Customer Reviews

The Virgin of Bennington

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I picked up this book at the airport bookstore coming home from a vacation in the Bahamas. I was starved for something reasonably meaty to read having failed to bring enough books with me and having forgotten that they don't have Borders in Freeport. I hadn't read anything by Kathleen Norris but this book looked like an interesting, thoughtful coming of age story from the era during which I went to college.

It seemed to start out that way. The first few chapters were an enjoyable retelling of the author's experience at Bennington where she was the proverbial "fish out of water". Those chapters were well written and fun to read.

Then she went on to tell of her time as a young woman in New York City. Here the book derailed into more of a biography (hagiography might be a better description) of her mentor. If I were into the politics of the small world of modern poets, this might have been interesting. Instead, I found it laborious and not very interesting reading. Since I work in the publishing industry (although not in New York) and have occassionally been involved in business with some of the bigger publishing companies, it might have been fun to read about the politics of the publishing world. But this book was too narrow for that.

The were parts though from time to time that were interesting, and I did enjoy the first chapter. I think this book sets the reader up for disappointed by its title and what it seems to promise on the cover. But I think if the book were more appropriately described its audience would be very small.

The Virgin of Bennington by Kathleen Norris is misnamed, mismarketed and misleading to potential readers. Described as a memoir beginning at Bennington college and moving on to her first years in New York, the book focuses much less on Norris's coming of age than it does on the events before, during and after her friendship with Betty Kray, the executive director of the Academy of American Poets.

The primary fault with the book does not lie with the author, who admits at the end of the first chapter that the story begins with "an untidy but cheerful job interview" at the end of her college years. It lies instead with whoever decided to sensationalize what could be described as a quiet but interesting book of tribute to a woman who devoted herself to poets and poetry. Norris's prose is clear and easy to read. But her description of her brushes with famous and not-so-famous poets in New York in the 1970's are not that interesting, as the encounters themselves tend to be of the mundane variety. The true kernel of this book is Norris's love and admiration for Elizabeth Kray, which is only briefly alluded to on the book's cover. In sum, a bit of a disappointment.

For a true coming-of-age memoir, check out Susanna Kaysen's Girl Interrupted or the more recent humorously written Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl.

I purchased this book the day it came out and returned to my favorite bookstore a few days later to find a large display of "The Virgin of Bennington" with the description "Sex, Drugs and Poetry". If you are looking for the first two, you would find more in a few minutes of a sitcom. Poetry, however, is the main context in which Norris tells the story of ten years of her life, from entering college to moving to her mother's childhood home in South Dakota. While the world of late sixties-early seventies poetry may not seem the most interesting of subjects, Norris mananges to hold the reader's interest until we encounter the real subject, Elizabeth Kray, the arts administrator who headed the Academy of American Poets.

Norris' abilities as a storyteller were evident in her earlier works, especially "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography", and again she takes what might be for some an uninteresting subject and grabs our attention. Readers who are looking for a spiritual read similar to Norris' earlier prose may be disappointed, but I feel that Norris probably sees God's hand in her experiences with Kray.

Highly recommended, well-written and, more importantly, well thought out.

Some fans of Kathleen Norris will no doubt be disappointed in this book. It is not brimming with one spiritual insight after another, unlike her previous nonfiction work. But those would be her greedier readers who, whether for good or ill, seek spoon-fed wisdom.

This book is, instead, a fascinating illustration of the emotional, psychological, sexual, and spiritual development of a young woman who had the courage to accept the mentorship of an older woman, Betty Kray.

Those who read this book on the surface will find a fascinating portrait of Betty Kray who, according to the documentation in this book, was the prime mover and shaker of the Academy of American Poets in its earliest years. The Academy was largely responsible for the discovery and promotion of many of our best-known contemporary American poets (Denise Levertov, James Merrill, Stanley Kunitz, and many others).

Students of literary history, as well as those who enjoy reading memoirs, will respond well to this engaging, previously undocumented account of the rise of contermporary American poetry.

However, more discerning spiritually-minded readers will go one step further in their understanding of this book, for Norris has written a beautiful, deep illustration of moral development and mentorship. Dare I call it spiritual direction? If one knows what to look for, one can see everywhere in the pages of this book the spirit of God--through the unexpected figure of Betty Kray--shaping the life of a young poet.

I'm grateful that Norris did not overtly spiritualize this mentorship, for to do so might not be an honest depiction of Betty Kray. Rather, for those who read carefully, Norris shows us that God's hand is everywhere in our lives, and providence abounds---if we only look for it.

I always assumed that Norris, like many folks in the 60's who found themselves disenfranchised with relegion, to have found conversion with the death of a loved one. Even though the death of her grandmother Totten provided an escape from New York, I found her journey to self-discovery and her own voice both enlightening, and revealing. I had previously assumed Norris to be more saintly than how she portrays herself here in this biogrpahy. I appreciate her honesty and found myself unable to put the book down.

. . . with a somewhat misleading title, autobiographical "look back" at the influences which shaped the life of the author, poet Nathleen Norris.

From her extremely sheltered background to the crazed culture of drugs and sex at Bennington in the late 1960's through her own personal conversion experience, this book traces the life -- and loves -- of an extraordinary 20th century American woman.

The book will not satisfy all. The ultra-conservative will be uncomfortable with the sexual honesty expressed by the author; the far-left will be equally uncomfortable with the author's spiritual awakening and personal conversion. Those persons either too young to remember or too old to have been quite so involved in the whirlwind which "was" the late '60's and early '70's in the United States will be uncomfortable with the author's honesty about her own activities, both positive and negative.

Nevertheless, the story is in the journey -- and the journey is told with depth, with clarity, and with honesty.

Recommended.

