Gradually deepening work that gives, by end, a view of the monastic life that’s steady, whole, intelligent, and moving.
A cloistered monk debuts with the increasingly captivating tale of a 19-year-old who becomes a novitiate and then a full-fledged monk in Canada, near Winnipeg.
Average readers may respond as does the lady, sitting next to Paul Seneschal on the bus, when he tells her that he wants to become a monk. “Why would anyone do that?” His answer, “To find meaning in life,” may trigger incredulity, and some readers, may even feel put off, as Paul’s parents do, especially his brash and outspoken mother, back in Paul’s hometown of St. Jean-Baptiste. In the monastery, after all, the monks wear wool habits, have shaved heads, attend prayer and song each day, sleep in one big room, and almost never speak except by sign language. Why would a normal young man choose such a life—working in the barn, bakery, piggery, or cheese house, in the fields during harvest time, and going entirely without, well, sex? At the start, in fact, Paul seems one-dimensional, almost shallow, and sexless to the point of the unrealistic—until he becomes infatuated with a muscular Scot named Martin and another form of cliché comes to the fore as Paul struggles against his desire so fiercely that he even considers—and tries—self-castration. And yet, near this point, Rougeau’s story also begins to grow richer, find its voice, and draw the reader in as Paul (renamed Antoine) matures, witnesses the deaths of other (sometimes eccentric, even outright crabby) monks, hosts a small group of Buddhists, learns the humility of taking life for exactly what it is, and, a handful of years later when he at last takes vows, discovers that the truth of the monastic purpose is “to discover his weight as a human being”—a notion that, by then, has meaning for the reader too.
Gradually deepening work that gives, by end, a view of the monastic life that’s steady, whole, intelligent, and moving.Pub Date: May 17, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-09499-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.
Pub Date: April 28, 1967
ISBN: 0449911543
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967
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