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One Night Two Souls Went Walking
A young interfaith chaplain is joined on her hospital rounds one night by an unusual companion: a rough-and-tumble dog who may or may not be a ghost. As she tends to the souls of her patients--young and old, living last moments or navigating fundamentally altered lives--their stories provide unexpected healing for her own heartbreak. Balancing wonder and mystery with pragmatism and humor, Ellen Cooney (A Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances) returns to Coffee House Press with a generous, intelligent novel that grants the most challenging moments of the human experience a shimmer of light and magical possibility.
216 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2020
154 people are currently reading
1861 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Cooney
16 books64 followers Ellen Cooney is the author of eleven novels, most recently A Cowardly Woman No More (Coffee House Press, April, 2023). Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Fiction, New England Review, and many other journals. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Born in Clinton, Massachusetts in 1952, she lived for many years in Cambridge, and taught writing classes and workshops at Boston College, Northeastern University, MIT, Harvard Extension School, and the Seminars at Radcliffe. She lives in Phippsburg, Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
April 7, 2021
4.5/5stars
Such a unique and beautiful story
Such a unique and beautiful story
December 13, 2020
I had never heard of Ellen Cooney before, so I was quite amazed when, at around 40% I looked her up and learned that she is “just” a writer, not a hospital chaplain. Her writing had me so convinced that I was reading her very own experiences. The discovery that every event and human and animal encounter was the product of her imagination was awe-inspiring. First of all, the title, One Night Two Souls Went Walking, immediately captured my attention, as did the magnificent cover. Then, I began to read: “Once, when I was small, I asked my parents, What is a soul?” A page later, she goes on to describe the feelings of hearing the song of a thrush and the sight of dust floating from tattered library books, like “particles of the spirits of those books, free and out playing around, like no one was watching.”
The girl’s family was Catholic, and as she came to discover, girls were not allowed to be priests. When she became an adult, she switched to a Protestant religion that allowed women to be ordained and became a hospital chaplain. Despite, or perhaps because of, her own personality, appearance, and uncertainties about the soul and the afterlife, she tends to the sick, the injured, the dying, and their families, working mostly on the night shift.
The chapters are mainly separate vignettes, tales of nameless patients like Surfer and Librarian – indeed, we don’t even know our narrator’s name. She is simply called Reverend. She’s a woman known for her frizzy hair and her white clerical collars. Often, she does not quote the Bible; she has a sense of what a dying person is saying, even when there are no words. If needed, she will say what the patient is waiting to hear, even if it’s not quite true, in order to bring peace to the mind and soul.
There are names in this book. They are the therapy dogs, Bobo Boy and Eddie. These two are responsible for some of the more whimsical, dream-like sections of the book, or as the Reverend’s younger friend Plummy might call them, “oobs” – Out of Body experiences. Do they qualify, or are they the product of an over-tired mind that has seen too much death and a body that has worked too many long hours? Our Reverend encounters many souls along the way, before they pass on – one of them, however, seems to have already crossed over and happens to be familiar to her. The Reverend wonders... I learned that the author is a dog-lover and has written about dogs. I have a feeling that she has an idea about the souls of animals.
One Night Two Souls Went Walking is not a Christmas story, but it struck me as a very timely read for this season, particularly in this year, 2020, when there has been so much suffering and death. Although her job as chaplain is to be a comfort to those who are sick and dying, this woman also finds humor and wonder in small things. She witnesses relationships that happen by chance and those that have endured throughout a lifetime. This is a book that can be grim; it also generates thought and meditation, perhaps, about that initial question, “What is a soul?” It is funny, joyful, and uplifting at times. I certainly enjoyed my walk through these pages.
5 stars
The girl’s family was Catholic, and as she came to discover, girls were not allowed to be priests. When she became an adult, she switched to a Protestant religion that allowed women to be ordained and became a hospital chaplain. Despite, or perhaps because of, her own personality, appearance, and uncertainties about the soul and the afterlife, she tends to the sick, the injured, the dying, and their families, working mostly on the night shift.
The chapters are mainly separate vignettes, tales of nameless patients like Surfer and Librarian – indeed, we don’t even know our narrator’s name. She is simply called Reverend. She’s a woman known for her frizzy hair and her white clerical collars. Often, she does not quote the Bible; she has a sense of what a dying person is saying, even when there are no words. If needed, she will say what the patient is waiting to hear, even if it’s not quite true, in order to bring peace to the mind and soul.
