now she feels compelled to share it with Father Kavanagh.
The novel revolves around the story of Heloise and Abelard, an iconic love story that echoes through the centuries. It is also the story of Rachael and Kavanagh and the struggle to bring the story of the Jews into the rightful place in philosophical thinking, a task that Abelard paid dearly for.
This is a beautifully written book. It’s a book to be savored, not read quickly. The love story and the foray into philosophy and religion present much food for thought. The characters are real people struggling with mighty issues. The author did an excellent job of making both the middle ages and the modern era into backgrounds that enhanced the novel.
I enjoyed both the romance and the philosophy. It’s a book worth reading more than once.
I received this book from Net Galley for this review.
After an unsettling meeting with an old friend from seminary, Father Kavanagh wanders through Central Park. To escape the rain, he takes shelter in The Cloisters. He’s hoping to be alone, but Rachael Vedette, a museum guide, wanders into his sanctuary. Their unexpected conversation changes their lives.
Rachael is a survivor of the Holocaust in France. Her father, a Medieval scholar, studied Abelard in the hope of bringing Abelard’s ideas to the modern era and garnering him the honor he deserves. Rachael protected her father’s work throughout her own ordeal, now she feels compelled to share it with Father Kavanagh.
The novel revolves around the story of Heloise and Abelard, an iconic love story that echoes through the centuries. It is also the story of Rachael and Kavanagh and the struggle to bring the story of the Jews into the rightful place in philosophical thinking, a task that Abelard paid dearly for.
This is a beautifully written book. It’s a book to be savored, not read quickly. The love story and the foray into philosophy and religion present much food for thought. The characters are real people struggling with mighty issues. The author did an excellent job of making both the middle ages and the modern era into backgrounds that enhanced the novel.
I enjoyed both the romance and the philosophy. It’s a book worth reading more than once.
I received this book from Net Galley for this review.
September 8, 2018
An entertaining story about Heloise and Abelard, the famous medieval nun and monk, this novel is far more than that. It conveys their theology as well, particularly Abelard's, and particularly his renunciation of the Catholic Church's hatred and persecution of the Jews. The framing device is the story of a modern-day pairing, a priest and a Jew, who mirror Heloise and Abelard even as they study them and discuss them together.
It's not a bad book, and the great love between Heloise and Abelard is portrayed quite vividly, as is its calamitous aftermath; but the author clearly wants the reader to understand Abelard's writing about the Jews, to show that the church didn't uniformly reject and hate them, and he practically beats the reader over the head with these facts, rather than trusting that the reader will "get it" through the events of the story. My feeling, on the whole, is that this is not this author's best fiction.
It's not a bad book, and the great love between Heloise and Abelard is portrayed quite vividly, as is its calamitous aftermath; but the author clearly wants the reader to understand Abelard's writing about the Jews, to show that the church didn't uniformly reject and hate them, and he practically beats the reader over the head with these facts, rather than trusting that the reader will "get it" through the events of the story. My feeling, on the whole, is that this is not this author's best fiction.
November 5, 2017
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader
A new narrative historical fiction from James Carroll and Doubleday, The Cloister uses parallel storylines from the 12th and 20th centuries to illuminate and emphasize the timelessness of faith, love, fidelity, understanding and salvation.
I cannot emphasize enough how well written and lyrical this book is. It's definitely one of the more masterfully written books I've read this year. The prose is beautiful and luminous. The author's ability to write so honestly about some of the most atrocious, brutal, and heartbreaking episodes of both the 12th and 20th centuries is breathtaking.
I was really struck by the elevation and sanctity of these two couples (whose relation to one another form two potential halves of a whole circle) separated by almost a millennium, being shaped and molded by these watershed moments. That there are valuable human lessons in the midst of devastation and horror throughout time and history and that it was just as true a thousand years ago as now, was very profound to me.
This is a book which is going to stick with me. I think this is an important book, even (especially?) for people who have no active religious belief system. The book provides such an eloquent and unassailable logical argument for compassion and self control especially with regard to external belief systems.
It's not an easy book to read. It's emphatically not light reading. The language is finely crafted, but it took me time to digest and understand.
Flawless and achingly beautiful.
Five stars
Anticipated publication date: 6 March, 2018
Formats: Kindle / Hardcover, 384 pages.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
A new narrative historical fiction from James Carroll and Doubleday, The Cloister uses parallel storylines from the 12th and 20th centuries to illuminate and emphasize the timelessness of faith, love, fidelity, understanding and salvation.
I cannot emphasize enough how well written and lyrical this book is. It's definitely one of the more masterfully written books I've read this year. The prose is beautiful and luminous. The author's ability to write so honestly about some of the most atrocious, brutal, and heartbreaking episodes of both the 12th and 20th centuries is breathtaking.
I was really struck by the elevation and sanctity of these two couples (whose relation to one another form two potential halves of a whole circle) separated by almost a millennium, being shaped and molded by these watershed moments. That there are valuable human lessons in the midst of devastation and horror throughout time and history and that it was just as true a thousand years ago as now, was very profound to me.
This is a book which is going to stick with me. I think this is an important book, even (especially?) for people who have no active religious belief system. The book provides such an eloquent and unassailable logical argument for compassion and self control especially with regard to external belief systems.
It's not an easy book to read. It's emphatically not light reading. The language is finely crafted, but it took me time to digest and understand.
Flawless and achingly beautiful.
