Customer Reviews

Mariette in Ecstasy

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ron Hansen's MARIETTE IN ECTASY is yet another work that I have stumbled across (is there really such a thing as an accident...?) that will go onto my mental shelf of the finest books I've read. It's a testament to Hansen's imaginationg and writing skills that a story set in a convent in upstate New York in 1906 could be so compelling, so deeply moving, so filled with achingly crafted images that reveal everyday things in such a new light. The cloistered sisters, seen by outsiders as drab and similar in appearances, blossom in Hansen's hands as distinct individuals, their characters as varied and deeply developed as any in fiction. Their devotion, their hopes and fears, their humor, their emotions are all brought to life vividly -- and with the arrival of seventeen year-old Mariette into their midst as as aspiring postulant, everything about their lives changes.

Mariette -- blood sister of the current prioress -- is a very devout girl, given to episodes of ecstacy. Her father, a physician, decribes her as being perhaps 'too highly strung' for a religious calling. She is a naturally beautiful young woman -- and this fact alone arouses a bit of jealousy and suspicion among her sisters-to-be. As her ecstatic experiences increase in both frequency and occurrance, some of these suspicions deepen -- and we can see a veritable wall rise up dividing those in the order who love and adore her, taking her experiences as fact, and those who are certain that she is a charlatan, taking them all for a ride.

Which group is correct? The reader must come to this conclusion in his or her own way -- Hansen tells this story so wonderfully, leaving us to decide. He draws no firm, easy answers for us. This is not a Hollywood film story, all tied up nicely with a bow -- this is a story intended to make us think, to consider its events for ourselves, filtering it as we must, each through the beliefs, imaginations and intellects which we have developed over the courses of our lives. This is that rare level of writing that is honoring to its readers -- it tells a beautiful, meaningful story without hammering home a preconceived point. It respects our intelligence, at the same time being enormously entertaining.

Each day is the same for the cloistered Sisters of the Crucifixion in the early 1900s in upstate New York. The nuns pray, work, study--day after day. Each nun has a specialty, a job that she does best: candlemaker, wine maker, cook, arts teacher, seamstress, gardener, etc.

The book begins as the lovely, elegant, 17-year-old Mariette enters the convent to begin her probationary/postulant period. She lived nearby with her widowed father, a doctor, and we later learn that her much-older sister is the prioress, Mother Celine. Mariette's father is very much opposed to her becoming a nun. In fact, he has written a letter stating all of the reasons that she is not suitable for convent life.

It seems that Mariette is adapting well to life in the convent until she begins falling into trances and emerges with bleeding wounds (stigmata) on various parts of her body, wounds that cannot be logically explained. The community of nuns becomes divided in their opinion of whether these are signs from God or self-inflicted by Mariette.

In this book, Hansen paints a complete picture of life in the convent and the doubts that assail all people of faith. His characterizations were very well done, in the sparsest of prose, yet in great detail. The book was beautifully and lovingly written and read almost like poetry rather than prose.

"Mariette in Ecstasy" provides an examination of faith and miraculous/divine happenings. Hansen also looks at the way these happenings impact those who are "blessed" by them, as well as how the communities around them are affected. Hansen draws no conclusions, makes no judgments, and attains no closure. This is left up to the reader after closing the book.

It is hard to believe that this is the same author who wrote "Atticus". Both books are excellent, but they are so very different.

I would highly recommend this book.

Reviewer: Rain from Freeland, WA USA Mariette in Ecstasy is a wonderful piece of long poetry; though it is refered to as a 'novel' on the cover.Each scene is finely and exquisitely detailed from the weather down to the little noises within the silence of prayer. Ron Hansen has written a feast for the senses, the imagination and even the soul in it's vague, yet insigtful descriptions of devotional religious ectasy. -That's what I really liked about this novel What bothered me was the lack of action. pages and pages would go by without anything really significant occuring, the story seemed to be going stagnate near the middle.. In my opinion, the novel does little to keep the reader interested, to keep them turning pages and reading. There are no mystery's to be unraveled and very little fresh blood to keep the narrative interesting and moving.