There are names in this book. They are the therapy dogs, Bobo Boy and Eddie. These two are responsible for some of the more whimsical, dream-like sections of the book, or as the Reverend’s younger friend Plummy might call them, “oobs” – Out of Body experiences. Do they qualify, or are they the product of an over-tired mind that has seen too much death and a body that has worked too many long hours? Our Reverend encounters many souls along the way, before they pass on – one of them, however, seems to have already crossed over and happens to be familiar to her. The Reverend wonders... I learned that the author is a dog-lover and has written about dogs. I have a feeling that she has an idea about the souls of animals.
One Night Two Souls Went Walking is not a Christmas story, but it struck me as a very timely read for this season, particularly in this year, 2020, when there has been so much suffering and death. Although her job as chaplain is to be a comfort to those who are sick and dying, this woman also finds humor and wonder in small things. She witnesses relationships that happen by chance and those that have endured throughout a lifetime. This is a book that can be grim; it also generates thought and meditation, perhaps, about that initial question, “What is a soul?” It is funny, joyful, and uplifting at times. I certainly enjoyed my walk through these pages.
5 stars
December 30, 2020
I loved the act of reading this book, especially late at night while I couldn't sleep these past few nights. As it takes place during the overnight shift, this seemed fitting. There are at least 3 people who will receive this as a gift from me soon, and I know they will love it. Highly recommended for fellow INFPs out there, or any sensitive souls. A magical, soul-enriching read.
February 20, 2021
Such a gorgeous book on the mystery of souls. I loved every word. Most highly recommended.
November 9, 2020
Down-to-earth in seeking the otherworldly, spiritual being (most likely set in New England in the 2010s): Looking for a unique book for these unique times? Something that wraps you in kindness, selflessness, and faith, but you don’t have to be religious for it to speak to you? Suggestion: a novel full of grace, with prose that’s not just literal but figurative, even in its poetic title, One Night Two Souls Went Walking.
Ellen Cooney is a provocative writer. What could be more provocative than opening her tenth novel on page one, line one with this elusive, existential question: “What is a soul?”
Cooney taught creative writing for years at a number of colleges in Boston, Massachusetts. She thought she’d be a poet or a playwright when she grew up. Like poetry and plays, she says so much in the fewest words needed – a little over two-hundred pages– and does so with warmth and wisdom without coming across as preachy or judgmental.
To do that, she’s created a unique character – the narrator – who embraces all the goodness, kindness, and empathy we wish everyone had. She’s chosen not to name her, except to refer to her by the only name that matters: Reverend. Ever since this extraordinary young woman (in her thirties) was a child she imagined fairy-tale-like visions of the meaning of life. She didn’t have words for what she dreamt or witnessed in “a flicker, a glimmer,” so she called it “the other thing.” That’s when something happened in fleeting moments in her everyday life that shined lightness and beauty; that told her there’s more to life than the ordinary. Something amazing and mysterious. Everyone in her big, loud family was too caught up with their athletic lives so they treated her as different, though they do love and care about her. “It can be lonely for me in my family,” this noble girl felt because they were all busy with sports while she was asking about souls. The story she tells spans about six years of her life tending to broken souls, feeling hers was too.
Our narrator also asks, “Can a soul speak to another soul?” Through a series of vignettes about the people who touched her life over six years as the chaplain of a medical center when she worked the night shift (due to budget cuts), the loneliest of hours, she shows us she’s blessed with an exceptional gift of finding a way to speak to another soul; her boss, whom she calls Head, told her the same thing.
In this medical setting, the souls she tells us something defining about them are sick, elderly, victims of disasters, and dying. Mostly, she leaves them unnamed too, identifying them instead by their interests, professions, or what they look like. A simple yet personalized characteristic. These descriptors, and the briefness of chapters, emphasize their encounters may have been brief but they’re not forgotten. Cooney does a marvelous job of weaving them together, as memories of them pop up in the chaplain’s thoughts. Yes, we remember you.
The effect is this doesn’t feel like a short story collection. Rather, a poignant, life-affirming novel connecting people from all walks of life who are sad, lonely, have regrets, hard lives, were discriminated against, who have a common, urgent need or longing to find peace from their psychic pain, before many leave this world.
The poetic title refers to two souls. There’s several versions of who these two souls might be. Scenes that actually happened, and an especially vivid one that’s dream-like, mystical, which fits this abstract, invisible notion of a soul. And, of course, there’s a collection of souls the Reverend has been summoned to sit by their bedside, or be with a family member in the Consolation Room, where she metaphorically walks with them as she comforts them.