Five stars
Anticipated publication date: 6 March, 2018
Formats: Kindle / Hardcover, 384 pages.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
June 14, 2019
This book, for me, was an emotional experience. It is nothing if not thought provoking.
It introduced me to the ethereal love story of Abelard and Héloïse who I had never heard of before.
It brought to mind questions about faith, love and religion – questions I never even knew were questions before.
Having never given any thought as to why Priests of the Catholic Church must take a vow of celibacy I read this: “The power of Rome – and the protection of its treasure from the heirs of clergy.”
It introduced me to the ethereal love story of Abelard and Héloïse who I had never heard of before.
It brought to mind questions about faith, love and religion – questions I never even knew were questions before.
Having never given any thought as to why Priests of the Catholic Church must take a vow of celibacy I read this: “The power of Rome – and the protection of its treasure from the heirs of clergy.”
April 5, 2018
Breathtakingly tedious - glad to return it to the library.
July 15, 2018
As another reviewer said, Breathtakingly tedious. Gave it a 3 only because of the depth of research but the multiple settings do not work.
Read
November 17, 2025A novel in three timelines that investigates the meaning of God's love in a world full of hate, the commandment to love one's neighbor from a theology that justifies the hatred of an entire people as the inheritors of the charge of deicide, the reconciliation of loyalty and betrayal.
In one timeline, a middle-aged priest wrestles with the personal and moral consequences of the sudden and mysterious disappearance of an almost-forgotten friend from his youth. His confused reaction leads him to an encounter - in the Rockefellerian Cloisters from which the novel gets its name – with a taciturn but somehow magnetic Frenchwoman, who he discovers to his surprise is Jewish.
A second timeline explores that woman's tormented past in Nazi-occupied France.
A third timeline centers around the 12th century saga of Peter Abelard, a theologian and monk, and his beloved Heloïse, who became an abbess and, through her correspondence with Abelard, a luminary of that era. I cannot be the only person who put the Letters of Abelard and Heloïse on her TBR list immediately upon finishing this novel.
This is a thought-provoking and moving novel that anyone interested in the pangs of conscience that come from wrestling with Catholic theology will likely enjoy tremendously. For me, it was more than that -- it was a companion piece to Carroll's nonfiction history of antisemitism in the Catholic Church, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews. Abelard emerges in that magisterial work as one of the true heroes of medieval theology and philosophy -- a man committed to rejecting the idea that those who are not baptized are damned. This novel provides, in fictionalized form, an accounting of Abelard's philosophy that is as interested in his ideas as in his forbidden love for Heloïse and the titillating-if-horrifying tale of his castration. And it models how a faithful Catholic might respond to taking those ideas seriously in the twentieth century, and in particular in the post-Holocaust world.
This is a novel written by a man who at one point considered entering the priesthood himself. It takes Catholicism and Catholic faith seriously, and it holds that faith accountable for centuries of preaching that linked Jews with deicide. It won't be for everyone. But it is a beautiful work of passion. I only wish I had the talent to express my own deepest-held convictions in a work of fiction as effectively as Carroll has done here (or, really at all, given that I've never written a work of fiction).
In one timeline, a middle-aged priest wrestles with the personal and moral consequences of the sudden and mysterious disappearance of an almost-forgotten friend from his youth. His confused reaction leads him to an encounter - in the Rockefellerian Cloisters from which the novel gets its name – with a taciturn but somehow magnetic Frenchwoman, who he discovers to his surprise is Jewish.
A second timeline explores that woman's tormented past in Nazi-occupied France.
A third timeline centers around the 12th century saga of Peter Abelard, a theologian and monk, and his beloved Heloïse, who became an abbess and, through her correspondence with Abelard, a luminary of that era. I cannot be the only person who put the Letters of Abelard and Heloïse on her TBR list immediately upon finishing this novel.
This is a thought-provoking and moving novel that anyone interested in the pangs of conscience that come from wrestling with Catholic theology will likely enjoy tremendously. For me, it was more than that -- it was a companion piece to Carroll's nonfiction history of antisemitism in the Catholic Church, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews. Abelard emerges in that magisterial work as one of the true heroes of medieval theology and philosophy -- a man committed to rejecting the idea that those who are not baptized are damned. This novel provides, in fictionalized form, an accounting of Abelard's philosophy that is as interested in his ideas as in his forbidden love for Heloïse and the titillating-if-horrifying tale of his castration. And it models how a faithful Catholic might respond to taking those ideas seriously in the twentieth century, and in particular in the post-Holocaust world.
This is a novel written by a man who at one point considered entering the priesthood himself. It takes Catholicism and Catholic faith seriously, and it holds that faith accountable for centuries of preaching that linked Jews with deicide. It won't be for everyone. But it is a beautiful work of passion. I only wish I had the talent to express my own deepest-held convictions in a work of fiction as effectively as Carroll has done here (or, really at all, given that I've never written a work of fiction).
October 20, 2020
Triple timeline and all three worked...I knew a lot of the locations so appreciated the visuals...
July 26, 2019
WOW, what a powerful novel I unknowingly chose for fulfilling #40 on my Goodreads “Around the Year in 52 Books” list of challenges. THE CLOISTER by James Carroll seemed to fit its qualification, which reads as, “A book you stumbled up.” I was strolling through the aisles of books at Barnes & Noble earlier this year and my eyes fell upon the title – I thought I’d heard decades ago that this was a former Roman Catholic abbey where one could go for a retreat in NYC, where one could write and read undisturbed; also, as a former, baptized-but-not-raised-religious RC, what such a place signified (mom had a divorce before meeting dad; therefore their marriage ex-communicated him – there’s a whole story there that I won’t get into here!). BOTTOM LINE: the word Cloister immediately caught my attention.
