ALTAR MUSIC
by Christin Lore Weber
Altar Music ($23.00; Mar.; 251 pp.; 0-684-86866-0): First-novelist Weber draws heavily on her background as an ex-nun
to provide a fictional portrait of convent life. Set in northern Minnesota from 1910 to 1996, most of the story takes place within a convent so depraved and unnatural that it could well have been lifted straight from the pages of The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk. Homosexuality and rape seem to be common pursuits at Our Lady of Peace, but the sisters occasionally need to find time to hush up suicides and take out their sexual frustrations on the novices. The novices, for their part, are continually falling in love with one another and comport themselves generally with all the bitchiness of schoolgirls. Sister Elise, the heroine, is a sensitive and talented musician who doesn’t seem to be cut out for the long haul. Will she persevere? If you like this sort of
thing, Rumer Godden did it much better in Black Narcissus.