All We Know of Heaven: A Novel [Paperback]

Remy Rougeau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 2002

With "careful prose and a tone of humble striving" (New York Times Book Review), this revelatory first novel by a cloistered monk traces a young man's search for wisdom among the inhabitants of a Cistercian monastery. In 1973, Paul Seneschal, a shy nineteen-year-old from rural Manitoba, takes flight from the world behind the wrought iron gates of St. Norbert Abbey. Here forty monks grow their own food, wake at three in the morning to pray, and converse largely through a spare but expressive vocabulary of hand signals. Renamed Brother Antoine, Paul strives for wisdom and holiness, yet life within the cloister can't block out all of humanity's foibles. One monk lapses into pyromania; another, a French Canadian, attacks any English-speaker who gets too close; another resembles "a bald Martha Ray." We soon see that even in this rarefied realm, human folly nestles cheek by jowl with the divine. A wise yet refreshingly humorous account of a life of faith, ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN offers an a fascinating glimpse into a quiet world that very few people know about.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

It is 1973, and Paul Seneschal is so na ve that he hardly seems to realize that the Sixties have come and gone. Seeking protection from a world he finds overwhelming, he enters a Cistercian monastery near Winnipeg, accepting the ancient code of poverty, chastity, and silence. In this sacred place, where 40 monks live together in close quarters, Paul becomes Brother Antoine, working with Friar Casimir Cochard, the cheesemaker, and later becoming cook. But the peace Paul has sought turns out to be elusive. His fellow monks can be wildly unpredictable Father Ignace Lacan dabbles in pyromania, for instance and once the Royal Canadian Mounted Police enter the property with the Winnipeg police, in search of two criminals who robbed a nearby co-op, Paul must realize that the world is something one can never completely escape. This first work by Rougeau, a cloistered monk with an MFA, is itself a bit of a respite, ably capturing the rhythms of monastic life. But it is no solemn treatise the comic blends seamlessly with the tragic and the dryly humorous prose will appeal even to readers without a great interest in the cloister. Ann Irvine, Montgomery P.L., MD
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

To the eternal dismay of his mother, Paul Seneschal, a mild nineteen-year-old French Canadian, presents himself as a postulant at St. Norbert Abbey, an order near his home, in rural Manitoba. Rougeau himself is a cloistered monk, and this droll, almost Barbara Pymish début novel about monastery life—rife with petty jealousies, dawn chores, and repressed lust—is often lovely. But the tone is oddly aloof, as if Rougeau, concerned that we might confuse him with his simple hero, begrudged him insight, and settled for a less illuminating book.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (June 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618219226
• ISBN-13: 978-0618219223
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,487,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Searching for the meaning of life, August 7, 2001

By 

"janmcalex" (Humboldt, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All We Know of Heaven (Hardcover)

Written by a Benedictine monk, "All We Know of Heaven" offers us a glimpse of life in a cloistered religious order, where 19-year-old Paul Seneschal has gone in search of the meaning of life.

Uncertain of his calling to religious life, Paul sees a falling star hurtling towards him in the night sky and takes it as a sign from God. At what he believes to be the meteor's point of impact, Paul finds a small unusual black rock that he keeps as a talisman and apparent validation of his decision. Against his parents wishes, he takes up residence at St. Norbert Abbey in Canada with Cistercian monks.

With all of their foibles and indiosyncracies, the men are more human than holy. Far from retreating into seclusion from the world, Paul, now known as Brother Antoine, finds a microcosm of the world. He meets gentle men who offer evidence of their faith through quiet, simple living. He also meets grumpy old men who yell at him for speaking English instead of French, seemingly bitter men who appear to hate everyone else, a brother who is a pyromaniac, brothers who fall asleep during prayers and irreverently speak when they shouldn't. Most troubling for him personally, he lmust confront his own sexual needs in a life of celibacy.

As the book progresses, we see Brother Antoine mature as a man and as a monk. In learning to accept others and most especially himself, he begins to find the threads to the meaning of life and finds peace with his vocation.

This is an eloquently written book, most astutely written from an insider's perspective. Rougeau's writing is intelligent, thoughtful and entertaining. Overall, a very satisfying book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The human side of saints, June 20, 2002

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All We Know of Heaven: A Novel (Paperback)

Too many of us, I suspect, tend to think that men and women who live cloistered lives are so otherworldly that they walk a few inches off the ground. This view of monastic life is also what makes it so attractive to a layperson worn out by the secular rat race. The monastery seems to offer a haven from everyday hassles, providing a tranquill setting that brings out the best in a person, allows him or her to touch base with what's really important, and get in touch with the inner self and with God.

Bosh! This way of thinking of monastic life is too precious to be true, and one of the merits of Rougeau's wonderful *All We Know of Heaven* is to throw water on that sacred cow. His novel--really, a collection of short story-like vignettes that revolve around the monastic experiences of a young Trappist novice--shows that monks are just like the rest of us: overworked, underappreciated, itchy from sexual urges, idiosyncratic, lovable at times, irritating at others, and always deeply, deeply interesting. The vignettes and their assortment of delightfully oddball characters remind us that the human search for God is always located in a specific place and time and personality. Saints aren't etherial types who walk an inch off the ground. They're folks who, in spite of their oddities and flaws, embrace their hunger for God and remain loyal to it. In reading the stories of these monks, we read stories about ourselves.

A very good book, reminiscent in places of Evelyn Waugh's tone and dry humor. It's not uncommon for monks to write books about the spiritual life, but it's rare for them to write novels. Remy Rougeau has broken that barrier in fine style here.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful -- So very real, June 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: All We Know of Heaven (Hardcover)

I am rarely brief in a review, but few words seem better in the case of Rougeau's first work. Anyone who spends enough time in a monastic setting realizes that life in a monastery is about as far from a mediaeval romance as one can get. Rougeau has done a splendid job in telling a down to earth, non-romantic, true-to-life story. Antoine's joys and sorrows are undoubtedly cast in the light of Rougeau's own monastic experience, giving this book both a raw and refined character; very believable. One feels almost like a member of St. Norbert's by the end of this novel.

One to be read from cover to cover, slowly savoring each page, like a fine wine from a monastery cellar.