And then I noted that the author was James Carroll. I recalled how enthralled I was with Carroll’s memoir decades ago: AN AMERICAN REQUIEM: GOD, MY FATHER, AND THE WAR THAT CAME BETWEEN HIM. He was writing about how the Vietnam War came between him and his father (who was a high-ranking military officer). A mesmerizing account (excellent writing) of a period during which the son was a priest active in demonstrations again that war. An era during which I held the same views, walked in a few protests…
And then, upon reading the blurb on the back of the book, I recalled a recent spiritual retreat/workshop that I’d attended led by friend Jan Phillips – published writer/photographer/activist/artist/former RC nun. Reading that blurb, the name “Peter Abelard” set some chimes ringing in my brain. I was pretty sure Jan had mentioned Abelard, referring to him as a mystic. And over my several decades on this planet, I knew – upon opening to the Author’s Note – that I’d heard of the coupling of Abelard & Héloïse a few times over the years, and had just assumed they were mythical figures (I guess it ran through my head that Jan’s Abelard might’ve become somebody named after that myth? But I wrote his name down to look up afterward. Go figure…).
Obviously, I left B&N with the book and the intention of fitting it into my Year of Challenges. I am not disappointed with that decision.
James Carroll is also an historian, and so this book is well-researched. A Roman Catholic former priest, he also writes from knowledge acquired through religious studies and the experiences of the priesthood. And how he pulls together a story set both in the 1100s in France and in the pre-WW2/ Nazis-in-France WW2/ and post-WW2 in the USA (NYC & NJ) is awesome. Then there’s the diversity of the story, evident through its viewpoints. First there’s Father Kavanaugh, whose best friend from seminary days - who’d left mysteriously and whose confessor’s explanation of the disappearance had left him with guilt-ridden questions – shows up at the communion rail in his parish, yet angrily refuses to take the sacrament from him. Kavanaugh, attempting to follow him, winds up at The Cloisters, an almost-forgotten museum in the Inwood section of Manhattan filled with relics of Catholic history from medieval times – “not a true monastery… but a mishmash of belfries, architectural fragments, aged pillars, arch doorways, stairways, arcades – all tastefully reassembled… In fact, the museum was a stunning monument to the artistic achievement of Catholic high culture, …[that] Kavanaugh’s parishioners knew better than to consider… theirs.” And there, at The Cloisters, he meets holocaust survivor Rachel Vedett, who leads tours of the place. Vedett possesses an extraordinary knowledge of Abelard and Héloïse as religious figures, as philosophers, and as lovers. And she acquired that knowledge via her assisting her learned father’s writing of an unpublished treatise, begun during his pre-war professorship at the Sorbonne and completed after he was confined to home because of new Nazi laws limiting the lives and freedoms of Jews. Ms. Vedett is ridden with guilt, just as much – perhaps more than -the priest who has come out of the rain and into The Cloisters.
And of course there are the 12th century main characters of Abelard and Héloïse. Strong, brilliant figures in their time. And oh-so-controversial. Abelard is the priest and popular learned philosopher, who many in our time call the first humanist-philosopher and but the Church preferred to eventually label as heretic. He draws huge crowds to his schools of thought (real “schools,” centers of study). Héloïse becomes his devoted student, tutored at her uncle’s home because as a woman she cannot attend the school, and ultimately their mutual intellectual interests lead to love and likely to their secretly becoming husband and wife (this is not a spoiler; it is true history, although not so sure that the marriage part was ever proven). This all happens at a time when the RC Church had recently decreed that priest could no longer be married. As a child, I had always been told that the Pontiff had some sort of revelation that it was sinful for them, or that the vow of chastity somehow made them more holy – but the truth is that when priests died (or perhaps otherwise became separated from wives), the wives were laying claim to properties owned by them – which of course the Vatican believed were rightfully theirs.
Another issue that Abelard has with Church teachings is the status of Jews, faith-wise. I was reminded of former RC priest Matthew Fox’s book, ORIGINAL BLESSING, an enlightening book I’d read years ago. https://www.matthewfox.org/what-is-cr.... Fox was not the first person who believed in “Original Blessing” as opposed to “Original Sin” (but maybe he mentioned Abelard in his book & I just didn’t recall it?) – which espouses the tenet that everyone is born free of sin, a kind of clean palate, rather than coming into the world with the stain of Adam & Eve (the latter requiring baptism to wipe away the sin). Which of course wipes away any reason for the Church’s condemnation and persecution of Jews. Actually, it makes their lies about them over the centuries even more heinous. And it brings me back to Rachel Vedett and her father’s manuscript. And I shall leave it at that, for others to read and judge and perhaps love as much as I did.
Church, love, secrets, guilt, history, Holocaust, WW2, and more. It was one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. I am rating it 5-stars on Goodreads and have already begun to recommend it to friends who love to read.
