A MONK'S WAY

In this novel, a young monk grapples with the complexities of the spirit and the flesh while living in a French monastery.

In this first installment of The Abbey Chronicles, readers are introduced to Jean Moreau, who lives as a monk in Kervennec Abbey, a small monastery in modern-day Brittany, France. In an attempt to “know [him]self—[his] true self,” Moreau dives headfirst into the daily and spiritual rhythms of life at the abbey. He also contemplates some of life’s biggest questions and themes, including humanity’s propensity for judging others (“As exercised by so many organized religions, not just we Catholics, judgment takes an insidious form”) and the presence or lack of “Eternal Life” in the face of death. Intertwined with Moreau’s spiritual reflections are his very human and earthly struggles, including his sexual attraction to a woman he knew at his university. But even as he grapples with temptation in the midst of his desire for spiritual truth, Moreau must weigh his duties and responsibilities when the possibility arises of being bestowed a new position at the abbey. He ends with a promise to continue sharing his personal triumphs and tribulations in a subsequent volume. Eide skillfully imbues Moreau’s voice with warmth and a certain relatability (largely through his nagging sense of self-doubt) that readers will likely admire even if they cannot completely understand the monk’s extreme life path. Despite some of the dialogue being rather clunky in places (“Father, what I am about to reveal to you saddens and embarrasses me considerably”), the calm and unflappable narration easily smooths over any bumps. And while some of Moreau’s observations are quite obvious (popular measures of success, like power, will not “bear the fruit of real contentment”), many others manage to transcend Roman Catholicism (and even Christianity)—such as the very Buddhist-like idea that an individual’s role when emotions arise is to “observe them” and “let them go.” This engaging, memoir-esque spiritual exploration ultimately raises age-old questions in a fresh format.

A thoughtful, engrossing rumination on the relationship between organized religion and personal faith.