These souls include: an older, black, proud librarian who worked herself up from a hidden person toiling in a basement promoted to reference librarian where she was seen, needed, and respected. When the minister meets her she’d been content living in an assisted living facility until she had a bad fall and was admitted to the medical center, where she conceded she “might need attention to my soul here.” A demanding lawyer in his fifties whose life depended on facts, evidence, who woke up during a medical procedure and thought he’d arrived at the “roof of the world.” A teenage boy, Surfer, who had a tragic accident that paralyzed him, with whom she patiently sat with until she gained his trust, helping him see waves as “holy,” that it was all not in vain; Doctor Brown Hair who confided something was “hiding in my soul”; an elderly man who hadn’t been diagnosed with dementia but starting “acting weirdly,” for whom the Reverend diagnosed as looking for “a way out of his soul.” These sad, resonating stories are sometimes told with humor, and show another unique quality of the narrator: she lies if she can offer someone a way out of their soul.
Some stories remind the chaplain of her own past, so that’s sprinkled in here too, often in magical moments like her childhood dream of “me and my soul are riding our planet,” escaping daily life to someplace heavenly. Bits and pieces of glimpsing the light, reminding us there’s more to life than what we see.
Two important characters who are not patients move us because they’re men the chaplain falls in love with during these soul-searching years working in the darkness of night, feeling how much she deserves to be loved for who she is. Of the two, Plummy (he loves plums) is the one we feel she’s meant to be with; she sensed he was an “old soul” at nineteen, she approaching thirty. Fascinated by near-death experiences, they were two souls who walked together. But she was concerned about their age differences, the fairness, the morality, of impacting his life at the cusp of a career as a neuroscientist when she was settled in her own. Their relationship remains a source of unresolved angst.
It’s been five years since Ellen Cooney wrote her last, soulful novel, The Mountaintop School for Dogs and other Chances (reviewed here).
In her novel about rescuing abused dogs, Cooney made it perfectly clear her heart broke when dogs were treated cruelly. This time, she’s made it perfectly clear she wasn’t finished with making sure we understood that dogs have souls too; souls that can rescue people like the hospital souls rescued the chaplain.
The most likely version of which two souls are referred to in the title is a tribute to the indelible memory of a therapy dog, “an animal with dignity,” whom she does name, Bobo Boy. The two did go walking one night together. It can also refer to another therapy dog, Eddie, she goes walking with, more like flying at the end of this strong boxer’s leash, in a dream-like scene, reflective of the ghost of Bobo Boy. The souls of dogs with therapeutic abilities, and the bond between humans and dogs, adds a unique touch to this collective story about respecting the dignity of all living souls.
Cooney owns three dogs, and now lives on an island in Maine. We can picture her peacefully walking with her dogs buoyed by so much beauty, feeling lightness and hopefulness. She’s found a poetic, literary way to share that with us.
Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)
Ellen Cooney is a provocative writer. What could be more provocative than opening her tenth novel on page one, line one with this elusive, existential question: “What is a soul?”
Cooney taught creative writing for years at a number of colleges in Boston, Massachusetts. She thought she’d be a poet or a playwright when she grew up. Like poetry and plays, she says so much in the fewest words needed – a little over two-hundred pages– and does so with warmth and wisdom without coming across as preachy or judgmental.
To do that, she’s created a unique character – the narrator – who embraces all the goodness, kindness, and empathy we wish everyone had. She’s chosen not to name her, except to refer to her by the only name that matters: Reverend. Ever since this extraordinary young woman (in her thirties) was a child she imagined fairy-tale-like visions of the meaning of life. She didn’t have words for what she dreamt or witnessed in “a flicker, a glimmer,” so she called it “the other thing.” That’s when something happened in fleeting moments in her everyday life that shined lightness and beauty; that told her there’s more to life than the ordinary. Something amazing and mysterious. Everyone in her big, loud family was too caught up with their athletic lives so they treated her as different, though they do love and care about her. “It can be lonely for me in my family,” this noble girl felt because they were all busy with sports while she was asking about souls. The story she tells spans about six years of her life tending to broken souls, feeling hers was too.