And then I noted that the author was James Carroll. I recalled how enthralled I was with Carroll’s memoir decades ago: AN AMERICAN REQUIEM: GOD, MY FATHER, AND THE WAR THAT CAME BETWEEN HIM. He was writing about how the Vietnam War came between him and his father (who was a high-ranking military officer). A mesmerizing account (excellent writing) of a period during which the son was a priest active in demonstrations again that war. An era during which I held the same views, walked in a few protests…
And then, upon reading the blurb on the back of the book, I recalled a recent spiritual retreat/workshop that I’d attended led by friend Jan Phillips – published writer/photographer/activist/artist/former RC nun. Reading that blurb, the name “Peter Abelard” set some chimes ringing in my brain. I was pretty sure Jan had mentioned Abelard, referring to him as a mystic. And over my several decades on this planet, I knew – upon opening to the Author’s Note – that I’d heard of the coupling of Abelard & Héloïse a few times over the years, and had just assumed they were mythical figures (I guess it ran through my head that Jan’s Abelard might’ve become somebody named after that myth? But I wrote his name down to look up afterward. Go figure…).
Obviously, I left B&N with the book and the intention of fitting it into my Year of Challenges. I am not disappointed with that decision.
James Carroll is also an historian, and so this book is well-researched. A Roman Catholic former priest, he also writes from knowledge acquired through religious studies and the experiences of the priesthood. And how he pulls together a story set both in the 1100s in France and in the pre-WW2/ Nazis-in-France WW2/ and post-WW2 in the USA (NYC & NJ) is awesome. Then there’s the diversity of the story, evident through its viewpoints. First there’s Father Kavanaugh, whose best friend from seminary days - who’d left mysteriously and whose confessor’s explanation of the disappearance had left him with guilt-ridden questions – shows up at the communion rail in his parish, yet angrily refuses to take the sacrament from him. Kavanaugh, attempting to follow him, winds up at The Cloisters, an almost-forgotten museum in the Inwood section of Manhattan filled with relics of Catholic history from medieval times – “not a true monastery… but a mishmash of belfries, architectural fragments, aged pillars, arch doorways, stairways, arcades – all tastefully reassembled… In fact, the museum was a stunning monument to the artistic achievement of Catholic high culture, …[that] Kavanaugh’s parishioners knew better than to consider… theirs.” And there, at The Cloisters, he meets holocaust survivor Rachel Vedett, who leads tours of the place. Vedett possesses an extraordinary knowledge of Abelard and Héloïse as religious figures, as philosophers, and as lovers. And she acquired that knowledge via her assisting her learned father’s writing of an unpublished treatise, begun during his pre-war professorship at the Sorbonne and completed after he was confined to home because of new Nazi laws limiting the lives and freedoms of Jews. Ms. Vedett is ridden with guilt, just as much – perhaps more than -the priest who has come out of the rain and into The Cloisters.
And of course there are the 12th century main characters of Abelard and Héloïse. Strong, brilliant figures in their time. And oh-so-controversial. Abelard is the priest and popular learned philosopher, who many in our time call the first humanist-philosopher and but the Church preferred to eventually label as heretic. He draws huge crowds to his schools of thought (real “schools,” centers of study). Héloïse becomes his devoted student, tutored at her uncle’s home because as a woman she cannot attend the school, and ultimately their mutual intellectual interests lead to love and likely to their secretly becoming husband and wife (this is not a spoiler; it is true history, although not so sure that the marriage part was ever proven). This all happens at a time when the RC Church had recently decreed that priest could no longer be married. As a child, I had always been told that the Pontiff had some sort of revelation that it was sinful for them, or that the vow of chastity somehow made them more holy – but the truth is that when priests died (or perhaps otherwise became separated from wives), the wives were laying claim to properties owned by them – which of course the Vatican believed were rightfully theirs.
Another issue that Abelard has with Church teachings is the status of Jews, faith-wise. I was reminded of former RC priest Matthew Fox’s book, ORIGINAL BLESSING, an enlightening book I’d read years ago. https://www.matthewfox.org/what-is-cr.... Fox was not the first person who believed in “Original Blessing” as opposed to “Original Sin” (but maybe he mentioned Abelard in his book & I just didn’t recall it?) – which espouses the tenet that everyone is born free of sin, a kind of clean palate, rather than coming into the world with the stain of Adam & Eve (the latter requiring baptism to wipe away the sin). Which of course wipes away any reason for the Church’s condemnation and persecution of Jews. Actually, it makes their lies about them over the centuries even more heinous. And it brings me back to Rachel Vedett and her father’s manuscript. And I shall leave it at that, for others to read and judge and perhaps love as much as I did.
Church, love, secrets, guilt, history, Holocaust, WW2, and more. It was one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. I am rating it 5-stars on Goodreads and have already begun to recommend it to friends who love to read.
September 7, 2017
I was given an advance copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.
WoW! An excellent book that tells the epic love story of Heloise and Abelard and the importance and context of Paul Abelard's teachings. The story moves between 12th century time of these lovers then tells the story of a father and daughter living in the Polish ghetto during World War II, and finally in a small Irish Catholic parish in New York City in the 1950's. I know that these stories don't really seem to relate to one another, but the author uses these more modern stories to illustrate the impact of the teachings of Paul Abelard and how the Catholic church ignored them.
I have long not understood how the Catholic church has long blamed Jews for the death of Jesus Christ. This will definitely give you insight into how this has been perpetrated through the years.
It was extremeley well-written and flowed seemlessly between the stories. I could not put the book down. I heartily recommend this book!
