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Oct. 15th, 2018 08:16 amAs soon as I read ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija's review of Dorothy Gilman's A Nun in the Closet I announced to myself and to the world I'M GONNA READ THIS NUN BOOK and indeed reading this nun book was one of the best decisions I've made this month.
The plot: an impoverished nunnery housing seventeen exceedingly cloistered nuns suddenly learns that they have inherited a large estate in upstate New York! Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe are sent to Investigate!
Sister John: good at most things; enthusiastic about pretty much all things; Has Perfect Faith
Sister Hyacinthe: good at plants and very little else; enthusiastic about plants and very little else; given an unfortunate introduction in which Dorothy Gilman explains that she is part Native American and (implication: as a result) fey and superstitious and considered deeply strange by everyone in the nunnery but then turns out to be a perfectly normal nun with a very reasonable sense of self-preservation (especially as compared with Sister John)
In short order, Sisters John and Hyacinthe discover:
- an extraordinarily large sum of money hidden in the well ("God's plan!" says Sister John)
- a man with a gunshot wound bleeding out in the closet ("what if people come looking for him?" says Sister Hyacinthe; "if we dub him Sister Ursula and then tell everyone we've just got an extra nun around the place it's kind of sort of not technically lying," says Sister John)
- a revolving door concealing a hidden room in the cellar ("this sort of thing is so upsetting for Sister Hyacinthe," sighs Sister John)
- massive quantities of mysterious white powder in the pantry ("who needs that much sugar?" says Sister John, "oh well, we can make sugar cookies!" ...thankfully they are interrupted before they actually make sugar cookies)
- a collection of friendly hippies living on the outer grounds trying to make a go at sustainable farming ("our siblings in cloistered ascetism!" says Sister John; "LET'S TALK ABOUT PLANTS," says Sister Hyacinthe)
Meanwhile, Sister John befriends the most political-but-disillusioned of the hippies, discovers 1970s protest movements, and starts campaigning on behalf of migrant workers, leaving Sister Hyacinthe with wounded Sister Ursula and a phalanx of hippies to defend the house against a series of very-helpful salesmen who seem to want to gain entry FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON, WHAT COULD IT BE.
I love the nuns, I love the hippies, I love that both nuns AND hippies are actually taken quite seriously in their ideals and their desire to somehow improve a deeply flawed world, more nun-hippie adventures please and thank you!
My favorite character (aside from the nuns) is Alfie, the hippie who happens to be helping them fix the plumbing when they discover the secret room in the cellar. He's so excited about it that Sisters John and Hyacinthe start feeling vaguely guilty every time they make a new sinister house discovery and Alfie isn't there to appreciate it; it just brings him such joy!
My other other favorite character is the less-cloistered young political nun that Sister John bonds with jail, who (as Sister John is delighted to discover) belongs to a feminist nun union.
rachelmanija's review of Dorothy Gilman's A Nun in the Closet I announced to myself and to the world I'M GONNA READ THIS NUN BOOK and indeed reading this nun book was one of the best decisions I've made this month.The plot: an impoverished nunnery housing seventeen exceedingly cloistered nuns suddenly learns that they have inherited a large estate in upstate New York! Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe are sent to Investigate!
Sister John: good at most things; enthusiastic about pretty much all things; Has Perfect Faith
Sister Hyacinthe: good at plants and very little else; enthusiastic about plants and very little else; given an unfortunate introduction in which Dorothy Gilman explains that she is part Native American and (implication: as a result) fey and superstitious and considered deeply strange by everyone in the nunnery but then turns out to be a perfectly normal nun with a very reasonable sense of self-preservation (especially as compared with Sister John)
In short order, Sisters John and Hyacinthe discover:
- an extraordinarily large sum of money hidden in the well ("God's plan!" says Sister John)
- a man with a gunshot wound bleeding out in the closet ("what if people come looking for him?" says Sister Hyacinthe; "if we dub him Sister Ursula and then tell everyone we've just got an extra nun around the place it's kind of sort of not technically lying," says Sister John)
- a revolving door concealing a hidden room in the cellar ("this sort of thing is so upsetting for Sister Hyacinthe," sighs Sister John)
- massive quantities of mysterious white powder in the pantry ("who needs that much sugar?" says Sister John, "oh well, we can make sugar cookies!" ...thankfully they are interrupted before they actually make sugar cookies)
- a collection of friendly hippies living on the outer grounds trying to make a go at sustainable farming ("our siblings in cloistered ascetism!" says Sister John; "LET'S TALK ABOUT PLANTS," says Sister Hyacinthe)
Meanwhile, Sister John befriends the most political-but-disillusioned of the hippies, discovers 1970s protest movements, and starts campaigning on behalf of migrant workers, leaving Sister Hyacinthe with wounded Sister Ursula and a phalanx of hippies to defend the house against a series of very-helpful salesmen who seem to want to gain entry FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON, WHAT COULD IT BE.
I love the nuns, I love the hippies, I love that both nuns AND hippies are actually taken quite seriously in their ideals and their desire to somehow improve a deeply flawed world, more nun-hippie adventures please and thank you!
My favorite character (aside from the nuns) is Alfie, the hippie who happens to be helping them fix the plumbing when they discover the secret room in the cellar. He's so excited about it that Sisters John and Hyacinthe start feeling vaguely guilty every time they make a new sinister house discovery and Alfie isn't there to appreciate it; it just brings him such joy!
My other other favorite character is the less-cloistered young political nun that Sister John bonds with jail, who (as Sister John is delighted to discover) belongs to a feminist nun union.
