Convent: A Novel

by Gerelyn Hollingsworth

Audrey Thorney entered the Rosaline convent in 1960, a year recognized as a watershed by historians of women's religious life in America. The postwar vocation surge was at its peak, and the exodus in which two of every three nuns would leave their convents still lay ahead. As Sister Emmanuel, she was under the direction of a novice mistress considered harsh even by the standards of the era. After two-and-a-half years in Sister Wulfram's novitiate, Sister Emmanuel was sent to a college for nuns and then was assigned to teach in her order's schools. As the Catholic Church in general was experiencing the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council, and as women's communities in particular were adjusting to the ideas introduced by the Sister Formation movement and by Cardinal Suenens, Sister Emmanuel was dealing with troubled fellow religious and with priests beset by personal problems and openly contemptuous of nuns.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Ms. Hollingsworth lives in St. Louis with her husband.

Reviews

[Paul LaGreca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Convent: A Novel is not simply a novel. I am certain that the author spent time in the convent and writes a hidden memoir of her experience in religious life. As someone who also spent time in religious life - also under the thumb of strict Superiors - there are far too many details to think otherwise.

Hollingsworth's matter-of-fact writing style presents simple experiences with profound undertones. The average reader may find some of it to be shocking, but this was an accurate model of pre-Vatican II religious life. Interestingly, there was very little mention of God, Christ. or service. It was centered on becoming a nun, the steps therein, and her relationships - all the externals. I was hoping at some point that there would be a revelation on what was happening interiorly in her relationship with God, but that was missing.

Overall, I was riveted by the book since it was a point of identification. It also helped me to understand why so many priests and nuns left religious life in the 1960s and 1970s - many simply entered for the wrong reasons and did not belong.

[Kota Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little abrupt at the end

But overall portrays convent life like many others have in memoirs. This seemed to be autobiographical fiction, it seemed too personal.