Our narrator also asks, “Can a soul speak to another soul?” Through a series of vignettes about the people who touched her life over six years as the chaplain of a medical center when she worked the night shift (due to budget cuts), the loneliest of hours, she shows us she’s blessed with an exceptional gift of finding a way to speak to another soul; her boss, whom she calls Head, told her the same thing.
In this medical setting, the souls she tells us something defining about them are sick, elderly, victims of disasters, and dying. Mostly, she leaves them unnamed too, identifying them instead by their interests, professions, or what they look like. A simple yet personalized characteristic. These descriptors, and the briefness of chapters, emphasize their encounters may have been brief but they’re not forgotten. Cooney does a marvelous job of weaving them together, as memories of them pop up in the chaplain’s thoughts. Yes, we remember you.
The effect is this doesn’t feel like a short story collection. Rather, a poignant, life-affirming novel connecting people from all walks of life who are sad, lonely, have regrets, hard lives, were discriminated against, who have a common, urgent need or longing to find peace from their psychic pain, before many leave this world.
The poetic title refers to two souls. There’s several versions of who these two souls might be. Scenes that actually happened, and an especially vivid one that’s dream-like, mystical, which fits this abstract, invisible notion of a soul. And, of course, there’s a collection of souls the Reverend has been summoned to sit by their bedside, or be with a family member in the Consolation Room, where she metaphorically walks with them as she comforts them.
These souls include: an older, black, proud librarian who worked herself up from a hidden person toiling in a basement promoted to reference librarian where she was seen, needed, and respected. When the minister meets her she’d been content living in an assisted living facility until she had a bad fall and was admitted to the medical center, where she conceded she “might need attention to my soul here.” A demanding lawyer in his fifties whose life depended on facts, evidence, who woke up during a medical procedure and thought he’d arrived at the “roof of the world.” A teenage boy, Surfer, who had a tragic accident that paralyzed him, with whom she patiently sat with until she gained his trust, helping him see waves as “holy,” that it was all not in vain; Doctor Brown Hair who confided something was “hiding in my soul”; an elderly man who hadn’t been diagnosed with dementia but starting “acting weirdly,” for whom the Reverend diagnosed as looking for “a way out of his soul.” These sad, resonating stories are sometimes told with humor, and show another unique quality of the narrator: she lies if she can offer someone a way out of their soul.
Some stories remind the chaplain of her own past, so that’s sprinkled in here too, often in magical moments like her childhood dream of “me and my soul are riding our planet,” escaping daily life to someplace heavenly. Bits and pieces of glimpsing the light, reminding us there’s more to life than what we see.
Two important characters who are not patients move us because they’re men the chaplain falls in love with during these soul-searching years working in the darkness of night, feeling how much she deserves to be loved for who she is. Of the two, Plummy (he loves plums) is the one we feel she’s meant to be with; she sensed he was an “old soul” at nineteen, she approaching thirty. Fascinated by near-death experiences, they were two souls who walked together. But she was concerned about their age differences, the fairness, the morality, of impacting his life at the cusp of a career as a neuroscientist when she was settled in her own. Their relationship remains a source of unresolved angst.
It’s been five years since Ellen Cooney wrote her last, soulful novel, The Mountaintop School for Dogs and other Chances (reviewed here).
In her novel about rescuing abused dogs, Cooney made it perfectly clear her heart broke when dogs were treated cruelly. This time, she’s made it perfectly clear she wasn’t finished with making sure we understood that dogs have souls too; souls that can rescue people like the hospital souls rescued the chaplain.
The most likely version of which two souls are referred to in the title is a tribute to the indelible memory of a therapy dog, “an animal with dignity,” whom she does name, Bobo Boy. The two did go walking one night together. It can also refer to another therapy dog, Eddie, she goes walking with, more like flying at the end of this strong boxer’s leash, in a dream-like scene, reflective of the ghost of Bobo Boy. The souls of dogs with therapeutic abilities, and the bond between humans and dogs, adds a unique touch to this collective story about respecting the dignity of all living souls.
Cooney owns three dogs, and now lives on an island in Maine. We can picture her peacefully walking with her dogs buoyed by so much beauty, feeling lightness and hopefulness. She’s found a poetic, literary way to share that with us.
Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)
November 29, 2020
I don't know what just happened but I certainly didn't like it. I almost get the sense there was something that was meant to be profound. Maybe I'm too daft and so I missed whatever it whatever it was.
Nonetheless, even if that is the case, I did NOT care for this one. By the synopsis, I believed this was going to be a heart-touching story about a chaplain who has a dog walk with her as she tends to the souls of others but alas that was not the case. It started out well but never really went anywhere.