WoW! An excellent book that tells the epic love story of Heloise and Abelard and the importance and context of Paul Abelard's teachings. The story moves between 12th century time of these lovers then tells the story of a father and daughter living in the Polish ghetto during World War II, and finally in a small Irish Catholic parish in New York City in the 1950's. I know that these stories don't really seem to relate to one another, but the author uses these more modern stories to illustrate the impact of the teachings of Paul Abelard and how the Catholic church ignored them.
I have long not understood how the Catholic church has long blamed Jews for the death of Jesus Christ. This will definitely give you insight into how this has been perpetrated through the years.
It was extremeley well-written and flowed seemlessly between the stories. I could not put the book down. I heartily recommend this book!
January 15, 2019
I don't usually adventure into history quite this far back. Extremely interesting views of Christianity in relation to the Jews. And what a lovely Christmas Eve sermon
August 23, 2018
Writing a novel that moves back and forth between Abelard and Heloise, those famous 13th century lovers and a modern couple, is a high risk endeavor that could have easily resulted in an overly schematic pairing of "star-crossed lovers." Carroll, to his credit, avoids any excessive sentiment that falsifies the experience of these couples. He has written a compelling novel that uses Abelard and Heloise as an historical perspective to depict issues that go beyond their remembered doomed romance.
He begins his modern story in the l950's, introducing a sympathetic Catholic priest, and a Jewish woman who survived the trauma of World War II. They meet in a chance encounter at the Cloisters in New York, near Father Michael Kavanaugh's parish church. Rachel Vedette is a docent there, and she notices him reading a book by Simone Weil, the French Jewish-Catholic pacifist.. That leads to a discussion of the criticism of Weil's anti-semitism
Kavanaugh is a bit naive and is enlightened by Vedette about Christian persecution of Jews through the centuries. It is here that Abelard emerges as one of the few Christian thinkers who questioned the notion of Jews being "Christ-killers." His liberal thought, unusual for the middle-ages, leaned heavily toward a God who loved all of humanity. Interwoven with his thinking was his romantic involvement with Heloise who bore a son. Ironically, that is all most people know about Peter Abelard.
At this point, a reader might think that Kavanaugh is going to become romantically involved with Vedette, but Carroll skirts that development, instead concentrating on a series of betrayals that move the novel forward. They all to some extent involve individuals who encounter conflict with the institutional traditions of which they're a part.
Kavanaugh learns of a priest who was a sexual predator, and of the sacrifice of a good friend which allowed the priest to continue in the church. A coverup, justified by a notion that the church's reputation would harmed and would damaging the faith of Catholics. It provokes a crisis in his life as to what he should do.
Vedette is a profoundly damaged woman who has to confront her past when she betrayed her beloved father, a Jewish scholar murdered by a Nazi soldier. She has numbed herself and it is only through the interaction with Kavanaugh that both begin to mutually emerge as individuals, not bound to a traditional past.
On a larger scale the long historic persecution of the Jews culminating in the Holocaust of World War II, amounts to systemic betrayals of conscience on the part of the Catholic Church. Abelard and Heloise were an example of individuals, enmeshed in the hypocrisy, past and present, of the Church. Abelard was eventually tried for the heresy of defending Jews,, and was pitted against Bernard of Clairvaux.
After their liaison, for which Abelard was castrated, both remained in the church as an abbot and a prioress. Abelard is the more intellectual figure, protesting to the end of his life the process and outcome of his condemnation. To Heloise, such legalities were mostly irrelevant. What mattered to her was their coming together in a loving and intimate way.
Carroll's novel looks at the complex ways that individuals seek their freedom under confining cultural rules. The Catholic Church comes in for justified criticism, but it's never made into an oversimplified scapegoat. It's more representative, I think, of the social restrictions that institutions build around us. We never entirely break free or leave them, just, as one character puts it, "only move to the edge."
He begins his modern story in the l950's, introducing a sympathetic Catholic priest, and a Jewish woman who survived the trauma of World War II. They meet in a chance encounter at the Cloisters in New York, near Father Michael Kavanaugh's parish church. Rachel Vedette is a docent there, and she notices him reading a book by Simone Weil, the French Jewish-Catholic pacifist.. That leads to a discussion of the criticism of Weil's anti-semitism
Kavanaugh is a bit naive and is enlightened by Vedette about Christian persecution of Jews through the centuries. It is here that Abelard emerges as one of the few Christian thinkers who questioned the notion of Jews being "Christ-killers." His liberal thought, unusual for the middle-ages, leaned heavily toward a God who loved all of humanity. Interwoven with his thinking was his romantic involvement with Heloise who bore a son. Ironically, that is all most people know about Peter Abelard.
At this point, a reader might think that Kavanaugh is going to become romantically involved with Vedette, but Carroll skirts that development, instead concentrating on a series of betrayals that move the novel forward. They all to some extent involve individuals who encounter conflict with the institutional traditions of which they're a part.
Kavanaugh learns of a priest who was a sexual predator, and of the sacrifice of a good friend which allowed the priest to continue in the church. A coverup, justified by a notion that the church's reputation would harmed and would damaging the faith of Catholics. It provokes a crisis in his life as to what he should do.
Vedette is a profoundly damaged woman who has to confront her past when she betrayed her beloved father, a Jewish scholar murdered by a Nazi soldier. She has numbed herself and it is only through the interaction with Kavanaugh that both begin to mutually emerge as individuals, not bound to a traditional past.