But the above, of course, is partly due to my own biases. I love stories with intense emotion and unique characters and while the authors super-sensual poetic style of writing theroghly engaged my imaginatioin and put me right there into each scene, the lack of action and intense emotion failed to keep me there. However, despite all of this, I think any religious person with a relationship with God would really appreciate the the spiritual aspect of the book. Sometimes after readind it, I felt a little closer to God myself.

If you're in to stories that get your blood pumping and engage your intellect while firering your emotions, Mariette in Ecstasy probably isn't for you. But if you want to relax and read some most beautiful and poetic prose, to fully live in each scene of this story; then by all means get this book, it should give you hours upon hours of enjoyment.

I agree with those who say the prose is wonderfully sparse and the novel gripping and seductive. However, I find much of the writing too studied -- to the point of pretentiousness. Sometimes,the descriptions seem so carefully, almost painfully crafted that one is more aware of the struggle of the writer than of the imagery itself. That awareness actually comes between the reader and the story at times, jarring one awake with a great desire to tell the novelist, "Oh, puh-leeze. Just say what you mean and stop trying so hard to be clever." Unlike some reviewers, however, I am not troubled by the enigmatic ending, because it reflects the very nature of such events and the human response to them. I like the fact that the author did not insult the reader by attempting to neatly wrap up the story by coming to a firm conclusion about Mariette's stigmata at the end.

I don't remember who recommended this book to me, but thank you. Ron Hansen's story about a shy, devout 17-year old girl who willingly, in fact obsessively, gives herself to God and enters a convent entranced me. Mariette is in her own mind not devout enough, not pure enough yet is described by some of the order's sisters as being almost a saint and absolute in her devotion to God. But when she exhibits the signs of being a postulant, our logical minds think she must be faking it, because how could God give her such a power? Ironically some of the same people who unquestioningly love and accept Christ as the son of God can't believe that a girl would have some similar or inexplicable connection as well. In a short period of time her devotion and motives are questioned. Some say she is a liar or nutcase seeking attention and others think she is a saint. When a person presents herself honestly and with integrity and is challenged on every front, whom do you believe? The person or her detractors.

As a former contemplative nun in a strictly cloistered monastery, I feel I have personal insight into the setting of this story. As other reviewers have stated, the prose is a feast for the senses, and for me, especially, it brought back vividly my years in the convent. While I would differ with the author on many points of convent life--there isn't nearly as much free time or freedom as he imagines, and because of the silence, very few opportunities to develop friendships or get into "trouble" as some of the nuns seem to do--I will say that he has beautifully captured the essence of monastic living. His picture of very flawed humans attempting to live a perfect, superhuman life is spot-on.

What I like most about the story, however, is the ambiguity with which he approaches Mariette's phenomenon, carefully drawing a plethora of human responses from the sisters and others involved with her. I will not spoil the ending, but I will say that the basic idea I got from his last chapter is the levelling of all experience. To me, he is emphasizing that life is beautiful everywhere; "God" is everywhere equally. I find this a very "Zen-like" theme, and one usually lacking in Catholic literature, which tends to raise the religious life to such exaggerated esteem.

In any case, bravo for a well-written, sensitive novel!

We seem to mystify people who are slaves to their pleasures. we often work too hard and rest too little, our food is plain, our days are without variety, we have no possessions nor much privacy, we live uncomfortably with our vows of chastity and obedience; but God is present here and that makes this our heaven on earth. -Mother Superior to Mariette, Mariette in Ecstasy

In this spare novel Ron Hansen succeeds brilliantly at what must surely be one of the most difficult tasks for any writer : he makes the miraculous plausible. In so doing, he raises fascinating questions about how we would react to miracles, were we to witness them, and about why those miracles might occur.

In 1906, seventeen year old Mariette Baptiste enters an upstate New York convent, joining the order of The Sisters of the Crucifixion. Pretty, pious, and personable, she quickly becomes the darling of the place, even though these same traits, and the fact that the Mother Superior is her sister, inspire some jealousy and even forbidden lusts. Since her confirmation, at age thirteen, Mariette has had a calling and has heard the voice of Christ speaking to her, preparing her for some great events. So she, and some of the nuns who love her, are prepared when, upon the death of her sister, Mariette is afflicted with stigmata. But others, particularly those who have resented her anyway, are less willing to accept the miraculous nature of these happenings, suspecting Mariette of an attention-seeking hoax. And when the wounds are healed just as suddenly as they appeared, both sides see this as confirmation of their own, very divergent, beliefs.