Nonetheless, even if that is the case, I did NOT care for this one. By the synopsis, I believed this was going to be a heart-touching story about a chaplain who has a dog walk with her as she tends to the souls of others but alas that was not the case. It started out well but never really went anywhere.
November 26, 2020
How could I not love a book that has this exquisite paragraph on page 2? "In the stacks of the library where I wandered, where almost no one went, where everything was old and a little beat up, a ray of sunshine came in, filled with swirling bits of dust, when nothing else was moving, and I saw it wasn't dust but particles of the spirits of those books, free and out playing around, like no one was watching."
Just as the main character, a hospital chaplain, sees these dust motes, she also sees and knows her own soul and those of the people she ministers to. There is a dreamy quality to the writing; most of the patients are known by their role or occupation - the lawyer, the librarian, the teller. The few named characters include dogs, who also play an important role in the stories of the overnight shift spent tending to others while trying to make sense of the decisions that have led her to this place.
Not strictly linear, the story is layered and intriguing and beautiful.
Just as the main character, a hospital chaplain, sees these dust motes, she also sees and knows her own soul and those of the people she ministers to. There is a dreamy quality to the writing; most of the patients are known by their role or occupation - the lawyer, the librarian, the teller. The few named characters include dogs, who also play an important role in the stories of the overnight shift spent tending to others while trying to make sense of the decisions that have led her to this place.
Not strictly linear, the story is layered and intriguing and beautiful.
February 19, 2021
This deep, mystical, and sad story is about a night-shift chaplain who seeks insight into what a soul is as well as how to help the terminal patients through the dying process. Her uncertainty about and dedication to the job come through as she ministers to a variety of people, learning little details about them, their back stories, and intuiting their needs/wants. So many emotions - anger, fear, loneliness, hope - all play a part in the story. It's an emotional story that requires a lot of reading between the lines and a tolerance for a more cerebral tale than an action-packed one.
The writing is beautiful, but, warning, almost the entire story is the chaplain's thoughts. There's very little dialogue. It's clear she's very lonely, trying to find her way in her own life as she helps people through the end of theirs. Each of her patients provides a little nudge to help her though we never learn their names, only their stories.
The writing is beautiful, but, warning, almost the entire story is the chaplain's thoughts. There's very little dialogue. It's clear she's very lonely, trying to find her way in her own life as she helps people through the end of theirs. Each of her patients provides a little nudge to help her though we never learn their names, only their stories.
December 1, 2021
To be honest, I was a bit bored with this one. I initially thought that the premise was intriguing but in the end the book just felt flat. I did appreciate the writing and the intention of the book.
January 8, 2021
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I will not lie, I picked up One Night Two Souls Went Walking on Edelweiss basically because I really wanted to make a bookstagram photo 🙈 just look at how gorgeous that cover is! 😍
But I was lucky, because I really liked the book too. It was a real treat.
However, it's a hard one to review. I still don't know if I'm going to write a full review on the blog - it's just one of those totally atmospheric books with a stream of consciousness vibe and nothing concrete happening, apart from impressions, recollections, musings. Ultimately, it creates an atmosphere and you realize things about the story.. nonverbally, if that makes sense?
If you've read Mrs Dalloway, this book is basically that! In the case of Mrs Dalloway, it wasn't one of my favorites, but in this one, I felt a better connection to the main character, so I ended up relating to her life experiences better too. She was very likeable for me, which made the story work great as well.
One Night Two Souls Went Walking is basically a story in a day (well, night) of a hospital chaplain - just that, an ordinary day (with some non-ordinary happenings). She is a sensitive soul who won't admit to herself that she is suffering being alone, and is still dealing with the aftermath of a breakup that happened years ago. There are things that happen, unusual things and mostly emotional things, that let her move past it, work some things out. It's very gradual.
It's not a plot heavy book by any means, I couldn't even tell you what really happens - it's all drawn in impressions rather than in real events. But the book was unforgettable for me, and really made an impression. I loved the author's flowing, magical style. It really did match the cover!
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
I will not lie, I picked up One Night Two Souls Went Walking on Edelweiss basically because I really wanted to make a bookstagram photo 🙈 just look at how gorgeous that cover is! 😍
But I was lucky, because I really liked the book too. It was a real treat.
