Body and Soul [Hardcover]

Marcelle Bernstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1991

At the age of 31, after 13 years of abstinence and obedience in a nunnery, Anna is conscious of her desire to love a man and bear a child. Her brother's suicide forces her out into 1990s Britain, where she must come to terms with her sexual identity. By the author of "Sadie", "Salka" and "Lili".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anna, enclosed for 13 years as Sister Gabriel in a Welsh convent, has already begun to lose her fervor when a crisis summons her briefly outside its walls. Her brother Simon, having brought the family woolen mill to the verge of bankruptcy, has committed suicide and left his pregnant wife Lynn with two small sons. Anna knows the business: she contributes to her convent's income by carding and spinning yarns that she dyes with natural colors from nuts and mosses. Lynn's ineptitude and the mill's imminent ruin impel Anna to try to save the family. At the plant she confronts the scurrilous Beattie, a manager who harrasses female workers and plans to switch to cheaper synthetic fibers, and becomes attracted to an honest overseer, brash Peter Hallam. Submitting rather passively to badgering by her whiny sister-in-law and rough-mannered lover, Anna doesn't always seem forceful enough to make the tough decisions required as she is torn between religious and secular life. Journalist Bernstein, author of three previous novels and The Nuns , a well-researched nonfiction study, does better with depictions of the solaces, rigors, self-flagellations and lesbian temptations of the cloister than with the humdrum workaday details of the yarn-spinning industry. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs alternates.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Thirty-one year old Anna has been cloistered in a strict convent in Wales for 13 years when she is called home to England to look after her brother's widow, children, and the family business. Already doubting her calling, Anna is thrown into a world that has changed dramatically since she left. She finds that she desperately misses the things that she will never have as a nun. Her habit starts to become a prison rather than a sanctuary. She must come to terms with her sexuality and her power as a woman and at the same time resolve her spiritual questions. Bernstein has written a very thoughtful and elegant book. Her dialog is faultless and her visual images rich. Most of the characters, especially the nuns, are well drawn and believable. The plot, while a bit predictable, never becomes trite. This story of sexual awakening is recommended for public libraries.
- Lisa J. Cochenet, Rhinelander Dist. Lib., Wis.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 351 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312063083
• ISBN-13: 978-0312063085
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,658,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I beg to differ with Kirkus!, October 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Body and Soul (Hardcover)

I read this book for the first time several years ago, and have read it several times since. I have lent it to friends who also loved it.

I read when I was close to the age Anna is in the story and was going through some of what Anna does. Not that I was ever a nun, but I made a drastic career change in my early 30s, which is EXACTLY what Anna is doing. She still loves the Church, but she also learns to love the outside world. She expends a lot of time and emotional energy in making her decision. Kirkus belittles her love of God and her devotion to duty, both of which she ultimately keeps, even though she sheds the habit.

This is an outstanding book, but read it before watching the PBS version. They butchered it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review truer emotion than the series on PBS, September 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Body and Soul (Hardcover)

Although I enjoyed the PBS production of "Body & Soul", I preferred the book over the TV seires. Anna became more alive in the book, revealing her emotional conflicts, her fear of changes and her doubts in the faith which were breezed through in the series. The book allowed you more reasons to empathize with Anna and Lynn. It was also less sensational , downplaying the sexual overtones highlighted in the series, and focusing more on emotional conflicts and freedom of choice. The decription on the nuns' behavior and mental state brought back memories of my contact with them during my school days in a Catholic girl school.Thos who liked the PBS series will definely like the book more.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time-favorite books, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Body and Soul (Hardcover)

I loved this book! I've read it more than once and have loaned my copy to friends who have also loved it. In fact it is currently on it's way to Seattle. I loved all of the characters, even the most annoying Mother Superior and business manager, because they were so real. I would love to be able to buy copies for friends, but they are hard to come by these days. I'll just have to keep loaning my copy out. It is well worth the risk of losing it just to be able to share a wonderful story with friends.