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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
(3.5 stars) "But your Majesty-she is YOUR nun!", September 8, 2007
This review is from: The King's Nun: A Novel of King Charlemagne (Paperback)
Before reading this novel I knew two things about Charlemagne: 1. that he united a large portion of France before becoming the first Holy Roman Emperor and 2. That at his coronation supposedly a dove flew down from heaven carrying an ever replenishing vile of holy oil which all Kings of France onward where anointed in. Just because of that myth I would have been willing to read a novel about his real life, but then I read about this book. And everyone has to admit, that in any historical fiction novel, a nun can only be a good addition. So in reading this I learned several more things about Charles the Great-he was very religious (to the point of violence), he loved children, he never really learned to write, and he may have been in love with a nun who later became a saint. That's Amelia. The author admits the historical detail on her is sketchy-apparently there are two saints from the same area with the same name and the records from that far back aren't great. But this Amelia is smart, and ambitious, and having trouble deciding weather or not to take the veil. This becomes even more difficult when she meets King Charles by chance, and is later ordered to advise him at his court. This is a novel grounded in symbolism and metaphor, but the essential point is about destiny-as we make it, but as we make it to benefit others. In terms of writing this author reminds me a little of Tracy Chevalier, but with less-I guess I'd call it poetry to her words. Her symbolism is obvious; her metaphors reach out and slap you in the face. But that doesn't mean they aren't good metaphors. Anyway, this is a good book about faith and coming to terms with your destiny, as hard as that can be. It is NOT a romance novel, though there is some rather sweet romance (which I have to admit seemed like it needed more buildup.) If you liked "The Lady and The Unicorn" or more obscurely, "The Lady of the Mists" you'll like it. Three point five stars.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Romantic Fable of King and Saint, January 10, 2007
This review is from: The King's Nun: A Novel of King Charlemagne (Paperback)
Charlemagne is the subject of relatively few biographical or fictional works. The list is even shorter -- practically zero -- for his contemporary, Saint Amalberga, aka Amelia of Muenster-Bilzen Abbey in Belgium. So when I saw "The King's Nun" I eagerly pre-ordered it, hoping for a novel that would shed light on them. As author Catherine Monroe indicates in the reader's guide, there is very little historically dependable information on Amelia or the connection between herself and the king. According to sources, this Saint Amelia (the Catholic Church records two others) was born in 741 A.D. and died in 772. Charles came into the world one year after Amelia and lived much longer -- until 814. As a beautiful teenage virgin preparing to enter consecrated religious life, Amelia is said to have attracted the notice of Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, and his son, Charles. Charles pursued Amelia, who apparently preferred convent life to him. The Catholic Encyclopedia claims that the besotted young prince tried to carry her off, even breaking her arm in his attempt. She would not have him to husband, and Charles finally gave up the chase...marrying a series of five other women in his lifetime. I suppose writing a novel about those spare "facts" could be somewhat depressing, although, I can imagine a feisty battle of the sexes between these two young, bullheaded people. "The King's Nun" is not such a story, however. Monroe chooses to depart quite a bit from the "known" facts. Her story begins in the year 793 A.D. when, historically accurately, Charles is married to Fastrada and his traitorous son, Pepin the Hunchback, has to be punished for hs crimes against the kingdom. So, Charles is an experienced, seasoned man and sovereign. Monroe inserts a seventeen-year-old Amelia into this setting, and allows the young novice and the middle-aged king to meet and fall into a kind of mystical love: "He came to me out of the mists that cloak the forests of the Ardennes....When I first saw him, he was nothing more than a shimmering darkness, undulating and without form in a shroud of vapor." So begins a love story that destiny -- that of his destiny as Emperor Charlemagne and her destiny as Saint Amelia, official patron of farmers and fishermen and often invoked for healing of arm and shoulder injuries such as the king, not Amelia, suffers in this novel -- cannot give anything but a bittersweet ending. Monroe spins a myth of love that must be put aside for God and country. And she makes some headway on her stated goals of depicting the complex character of Charlemagne and of telling how Amelia lived at the abbey and then traveled to the village of Temsche where she did in fact help found a church dedicated to Mary, Mother of God. Monroe says she "wanted to explore how women might have been affected by the events of the day" and "look at how life might been different for women as opposed to men." She also looks into the pagan, Jewish, and Christian religious traditions that were all present in Temsche when Amelia lived there, and considers how the novice might have dealt with them. The fairly simple storytelling suggests to me that "The King's Nun" might be best recommended to younger teenage girls who favor historical romance. Adults (women, mainly) are, perhaps, a secondary target group. Whoever reads this book will hopefully come away intrigued enough by the characters to read more about them. "Charlemagne", by Derek Wilson, might do the trick for inquiries about the man. As for Amelia, we await more than sparse Church hagiography and this novel that intrigues but is more fable than biography. Perhaps someone will undertake a novel about the teenage Charles and Amelia. All in all, I appreciate "The King's Nun" for its unusual selection of title characters. It has worth as a springboard for historical curiousity and as a sentimental, touch-Arthurian, romantic tale. But I wish Monroe's dramatic license had not strayed so much from "the facts as they are known." Were the option available, I would give three and a half stars, not four.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A leap of faith to be sure..., January 11, 2007
This review is from: The King's Nun: A Novel of King Charlemagne (Paperback)
The fictional life of St Amelia is written as a drama in which the eighth century canonized saint is drawn to King Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor who leaves the disputed Pope Leo on the papal seat of power when the Vatican is split by opposing factions. Determined to become abbess of Munster-Bilzen Abbey, Amelia displays an arrogance that belies the vows of obedience characteristic of a nun, although no doubt helpful in one craving a position of power from which to do good works. Amelia is tediously predictable, humbly asking forgiveness for her faults, the paramount of which is overweening pride masquerading as humility, the acts that determine her canonization explained in the book as coincidental. The title is a bit of a misnomer, as Charlemagne, while certainly a significant figure of his day, acts purely through the author's vivid imagination in this small novel, intertwining a brief period in the Holy Roman Emperor's life with that of legendary saint, Amelia of Muenster-Bilzen Abbey, the admitted subject of conflicting Vatican records. Historical fiction lite, there is little weight, other than time and place, to the affairs enacted in this romance in which Amelia gives up her virginity before trudging the painful road to sainthood. A lack of true scholarship obvious early in the novel, there is, as well, a heavy dose of religious fervor, a few passages attempting theological discourse, but they are merely window dressing for the supposed romance that ties the lovers together until they are rejoined in heaven. Very light reading in the vein of Kathryn Davis' stream-of-consciousness "Versailles: A Novel", The King's Nun is never a serious contender for those who love historical fiction. Luan Gaines/2007.
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