However, it's a hard one to review. I still don't know if I'm going to write a full review on the blog - it's just one of those totally atmospheric books with a stream of consciousness vibe and nothing concrete happening, apart from impressions, recollections, musings. Ultimately, it creates an atmosphere and you realize things about the story.. nonverbally, if that makes sense?
If you've read Mrs Dalloway, this book is basically that! In the case of Mrs Dalloway, it wasn't one of my favorites, but in this one, I felt a better connection to the main character, so I ended up relating to her life experiences better too. She was very likeable for me, which made the story work great as well.
One Night Two Souls Went Walking is basically a story in a day (well, night) of a hospital chaplain - just that, an ordinary day (with some non-ordinary happenings). She is a sensitive soul who won't admit to herself that she is suffering being alone, and is still dealing with the aftermath of a breakup that happened years ago. There are things that happen, unusual things and mostly emotional things, that let her move past it, work some things out. It's very gradual.
It's not a plot heavy book by any means, I couldn't even tell you what really happens - it's all drawn in impressions rather than in real events. But the book was unforgettable for me, and really made an impression. I loved the author's flowing, magical style. It really did match the cover!
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
December 29, 2020
This book checked all my boxes for a five star read: wise narrator, understated prose, unexpected plot developments, tightly woven story arc, unlikely friendships, suffering transformed into strength and growth, and a hint of the supernatural.
God, Cooney can write, and while I could not relate as much to the chaplain identity of the narrator, I could relate to her human vulnerability and perseverance in what she believes in. And to the psychic wounds she receives from others. And to her acceptance of these wounds and determination to help others despite how they treat her.
If you are considering reading this book based upon the description provided by the publisher, you may be misled. The back cover blurb says that the young chaplain is joined on her rounds by a dog, who may be a ghost. However, there are two dog experiences, and they appear briefly. Most of the narrative is about the narrator visiting people in the hospital without any dog accompaniment. Their stories and the narrator’s own flashbacks form the substance of the storyline. The dogs play minor roles. However the second dog experience is profound and deeply moving, not in a tragic way, but a hopeful one. You may be a little transformed yourself afterward.
I highly recommend this quick but poignant read.
God, Cooney can write, and while I could not relate as much to the chaplain identity of the narrator, I could relate to her human vulnerability and perseverance in what she believes in. And to the psychic wounds she receives from others. And to her acceptance of these wounds and determination to help others despite how they treat her.
If you are considering reading this book based upon the description provided by the publisher, you may be misled. The back cover blurb says that the young chaplain is joined on her rounds by a dog, who may be a ghost. However, there are two dog experiences, and they appear briefly. Most of the narrative is about the narrator visiting people in the hospital without any dog accompaniment. Their stories and the narrator’s own flashbacks form the substance of the storyline. The dogs play minor roles. However the second dog experience is profound and deeply moving, not in a tragic way, but a hopeful one. You may be a little transformed yourself afterward.
I highly recommend this quick but poignant read.
October 16, 2024
very life affirming.
January 23, 2021
Beautifully written novel focused on a hospital Chaplin and those she ministers to close to death. There are some almost poetic lines in this pithy book. I enjoyed the stories of regret and redemption more than the story of our Chaplin.
December 10, 2020
The very first line of this book asks the question, “What is a soul?” With that, the reader knows right away that reading this book is going to be an introspective kind of journey. Our guide, the narrator, is a thirty-something interfaith chaplain who works the night shift at a medical center. The book describes one long, eventful night with her as she does her rounds, with patients ranging from the very young to the very old, religious to non-believers. There’s the lawyer who believes he has had a near-death experience. The librarian who fears death. The teenager whose parents don’t come to visit. And then there are the therapy dogs: Bobo Boy and Eddie, who bring hope and understanding to the patients and the chaplain.
There’s also a little bit of magic in this book. The chaplain has a couple of experiences during her long night that she can’t quite explain – but they don’t really need explaining. They are metaphors for faith. What does it mean to believe? Isn’t faith a little bit like believing in magic?
Cooney writes with a wonderful economy of words, a quiet thoughtfulness occasionally punctuated by the odd exclamation point. The book is almost a series of vignettes, loosely connected by the time and setting, Cooney’s style makes the reader feel like they are having an intimate conversation with the chaplain as she experiences the humanity of the patients and hospital staff.
Elegiac, mournful, joyful, funny - this story evokes a wide spectrum of emotions in a quirky, gentle way. It’s a touching meditation on spirituality that does not take itself too seriously. And there are wonderful dogs. One of my favorites this year.
