Lori L.
Lake, author of Ricochet in Time, Gun Shy, Under the Gun, and other works reviews books by Susan J Leonhardi
and Rochelle Hollander Schwab. Visit her at Lori L. Lake.
 AND THEN THEY WERE NUNSBy Susan J. Leonhardi Firebrand Books 215 Pages $14.95 ISBN: 1563411261 The women living at Julian Pines, a monastic abbey out in the sticks of California, lead contemplative lives, help the surrounding community take in “strays,” and exist communally in as much serenity as possible, that is, in “silence, order, peace, prayer, and simple pleasures.” Except when someone is having internal struggles or two women are at odds or the summer is too hot or the winter too cold or any number of amusing intrusions from the outside world occur, which is to say, most of the time. In other words, Julian Pines, for all its rustic beauty, hard work, and peacefulness is also a place full of excitement and change. “(T)he essence of life at Julian Pines…was the blank pageness of it, the way you had to invent life every day and eschew the hierarchical assumption that peace and passion were mutually exclusive” (p. 109). At the heart of these beautiful and wonderful stories, it is peace and passion that many of the women struggle to reconcile most—and often with very wry consequences. From a variety of points of view, author Susan Leonardi tells a series of interlocking stories, each of which could probably stand on its own. Taken together, however, they are rich and eloquent and full of surprises. By the end of the book, you feel you know these characters very well. My favorites were Karen, who loves Anne and is the resident priest (despite loud objections from an estranged sister convent and no approval from Rome); Bernadette, whose childhood set her up to be a “helper” to others, a state of mind from which I was very glad she finally escaped; Beatrice, the abbess, who shares a calm, accepting—and sometimes breathtaking—wisdom in many of her encounters; Donna, a veterinarian who relates better to animals than people and actually “sees” people as various animal types; Sharon, the school teacher who came for a brief visit, wrote a series of letters to her fiancé and friends extending the visit, then eventually stayed on permanently; Sierra, the youngster who, at the end of the book, reflects back both the goodness and the quirkiness of the place; and lastly, Anne, the writer, who loves everyone and is so filled with passion and life that I wish I knew her in the real world. One of the cleverest chapters (besides the humorous one entitled “Anne’s List of Sixty-Five Good Reasons for Being a Nun at Julian Pines Abbey and One Bad One”) has a befuddled Theresa trying to understand the purpose and intent of Anne’s fiction writing. Anne has taken the bare bones of one of Theresa’s experiences and embellished extravagantly until the story has theme, purpose, and depth—but isn’t Theresa’s experience anymore. Theresa tells Anne she can’t just go and make up things like this, that it’s not accurate, that it didn’t happen that way, and besides, things have been left out. Anne has a great comeback: “(N)ow you’re complaining about my sins of omission. A writer has to be able to leave out whatever she wants. Otherwise, we’d still be stuck on our morning pee” (p. 50). Leonardi is an author who knows what to include and what to leave out. The prose is lean, but feels lush; the stories spare, but are always enough. AND THEN THEY WERE NUNS turns out to be a most amazing look at the lives of women outside the pale, women who are unusual, but also just like you and me. It is about the way, over time, they manage to weave a life together through all the ups and downs of their unusual existence and how they reconstitute when someone departs, leaving a crack in the community that must be repaired. The language, the cadence of the narratives, the humor, and the brokenness healed make Julian Pines a fictional place I wish I could visit. Highly recommended! |
 A DEPARTURE FROM THE SCRIPTBy Rochelle Hollander Schwab website 320 pgs $14.95 ISBN: 0964365014 Using amusing, often unexpected humor, Rochelle Hollander Schwab’s latest is a delightful novel about family, marriage, and the process of growing comfortable with all shades of the rainbow. Jewish mother/wife/amateur actress Sheila Katz, married for over thirty years, is stunned from complacency when she learns her daughter Jenny is getting married to a woman named Tamara. Dan, her husband, doesn’t take the news well and thinks that given time, Jenny will pass through the phase. He’s already suffered enough criticism because his son married a Catholic girl—and converted!—and he refuses to acknowledge his daughter’s sexual orientation. This pushes Sheila and Dan’s marriage to the edge and contributes to the uproar over Jenny’s lifestyle. Sheila is a survivor, though, and she definitely does not want to lose her daughter, so she chooses the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” tactic. She starts attending PFLAG meetings, works at readjusting her thinking, and helps to plan the Jewish wedding ceremony behind Dan’s back. Little does she know that meeting an attractive lesbian artist will have such an affect her. If her life wasn’t turned upside down before, it truly is now. The story of how Sheila and the Katz family deals with this very topical issue is engrossing, endearing, and entertaining, while also sometimes sobering. Schwab uses a smooth and highly readable style to write a novel for the new millennium. With the legalization of marriage in Canada in 2003 and the ongoing social arguments about fair treatment of gays and lesbians, including marriage, this book is timely and fascinating. It’s a book all parents—and non-parents—should read. In Schwab’s skillful and sensitive hands, A DEPARTURE FROM THE SCRIPT is funny and true to life, but poses no easy answers. Highly recommended. |
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