Catholic Girls: Stories, Poems, and Memoirs

by Amber Coverdale Sumrall (Editor), Patricia Vecchione (Editor)

Stories, poems, and memoirs by Mary McCarthy, Louise Erdrich, and fifty other Catholic women of diverse ethnic backgrounds offer an impassioned, satiric, and often critical look at the Roman Church and its influence for good or ill. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: Fiction, Biography Memoir

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[alexis! · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t raised Catholic so I couldn’t relate much but I still found this book to be extremely interesting. Seeing the different experiences and perspectives and mindsets and beliefs was eye opening. I started reading this book because of Audre Lorde but found almost all the stories and poems well written and eye opening.

[rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

it will always be me and my catholic girlhood navigating this strange world together tbh

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short stories, memoirs and poems by women (mostly feminists) who were raised Catholic. The book is divided into 3 sections:

1. "The Company of Angels" reflects the spirit and innocence of early girlhood.

2. "Falling Away" explores the concept of faith from various perspectives.

3, "A Temple of The Holy Ghost" explores the emergence of sexuality and the loss of innocence.

It is a thought provoking book written by women and girls who did not acquiesce to prescribed roles but asked questions and demanded answers in order to overcome the invalidation of their and all women's experiences by the Catholic Church.

f you were brought up Catholic -- you can certainly identify with much of it. In fact it's a relief to know that others had similar experiences, teachings, misunderstandings and doubts.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Catholic Girls is an anthology of short stories & poems by women who came of age in the pre-Vatican II days. Do not be misled by its generic title. It is not a lighthearted book of Parochial school antics. While there are a couple of stories with humor, quite a few are dark and several are very disturbing. This is clearly explained on the back cover, which I didn't read since I literally judged the book by its cover (a cute little blonde First Communicant running down the sidewalk), while perusing our Friends of the Library book sale.

"Forewarned is forearmed, " chides Sr. ____________.

[marissa sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any anthology, some of the stories are better than others. But that does a good job of showing the variety of Catholic school experiences, and I was pleased to see that the stories chosen weren't all about the porn-fantasy staple of oversexed Catholic schoolgirls. As a member of the club, the stories rang very true even when they didn't relate directly to my own experience.

[Rita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose this book because it was written in the same time frame as when I was growing up in Catholic school. I was looking for a bit of nostalgia. However ... I should have learned my lesson by now. Whenever a book has "Women's Studies" on the back, my red flag should ascend. There is usually too much "woe is me -- men are beasts -- we're oppressed -- " to make this an enjoyable read. Too bad.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very fine collection of poems and short stories about Catholicism and girlhood.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many writers in diverse genres write about being female and raised catholic.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who went to any kind of religious school will love this book. One of my favorites.

[S Miller]

Used - Very good