There’s also a little bit of magic in this book. The chaplain has a couple of experiences during her long night that she can’t quite explain – but they don’t really need explaining. They are metaphors for faith. What does it mean to believe? Isn’t faith a little bit like believing in magic?
Cooney writes with a wonderful economy of words, a quiet thoughtfulness occasionally punctuated by the odd exclamation point. The book is almost a series of vignettes, loosely connected by the time and setting, Cooney’s style makes the reader feel like they are having an intimate conversation with the chaplain as she experiences the humanity of the patients and hospital staff.
Elegiac, mournful, joyful, funny - this story evokes a wide spectrum of emotions in a quirky, gentle way. It’s a touching meditation on spirituality that does not take itself too seriously. And there are wonderful dogs. One of my favorites this year.
December 18, 2020
This is a book about a woman chaplain in a medical setting. As a young girl she was intrigued by the notion of a soul. As an adult she works with patients in the last days and moments of their lives. She brings compassion and peace to these individuals. What I couldn’t determine was what did these patients give to her. Some of the writing was exquisite yet some chapters, or vignettes, were very confusing to me. It’s described as an uplifting book and suppose some passages were. As a whole though, it fell a little short for me.
August 7, 2021
Still processing……….Of one thing I am sure. I entered a different aura while I read this book. It took a few pages each time, but I soon found myself wandering the halls of the Medical Center, being vaulted into extremely important moments at the end of life for character after character. And it worked! I learned to trust that the author would give me all the context I needed, exactly when I needed it. I do believe these moments are filled with magic. Mysterious, but magical. I don’t believe I 100% figured out the dog part, but that’s ok. This was a peek into the souls of fellow humans at their most vulnerable. It brought me peace.
January 27, 2021
Very confusing stream of consciousness writing style with sentences inside of sentences. Returning this one to the library after reading about 25 pages.
November 13, 2021
For a book about souls and end of life, I didn't feel like it said very much and I didn't connect with any characters. It just felt very sad and meaningless. It was also tremendously boring.
February 7, 2021
I love the characters in this novel -- and, most especially, the narrator. It's not just that she has wildly curly hair. (Hey, the world of literature needs more characters with wildly curly hair.) It's also that she's willing to reveal her own heartaches and imperfections. The book is both soulful and funny: a pretty irresistible combo for me these days.
December 1, 2020
This is a delightful book about a woman that is dedicated to her work as a Chaplain, and she enjoys it. There is a humorous quality to the book that endeared me to the Chaplain, her patients and co-workers. It was a refreshing read.
I intend to read another book by this author.
I intend to read another book by this author.
February 5, 2021
It's hard to describe. I enjoyed this book immensely but I'm not sure I can put my finger on why. I think it's a feeling thing. I remember listening to The Who "Live at Leeds" album and wanting more even though I'm not particularly a huge Who fan, I don't own any other of their recordings , it was just the power of the band playing live. And that's this book, it's got a certain power to it that leaves you wanting more.
February 20, 2021
Told mostly as a series of vignettes, this is one night in the life of a medical chaplain, as she makes the rounds among the patients in need of spiritual comfort. Interesting, and often charming, it is a fairly easy read, but provides much food for thought.
November 12, 2021
Interesting idea; some sweet, sad, happy stories. For some reason, I never quite got engaged. Souls, it seems, are slippery things.
April 17, 2023
4.5 stars
July 19, 2021
A beautifully written thought provoking novel. The intertwining tales of the patients a female chaplain encounters on one night offer up possibilities to the question that has plagued her for her life. What is a soul? And with each patient who is passing on, she is offered possibilities about just what a soul is and can be. Accompanying her this night is Bobo Boy, the therapy dog that has recently passed on and who she mysteriously sees showing up this particular evening. Is she also dying?
I just got caught up in the wonderful, thoughtful prose that really resonated. The unnamed heroine seems to know just the right thing to say to these patients, some of whom are scared, some in denial, some protesting, and some sharing insights as they cross into their next stage.\
Really interesting, and I feel that I haven't done it justice with this review. A unique book!!
I just got caught up in the wonderful, thoughtful prose that really resonated. The unnamed heroine seems to know just the right thing to say to these patients, some of whom are scared, some in denial, some protesting, and some sharing insights as they cross into their next stage.\
Really interesting, and I feel that I haven't done it justice with this review. A unique book!!