Hansen recreates the atmosphere and daily life of the convent in convincing detail. He allows the remarkable occurrences to speak for themselves for the most part, and allows just enough wiggle room for more dubious readers to question whether Mariette is a saint or a charlatan. One of the most unlikely facets of the story, for a believer, is that this young girl in the middle of nowhere would be chosen as the recipient of these manifestations of God's presence. Equally perplexing is why these signs should be made so ambiguous and left open to doubt. Hansen answers these questions as Mother Saint-Raphael explains to Mariette why, even though she personally believes in Mariette, she is willing to let the matter be dismissed by church officials :

Skeptics will always prevail. God gives us just enough to seek Him, and never enough to fully find him. To do more would inhibit our freedom, and our freedom is very dear to God.

This idea, that God purposely leaves the decision of whether to have faith in the hands of men, rather than to force them to believe, is fundamental to the view of Man as having Free Will. Of course, it can also be easily ridiculed as an easy way out of ever proving God's existence. Regardless of which side of the argument you come down on, this is a beautiful, thought-provoking, novel about the awesome power, and the inevitable limits, of faith.

GRADE : A+

When I am asked what my favorite book of all time is, I can never name just one. But this is one of them. It isn't for everyone. Read the first three pages. If the quality of the writing - its spareness, its contemplative power, its absolute rightness for the subject matter - doesn't move you and seduce you, move on. On the other hand, if you find yourself feeling, as I have, soothed and quieted and taken up into a kind of literary forest refuge, close the book, buy it, and find the right time to sink into it and let it take you over.

It is the story of a young nun in a cloistered convent in upstate New York at the turn of the last century. It's the story of spiritual rivalries, and of family relationships in their emotional and psychological complexity. It's a mystery. And it's pure poetry on the page, like seeing a ballet and knowing for the first time what beauty can be made by moving a human body.

I haven't read Mariette for years, but its images and language still haunt me. I will read it again some day. Hansen has the gift. You will look for his other books after reading this one. They also have their virtues - he's not commercial in the sense of repeating a successful style and making a formula out of it - but I find this one clear as a morning bell.

Hansen does an excellent job - better than anyone I know- of rendering a "description" of a convent life, in a convent in which silence is coveted and required. He does this by setting a scene so well, so carefully, so that you feel you have also entered this stark, minimalist, yet spiritual existence. I also loved the fact that he truly depicts a young devote woman who was completely focused/obsessed with service to God, to the point where she developed stigmata. Yet, did she fully develop it? That is what is so wonderful about this book - it is full of mystery, yet we feel intensely for this passionate young novice. A wonderful, beautiful read.

This is a book by an author best know for western's however this is not a western. It is a spiritual story and a spiritual story with a major twist. It is the retelling of the life story of Saint Terese Martin aka Terese de Lisieux. But this story is told in a generic religious order set in Quebec.

This book deals with many large questions:
The Stigmata
Faith
Healing
Love
Science
And how these five things meet in the life of Mariette with ambiguity and how that ambiguity mirrors our own lives. The interesting thing about this book is it is about the world of women, the convent is a microcosm of the real world. The only two men in the book are Mariette's father and the priest at the Convent.

Mariette received the stigmata while a novice at the convent, the Prioress was her older sister. This is a story of faith versus adversity even in one's own tradition. It is the story of a girl who desires to love God with all of her heart. Yet the depth of her devotion arouses the suspicions of those around her.

A film was made of this move with many big name star's Rutger Hauer as the priest, Geraldine O'Rawe as Mariette, Mary McDonnell as the prioress. Michael W. Higgins was the Historical consultant on the film. Though filmed in 1996 it has never been released. The studio did not like the ending and the author and producer would not change it.

Dealing with many deep questions this book leave's the reader with more questions than answers but with a sense of hope and a desire to know more. Hansen has created a masterpiece.