On a larger scale the long historic persecution of the Jews culminating in the Holocaust of World War II, amounts to systemic betrayals of conscience on the part of the Catholic Church. Abelard and Heloise were an example of individuals, enmeshed in the hypocrisy, past and present, of the Church. Abelard was eventually tried for the heresy of defending Jews,, and was pitted against Bernard of Clairvaux.
After their liaison, for which Abelard was castrated, both remained in the church as an abbot and a prioress. Abelard is the more intellectual figure, protesting to the end of his life the process and outcome of his condemnation. To Heloise, such legalities were mostly irrelevant. What mattered to her was their coming together in a loving and intimate way.
Carroll's novel looks at the complex ways that individuals seek their freedom under confining cultural rules. The Catholic Church comes in for justified criticism, but it's never made into an oversimplified scapegoat. It's more representative, I think, of the social restrictions that institutions build around us. We never entirely break free or leave them, just, as one character puts it, "only move to the edge."
June 3, 2018
This book has three settings, one in medieval Europe, the other two more closely-related in time: Jewish people from France in one of Hitler's camps, and 1950s NYC Irish Catholic priesthood.
The medieval story is a fictionalized account of Abelard and Heloise; the French Jewish woman (Rachel) helped her father (a medieval scholar at the Sorbonne) with his research into Abelard's unusual view of the fate of the Jewish people, and the Priest, who meets Rachel in the Museum (the Cloisters), is struck by Abelard's views which condemn Catholicism's "condemnation" of Jews at "Christ-killers" which "influenced" Hitler.
I put some terms above in quotation marks, since this book is a work of fiction, and I do not have the qualifications to assess the full story as author James Carroll tells it. I know a little about these topics, maybe more than a little about some, but I still consider myself unable (and somewhat unwilling) to try to separate fact-from-fiction from authorial-intent in my reading and thoughts about the novel. I will say, as story, it is very gripping and does present at least the bare outlines of what happened in history.
I also know that (in 1980s) I did study the "predominant" medieval-to-modern view about the Atonement in college: Anselm's Cur Deus Homo was required reading [propitiation]. I learned only a little about Abelard and Heloise, and did not have exposure to much other than their relationship and his brutal treatment (by Bernard of Clairveaux and the pope).
What I personally will say is that I find Carroll's presentation of Abelard's God-is-Love-exclusively (therefore, no Atonement necessary) to be something I would question, if Abelard was truly the great thinker, scholar of Scripture -- as he is presented in this book -- since other points met in both Hebrew and Christian canons are omitted.
I was intrigued by this book; I saw in it what may be a more competitive contemporary view of God's relationship to all people than what passed as Christian in the Middle Ages or in the mid-1950s. [The Cloister was copyrighted in 2017]. Having said this, I did find the story to be very interesting reading. I would like to learn more about Abelard and Heloise! I knew their son was named Astrolabe!
The medieval story is a fictionalized account of Abelard and Heloise; the French Jewish woman (Rachel) helped her father (a medieval scholar at the Sorbonne) with his research into Abelard's unusual view of the fate of the Jewish people, and the Priest, who meets Rachel in the Museum (the Cloisters), is struck by Abelard's views which condemn Catholicism's "condemnation" of Jews at "Christ-killers" which "influenced" Hitler.
I put some terms above in quotation marks, since this book is a work of fiction, and I do not have the qualifications to assess the full story as author James Carroll tells it. I know a little about these topics, maybe more than a little about some, but I still consider myself unable (and somewhat unwilling) to try to separate fact-from-fiction from authorial-intent in my reading and thoughts about the novel. I will say, as story, it is very gripping and does present at least the bare outlines of what happened in history.
I also know that (in 1980s) I did study the "predominant" medieval-to-modern view about the Atonement in college: Anselm's Cur Deus Homo was required reading [propitiation]. I learned only a little about Abelard and Heloise, and did not have exposure to much other than their relationship and his brutal treatment (by Bernard of Clairveaux and the pope).
What I personally will say is that I find Carroll's presentation of Abelard's God-is-Love-exclusively (therefore, no Atonement necessary) to be something I would question, if Abelard was truly the great thinker, scholar of Scripture -- as he is presented in this book -- since other points met in both Hebrew and Christian canons are omitted.
I was intrigued by this book; I saw in it what may be a more competitive contemporary view of God's relationship to all people than what passed as Christian in the Middle Ages or in the mid-1950s. [The Cloister was copyrighted in 2017]. Having said this, I did find the story to be very interesting reading. I would like to learn more about Abelard and Heloise! I knew their son was named Astrolabe!
October 9, 2018
There are large questions in my mind. Why did I support the Vietnam War as a college student but began feeling guilt in my early adult life? James Carroll helped me understand myself in his AMERICAN REQUIEM. Why the Holocaust and the anti-semitism behind it? Why haven’t we moved past that anti - semitism (Charlottesville)? CONSTANTINE’S SWORD and JERUSALEM! JERUSALEM! aided me on my search for understanding. Why do I reject some of the most important doctrines of both the Catholic and Protestant Christian theology? The above books plus CHRIST ACTUALLY allow me to trust my doubts.
And now he wraps his non-fiction study into this novel where the story of Abelard and Heloise becomes real and we learn what might have been Or not happened, if Peter Abelard’s theology had been accepted by the Church. He encourages the reader to ponder how history might have been radically different and millions of lives saved.
Within the rich, layered story he taps into the history of sexual abuse and celibacy in The Church. His characters are so real that they accompanied me through my days as I read this. And the tragic figure of Runner reminds me of those I’ve known who experienced abuse while young.
