In this house of Brede
One of the nice side effects of becoming Catholic is that I have opened up my reading horizons. Most often I would read from SF and Fantasy, then with a smattering of military fiction, horror, suspected novels, and an occasional mystery and perhaps whatever might catch my eye in the new book stack at the library. Since my conversion I have opened up to a much wider world of literature based on recommendations from other Catholics.
I just finished In This House Of Brede by Rumer Godden and I was just about stunned at how good of a novel this is. The story takes place in a made-up Benedictine abbey in England as a career women finds she has a vocation and leaves her successful career behind her to become a nun. This book is certainly no pious stereotype of perfect contemplative nuns, but instead a book that reads more like an autobiography than a novel. The characters in the story are so real that you forget you are reading a novel. From the abbess down to the novices each person described could easily find their counterpart in real life.
Rumer Godden who his the author os some sixty books wrote this book after her conversion to Catholicism and spent three years living outside of a Benedictine abbey researching for this book. Her research certainly pays off because there is such an authenticity to her description of the Benedictine life and the struggles among the nuns to grow in holiness. There is also much wisdom in the book given as advice among the nuns that shows the author must have had a very deep understanding of living the spiritual life. The prose in the book is just a joy to read and there were many points where I dog-eared a page to be able to go back to something that was written. This is something that I pretty much never do with fiction. At one point she explains to one of her subordinates about being enclosed in the abbey.
"Enclosed?" this unfamiliar word seemed to ring in Penny's ears. "You mea-shut up?"
"Not shut up. The walls are not to keep us in but to keep you out."
"But why?"
"An enclosed order is like a kind of power house, " said Mrs. Talbot. "A powerhouse of prayer; you protect a power house not to enclose the power, but to stop unauthorized people getting in to hinder its working."
This book being written in the aftermath of the Vatican Council you also get some of the feel in the abbey of some of the whirlwind of changes that were affecting religious life, though you only get the feel of this towards the very end of the book. But you certainly get the idea that the author was less than pleased with some of the changes for change sake made. One of the nuns laments and dreads the idea of the priest praying Mass facing the community saying it will be as if the priest is giving a performance and not leading us to God as he faces the altar. Though the majority of the book does not give in to criticisms but the daily life and difficulties of these nuns in community.
This is a great novel from a wonderful writer and one I look forward to reading more of.
Julie from Happy Catholic has been reading from another of the author's books called China Court. Julie got permission to read this on her Forgotten Classics podcast even though the book is still in copyright. Check it out here .
Known as 
In This House of Brede is a truly amazing book. It's full of the real-life struggles of nuns, and yet it gets you wanting to join them yourself by the end. I cannot think of anyone I would not recommend the book to.
I got into a conversation with the sales clerk at our local bookstore and it turned out her Lutheran ladies book club read In This House of Brede and just loved it. I mentioned that I had the movie (starring Diana Rigg) and she wanted to borrow it for the group. We talked about the beauty, simplicity and transcendence portrayed, and how it had moved us. The novel definitely crosses denominational lines - a favorite for many!
I love all of Rumer Godden's books. especially this one.
Jeff: I've a book to recommend you:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0800871863/qid=990538438/sr=1-9/ref=sc_b_9/107-0940746-6865322
Have you seen the film In this House of Brede? very good..must get the book..
I read a number of Rumor Godden's novels as a child and always found them disturbing, including "The Diddaquoi" (about a part-gypsy child who is attacked and nearly killed by other girls) and "An Episode of Sparrows," which I liked much better.
I haven't read this one but I did read "Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy," another book about nuns based on a real and interesting order, this one founded in France for ex-convicts. The main character is a former prostitute and murderess. It is very compelling and the characters are fascinating, as is the depiction of convent life before and after it is relaxed after Vatican II. But I also found it disturbing enough that I don't plan to read any more of her books.
Does anyone else find her books extremely unsettling, or is it just me?
Gail in Cincinnati
PS: I saw a very good PBS dramatization of a story or book called "Summer of the Peacocks." I don't know if it's faithful to the original, as I've never read it, but it has the same sort of interesting characters and disturbing outcomes.
I'm so happy that you enjoyed this book as much as I do, Jeff. Thanks for the plug too!
Gail, I know what you mean about Godden's books being unsettling. I think it is because she doesn't sugar-coat life. She shows the worst side of human behavior. However, she also shows the best side and it is a redemptive side that I find extremely rewarding. For me, this mirrors life and I think that Godden does it with a subtle yet sure touch.
The most amazing thing about all of that perhaps is that she manages to show those bad qualities in extremely good, non-offensive prose. That is an art that is lost on many modern writers.
Jeff,
This truly is a great book! You are right, it is an easy but awesome read! I recommend it to all!
JMJ
Basil
I just put the movie on my Netflix queue, and under availability, it said "Very Long Time". I guess all the other readers here got it on their queue ahead of me!
If you loved Brede, as I do, beware of the film. While it has some gorgeous monastic shots, this made-for-tv film took some terrible liberties...Dame Veronica and all of her secrets and struggles are gone, Hilary is gone, Agnes is decidedly truncated and poor Sr. Cecily has been turned into "Joanna" - an amalgam of Cecily and Keith (who is now a little girl named...you guessed it, "Joanna".) The movie tries to honor the spirit of the book, but falls far, far short, and poor Cecily/Joanna comes off looking unbalanced and pathetic.
I reread Brede every year or two. It's not only a great story, but Godden's skill at interweaving flashback and context makes me sit back and marvel. I didn't like the movie as well, probably because all that nuance had to be lost.
I enjoyed the movie and my favorite scene was when Diana Rigg goes into a bar for a whiskey before she enters the convent. That's real life.
Rumor Godden is my all time favourite author. Not only are her characters very well drawn but she has a sure sense of time & place that really make her books live. I like Brede & re~read it regularly but I find her children's books brilliant ~ perhaps because she has to condense her thinking more. The Kitchen Madonna & the Diddakoi are 2 of my favourites.