January 10, 2021
A 2020 staff favorite recommended by Andrea and Ellen. Read Andrea's review on the Cook Memorial Public Library blog, Shelf Life: https://shelflife.cooklib.org/2020/12...
Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore...
Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore...
January 6, 2024
The thing about chaplains is, we're starving for media depictions of our work. Having been erased from Grey's Anatomy, E.R., and the like, there's not much out there. John Green almost did us a solid after his internship as a pediatric chaplain, but pivoted to focus exclusively on the patients in The Fault in Our Stars instead. So, as a hospital chaplain, I was very eager to check this out but it unfortunately didn't fully satisfy.
That's not to say that the depictions of our unnamed reverend's work throughout her overnight shift aren't resonant. In fact, for the first quarter of the book, I was absolutely loving how evocatively Cooney conveyed not just the richly sacred work of chaplaincy but also the more tumultuous interior experiences of the chaplain: The occasional sense of stage fright, the futile wrestle against having a "favorite patient," the dynamics with other hospital staff, and so on all felt pretty spot on! And there is some pretty gorgeous writing as our character muses about the nature of a soul. However, the book seemed to drift quite a bit from that context and into territory I didn't find nearly as compelling.
Our chaplain gets caught up in reverie quite often as the night unfolds, particularly around two past romantic relationships. And for one of them, I was just extremely confused by the choice of the age gap and the fact that they met while she was working as a chaplain. And then there's a whole dream sequence that totally ruined the momentum for me, only to shortly afterwards conclude with the unfinished story of a famous golfer that takes us out of the hospital entirely and resulted in a pretty underwhelming conclusion. Especially given how ripe the actual work of chaplaincy is for narrative exploration (and how adept Cooney was at doing so!), I was frustrated to see that eventually lose the spotlight here in favor of less intriguing plotlines and components.
That's not to say that the depictions of our unnamed reverend's work throughout her overnight shift aren't resonant. In fact, for the first quarter of the book, I was absolutely loving how evocatively Cooney conveyed not just the richly sacred work of chaplaincy but also the more tumultuous interior experiences of the chaplain: The occasional sense of stage fright, the futile wrestle against having a "favorite patient," the dynamics with other hospital staff, and so on all felt pretty spot on! And there is some pretty gorgeous writing as our character muses about the nature of a soul. However, the book seemed to drift quite a bit from that context and into territory I didn't find nearly as compelling.
Our chaplain gets caught up in reverie quite often as the night unfolds, particularly around two past romantic relationships. And for one of them, I was just extremely confused by the choice of the age gap and the fact that they met while she was working as a chaplain. And then there's a whole dream sequence that totally ruined the momentum for me, only to shortly afterwards conclude with the unfinished story of a famous golfer that takes us out of the hospital entirely and resulted in a pretty underwhelming conclusion. Especially given how ripe the actual work of chaplaincy is for narrative exploration (and how adept Cooney was at doing so!), I was frustrated to see that eventually lose the spotlight here in favor of less intriguing plotlines and components.
September 18, 2020
I loved this book. I had to check several times to see if it was actually fiction it seemed so real. A young chaplain is employed by a hospital to oversee the spiritual needs of its patients and staff. She is working the overnight shift because she is the newest hire. There is a therapy dog named Bobo who seems to help patients die. When Bobo dies, the chaplain thinks he might still be roaming the halls. I enjoyed her inner musings about the soul. Ellen Cooney is a great writer and this story makes one think while reading. She incorporates dogs into many of her books. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
February 25, 2021
The narrator, a hospital chaplain, discusses her work. She is a witness to the difficult nights of the injured, sick, and dying. It is hard, satisfying, meaningful, mysterious work.
I feel like I just woke up out of someone else’s dream. The story had a very... mushy quality to it. Memory twined with the here-and-now, wrapped around a few out-of-body experiences, all kind of squashed like different colors of play-doh that are just beginning to blend together. There are elements of deep appreciation for everyday events, a reverence for lives lived and passing, and a mild unconformity.
A quiet, but firm story.
I feel like I just woke up out of someone else’s dream. The story had a very... mushy quality to it. Memory twined with the here-and-now, wrapped around a few out-of-body experiences, all kind of squashed like different colors of play-doh that are just beginning to blend together. There are elements of deep appreciation for everyday events, a reverence for lives lived and passing, and a mild unconformity.
A quiet, but firm story.
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