I finished the book a half hour ago. It will stay with me forever along with more answers to my questions and a much better understanding of those once vaguely known lovers, Peter and Heloise. I asked a friend who was raised Catholic and had sixteen years of Catholic education, if she’d ever heard of Abelard and Heloise. She had not. The Medieval Church was successful in declaring Peter Abelard a heretic and thus stifling his theology.
And now he wraps his non-fiction study into this novel where the story of Abelard and Heloise becomes real and we learn what might have been Or not happened, if Peter Abelard’s theology had been accepted by the Church. He encourages the reader to ponder how history might have been radically different and millions of lives saved.
Within the rich, layered story he taps into the history of sexual abuse and celibacy in The Church. His characters are so real that they accompanied me through my days as I read this. And the tragic figure of Runner reminds me of those I’ve known who experienced abuse while young.
I finished the book a half hour ago. It will stay with me forever along with more answers to my questions and a much better understanding of those once vaguely known lovers, Peter and Heloise. I asked a friend who was raised Catholic and had sixteen years of Catholic education, if she’d ever heard of Abelard and Heloise. She had not. The Medieval Church was successful in declaring Peter Abelard a heretic and thus stifling his theology.
February 1, 2018
I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and can’t get it out of my mind. After thinking about it for a couple of weeks I don’t know how to tell you it’s worth every minute of your time and do that telling justice. Bear with me and then go buy the book.
I had, somewhere in my life, heard the names Heloise and Abelard. I knew theirs was a love story but that’s I all. I didn’t know their time, their story or their purpose. I do now.
The many layers of The Cloister include the story of a Catholic priest, Father Michael Kavanagh, a Holocaust survivor from France and museum guide, Rachel Vedette, and their crossed paths. One day Fr. Kavanagh has a conversation with Rachel at The Cloisters. He is there spontaneously one day while working through a chance encounter with a friend from another time, Runner Malloy. Neither Fr. Michael nor Rachel realize what that chance encounter would mean to their lives. What is chance, anyway?
Rachel’s father was a Medieval scholar and his life’s work was dedicated to bringing back the honor Abelard was denied in his own time. Abelard, a philosophy scholar and monk, was discredited for his relationship to the Jews and Rachel’s father worked his way minutely through Abelard’s writings hoping to reinstate his philosophy with the world. Rachel protected her father’s work with her life and after her conversations with Fr. Michael she trusts her father’s writings to him. Nothing sinister here. No car chases as she tries to get them back.
Are you still with me?
Heloise and Abelard’s story is one of those immortal love stories and we are told their story interspersed with Rachel and Fr. Michael’s. It is a love story deeply felt. It is also an affirmation of the Jews to their place in history. In their place in philosophical thinking.
The thinking in this novel is deep and intense and brain altering. Yet it’s not so much so there is no audience for this story. It’s the most thought provoking novel I’ve read in years. I haven’t forgotten it, I will read it again (and maybe again) and think about it when I’m not reading it. And, in my opinion, that’s just about a perfect novel.
I had, somewhere in my life, heard the names Heloise and Abelard. I knew theirs was a love story but that’s I all. I didn’t know their time, their story or their purpose. I do now.
The many layers of The Cloister include the story of a Catholic priest, Father Michael Kavanagh, a Holocaust survivor from France and museum guide, Rachel Vedette, and their crossed paths. One day Fr. Kavanagh has a conversation with Rachel at The Cloisters. He is there spontaneously one day while working through a chance encounter with a friend from another time, Runner Malloy. Neither Fr. Michael nor Rachel realize what that chance encounter would mean to their lives. What is chance, anyway?
Rachel’s father was a Medieval scholar and his life’s work was dedicated to bringing back the honor Abelard was denied in his own time. Abelard, a philosophy scholar and monk, was discredited for his relationship to the Jews and Rachel’s father worked his way minutely through Abelard’s writings hoping to reinstate his philosophy with the world. Rachel protected her father’s work with her life and after her conversations with Fr. Michael she trusts her father’s writings to him. Nothing sinister here. No car chases as she tries to get them back.
Are you still with me?
Heloise and Abelard’s story is one of those immortal love stories and we are told their story interspersed with Rachel and Fr. Michael’s. It is a love story deeply felt. It is also an affirmation of the Jews to their place in history. In their place in philosophical thinking.
The thinking in this novel is deep and intense and brain altering. Yet it’s not so much so there is no audience for this story. It’s the most thought provoking novel I’ve read in years. I haven’t forgotten it, I will read it again (and maybe again) and think about it when I’m not reading it. And, in my opinion, that’s just about a perfect novel.
November 4, 2018
I never thought that a book about medieval history could be so interesting. I had vaguely heard about Abelard and Heloise but had no idea how Abelard's ideas challenged the Catholic church's views regarding Jews. It was devastating to learn how he was punished for loving Heloise and how their love lasted a lifetime despite what was done to him. The author did an excellent job of exploring complex theological issues and making them accessible and interesting to the average reader (although it was a strain at times). The juxtaposition of the modern-day story of a Catholic priest interacting with a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust was well done. This book explains why anti-Semitism has continued to rear its ugly head for eons. The Catholic church has certainly played a part in this. The Catholic church does not look too good in modern times either since the issue of covering up sexual abuse by priests is also a part of the story.