Poet Kathleen Norris is most known for her reflective meditations on the Christian life in her books Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. So her latest book comes as quite a contrast. The Virgin of Bennington is Norris's memoir of her college and twentysomething years in the late 60s and early 70s, before she rediscovered Christianity.

Her title comes from her nickname as a naïve freshman at the Vermont liberal arts college. She moves quickly through her college years and spends most of the book recounting her experiences in New York as an assistant with the Academy of American Poets. This follows the familiar path of college, moving to the big city and getting the first job, but in Norris's able hands, the narrative is not only her own coming-of-age story but our universal story of encountering "real life" for the first time.

Norris was spiritually uncommitted during these years, and she is candid about her casual sex life and the drug use typical of the era, though never explicit or titillating. Others may cover similar ground in a therapeutic tell-all fashion, but Norris chronicles her past with deep poetic and literary sophistication.

While Norris's other books explore the spiritual life she now has, this book in contrast explores who she once was. Christians are sometimes conflicted about their pre-Christian life, falling into the errors of either overglorifying or denying a sinful past. Norris walks between these pitfalls and points to an appropriate role of memory and the importance of one's personal history.

Part of Norris's work at the Academy was to help New Yorkers understand their literary heritage, recapturing Walt Whitman's 1840's Manhattan or Langston Hughes's Harlem of 1926. This book is a similar recovery of the past, as she gives today's readers a compelling portrait of New York in the 1960s and 70s. This makes me wonder - thirty years from now, what will we remember of the 1990s or early 2000s? Things we now find mundane may hold great meaning to us later. Norris helps us realize that all times and places are filled with promise for those with eyes to see.

While the book starts out being about herself, much of it ends up being about Betty Kray, the executive director of the Academy. This gradual shift from autobiography to biography is an affectionate tribute to the influence of her mentor. It serves as a subtle reminder that young adults need older voices to help them find their way in this formative phase of life.

Norris also models the possibility of poetry as a Christian calling. She sees no conflict between the two worlds and is as conversant with 20th-century poets as with 4th-century saints. We would do well to follow her example and explore the riches of the arts and humanities, whether the work is particularly Christian or not.

Why should Christians be interested in this book? While she doesn't put things quite this way, her memoir follows the classic structure of fall and redemption. She begins in innocence, but soon slides into several affairs and a time of lostness and despair.

But grace is at work, even through a Manhattan literary scene ambivalent toward God. During a time of poetic dryness, her mentor encouraged her to take a literature class on 18th-century novels. There she rediscovered John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, which forced her to crack open a Bible.

"Although I would have rejected this notion at the time," Norris writes, "I now believe that God was there all along, present even in seeming absent." This memoir gives us hope that many of our peers, though they may now seem completely unaware of God, may yet be drawn toward him in unexpected ways.

This book contains the memoirs of the formative years of Kathleen Norris. Norris attended high school in Hawaii, where her father, a professional musician, was stationed with the Navy orchestra. When it came time to start her undergraduate studies, Norris found herself at Bennington College in Vermont, completely unprepared for the sexually permissive culture of the East Coast in the 1960s. During part of her senior year at Bennington, she worked as an intern at the Academy of American Poets in New York City. Following her graduation, she took a full-time position at the Academy, assisting with all manner of office chores, from fetching the mail to escorting poets to their readings for the Academy around the City. This book relates Norris' adventures during those years, when she was finding herself both as an adult and as a poet. The book is also a record of Norris' relationship with her mentor, Betty Kray, executive director of the Academy.

Far from the titillating blurb on the cover, which mentions Norris' acquaintances in New York, such as Jim Carroll or Erica Jong, the book is focused more on Betty Kray and her tireless campaign to bring poetry into the mainstream through her work at the Academy. Indeed, some of the anecdotes of the people Norris met during her time in Manhattan almost come across as name-dropping. In some places, the text drags a little as Norris breaks off the main narrative to give details about seemingly unrelated events from different time periods. Nevertheless, the story provides a slow-paced tale of Norris' early years as a poet, which may help fans of her other books better understand some of the events that continue to influence her today. The book is also a beautiful memorial to the remarkable work of Betty Kray.

The key to this book is in the first line--"I became Nick Carraway." Norris does indeed record life around her as though she is observing it, and her role in it, from a distance. I found parts of the book tremendously absorbing--the young girl setting out into the world, the writer discovering her art--but far too often Norris writes as a dispassionate observer, dampening the emotion she clearly wants the reader to feel. Lines such as, "I was still wading cautiously on the shores of life, willing to get my feet wet..." distanced me both with cliche and the arm's length approach to description. Yet others showed the depth that Norris is capable of, especially when she tackles the description of poetry.

I think another problem with the book is that the author wasn't sure what book she was writing. Is it a coming of age story? A history of an interesting time in modern American culture? A love song to Betty Kray, who comes across as a fascinating woman? Norris might have had two books here--one of her voyage of self-discovery in interesting times; the other a biography of Kray.

There was enough here to keep me interested and I'm not sorry I read the book. I do think there could have been much more that would have resulted in a book I would have kept and cherished.

This book has been poorly reviewed by the professional reviewers, and I believe Kathleen Norris has been badly advised by her editor. Perhaps it should have been entitled, "The Mentorship of KATHLEEN NORRIS, famous author, with biographical notes on her mentor." That is snottier than I had intended, but it does describe my feelings. I have read Norris' earlier works with great interest and benefit. I have recommended her books and poetry to many privately and in public places, but this book will receive none of that from me. There are at least three good books Norris could have written (a) a thoughtful, creative, but not didactic review of a Bennington education, (b) a coming-of-age memoir up to the time of the writing of "Dakota", and (c) a biography of Betty Kray, a person whose life sounds very worthy of a good biography. I give this book two stars out of deep respect for what Norris has meant to me in the past.