July 18, 2022
I found this book in my local library and was really looking forward to it, especially since the author incorporated the love story of Abelard and Héloïse. I really wanted to like it, but unfortunately the story failed to maintain my full attention. It had all the makings of a great story, revolving around the lives of a catholic priest and a holocaust survivor.
Sadly, I felt detached to these characters due to the several plot threads it was taking to ultimately tell their story, which in my humble opinion, took away from its overall potential. However, I do commend the author for trying to shine a light on some of the sins of the Catholic Church and bringing awareness to these issues. But again, I wished I could’ve enjoyed it more than I did, but perhaps others may think otherwise and actually appreciate it.
Sadly, I felt detached to these characters due to the several plot threads it was taking to ultimately tell their story, which in my humble opinion, took away from its overall potential. However, I do commend the author for trying to shine a light on some of the sins of the Catholic Church and bringing awareness to these issues. But again, I wished I could’ve enjoyed it more than I did, but perhaps others may think otherwise and actually appreciate it.
May 2, 2018
This is a good introduction to Abelard and Heloise, beyond the romance. Their story runs parallel to the tentative friendship of Father Michael and Rachel, a museum tour guide and Holocaust survivor. Both carry burdens from loss, regret and secrets.
There is much history, theology and philosophy in both stories, it will challenge the reader's notions of what they think and why, it may upset some readers and give vindication to others. Some knowledge of pre- Vatican II Catholicism helps too. A lot of thought and research went into this. Among other things I learned about thralls, illegitimate Church slaves.
The ending gives resolution, not a perfect happy ending but a sense of peace, relief and even absolution.
There is much history, theology and philosophy in both stories, it will challenge the reader's notions of what they think and why, it may upset some readers and give vindication to others. Some knowledge of pre- Vatican II Catholicism helps too. A lot of thought and research went into this. Among other things I learned about thralls, illegitimate Church slaves.
The ending gives resolution, not a perfect happy ending but a sense of peace, relief and even absolution.
March 9, 2023
A fascinating look at faith and questioning faith. The book begins with Peter Abelard, a medieval philosopher (he invented the word theology and he was the first humanist) as he meets Heloise, his love, and downfall.
Then we are thrust into Paris as a Jewish father and daughter Rachel are trying to translate the few remaining works of Abelard to show how Abelard thought the anti semitism of the Catholic church should be ameliorated as the Nazi's entered France.
The 3rd story takes place in New York where a priest meets Rachel in the Cloister and as they talk we learn their stories.
People have basically only learned about Heloise and Abelard because of their tragic love story, but learning the history and what became of them was fascinating. Carroll brings the story full circle to Father Mike and Rachel.
The themes of love and forgiveness are the theme of all three of these stories.
Then we are thrust into Paris as a Jewish father and daughter Rachel are trying to translate the few remaining works of Abelard to show how Abelard thought the anti semitism of the Catholic church should be ameliorated as the Nazi's entered France.
The 3rd story takes place in New York where a priest meets Rachel in the Cloister and as they talk we learn their stories.
People have basically only learned about Heloise and Abelard because of their tragic love story, but learning the history and what became of them was fascinating. Carroll brings the story full circle to Father Mike and Rachel.
The themes of love and forgiveness are the theme of all three of these stories.
May 7, 2018
Focuses mainly on Abelard's theological iconoclasm in defense of Christ's salvation extended to Jews, his romance with his student, and the resistance he met from the Catholic church for both of those things. Half of the story is set in the 20th century, as the question of the Abelard's attitude toward Jews is resurrected in the fictional unpublished manuscript Abélard et Israël by a fictional Jewish scholar during the Holocaust. Language about Abelard's castration is discussed on Disruptive Dissertation.
February 27, 2018
I have not read Carroll for a long time but this came along as a Netgalley ARC and well, I was happy to enter his world again. This time he explores the tale of Heloise and Abelard. Father Michael Kavanaugh and Rachel Vedette meet by chance at the Cloisters. Rachel's story, as a survivor of the Holocaust, is beautifully rendered. This well written novel explores a variety of themes- paralleling 12th century France and the 20th century. It's not a fast read but more a thoughtful and erudite one. It's not for everyone but it's got a hopeful message.
May 15, 2021
Layers, man. Layers. There are a lot of issues woven into one book. Holocaust. Medieval Church politics. Antisemitism. Child sex abuse in the Church (both medieval and modern, actually). Clericalism altogether, in fact.
I liked every character and plot line (and sub-plot line), though, and each time we returned to someone else's story I was (1) disappointed to leave the last POV; and then (2) really drawn into the current one. Despite the heaviness of the themes, moreover, the book did have some humor, some light moments, and (best of all) good pacing.
I liked every character and plot line (and sub-plot line), though, and each time we returned to someone else's story I was (1) disappointed to leave the last POV; and then (2) really drawn into the current one. Despite the heaviness of the themes, moreover, the book did have some humor, some light moments, and (best of all) good pacing.
August 11, 2025
A few years ago, I gave my first ever Goodreads 5-star rating to James Carroll's Warburg in Rome. I still rarely give 5-star ratings, but this book deserves one from me. Who better than James Carroll to weave together the medieval love story of Abelard and Heloise, World War II Paris during the Nazi occupation, and mid-twentieth century New York City inot one cohesive, captivating whole. I read this long novel in two sittings. I was challenged by the theology and the philosophy, both of which Carroll makes intelligible and readable in his inimitable way, and mesmerized by the characters, especially Michael, Rachel, and Heloise. I highly recommned this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 224 reviews