'a luminous novel which explores the nature of love, forgiveness and destiny', 28 Mar. 2013
By
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This review is from: The Land Of Spices (VMC) (Paperback)
A truly beautiful novel set in an Irish convent school just before World War I, and focussing principally on the senior character - Mother Superior- and the youngest, 6 year old Anna Murphy, sent there to avoid her parents' unhappy marriage.
Gradually the nun's history and reason for taking vows is explained; and as the years go by she overcomes her early loneliness for her home in Belgium. Meanwhile Anna too is shaped by extraneous events...
Gives a great sense of a largely happy community, but Kate O'Brien can relate sad events too, so movingly, and yet with hope. I was particularly struck by Reverend Mother's words of comfort to a bereaved member of the convent:

'It is natural for us all to imagine that the moment of death is frightening and lonely, if we are aware of it, which few are, perhaps. But so may be - if we could exercise our imaginations more extensively - the moment of birth. We know nothing, remember nothing, of the conditions of sensibility of the newly born, except that the immortal soul is present. But whatever the ordeal of entrance into life, it was brief and most of us are glad to have been born. So, too, with the moment of death. Whatever it holds, it is brief - and you and I know that, for those who have tried to be good, it is a gateway to perfect happiness.' ( )

Started of excruciatingly slow, but about halfway through I fell in love with it. Loved the character interplay between Anna and Mother Superior. Surprisingly modern thinking and feminist.
Sorprised to learn afterwards (duh) that Kate O'Brien was a lesbian. Does it even matter? ( )

This was a pleasant surprise. I started collecting books from a publisher called Virago Modern Classics who publish underappreciated books written by women. I bought this book not knowing anything about it except that it was a Virago with the classic green cover. When I read the book description, I was skeptical. Kate O'Brien was an Irish author in the mid 1900s and this book takes place in a convent. It explores the lives of two different people, the Reverend Mother, Helen, and Anna, a young girl growing up as a student at the convent school. I don't have a whole lot of interest in nuns or Catholicism so I wasn't sure this would be the book for me. Actually, though, this book explored the lives of these two, their troubled home lives, the conflicts between Irish and English nuns, politics of the church, and death with beautiful language and subtlety.

As a side note, this edition has a few long passages written in`French with no translation provided. I found that my limited high school French plus the context of the book were enough for me to understand the content, but you'd need some French or the patience to do a little translating for those passages. ( )

A young woman, Helen Archer, witnesses something that shocks her into a total rejection of her father, who she previously adored (this is in the 1880's). In her icy retreat she joins the convent where she is being educated, Sainte Famille, at 17. She grows up to be unusually capable, in part because of the tremendous effort she has made to disguise the fact that her 'vocation' was, in truth, not a true one, at least originally. That is not to say it hasn't become one by the time Helen, having won the affection of the Mere Generale of her Order (a Teaching one) is sent to run a school in Ireland. This proves to be a shrewd move with a deeper purpose, but it also serves a secondary purpose in Helen Archer's life - that of finding her soul's core, a deeper faith and ability to forgive and love again. A secondary point of view character is that of Anna Murphy, a child sent to the school at the age of 6 by her troubled parents, and who is temperamentally similar to Helen, a naturally observant and bright (even brilliant)and disciplined student. Carefully written very much in a formal style suitable to a character like Helen Archer, I was nonetheless very moved by the last chapter. The book is not without humor - there are great scenes of schoolgirls flirting with young priests at a school event, and a delicious scene where Helen outwits the rich imperious grandmother of her favorite student - you get a glimpse of just how adept she has become at such tactics, despite her professed disdain of the whole thing. It's a quiet book, but I found it absorbing and genuine. I also found myself wishing more men wanted to read about women's experiences and frustrations in those days - there is something deeply authentic about this description of an almost entirely female world. ****1/2

About reading: "... she (Anna) developed a need, a love of reading, which made her unsociable and absent-minded towards other children as it grew. She was, for many of her early years, the kind of reader who will gratefully read anything rather than not read. Words, their shapes and lengths, their possibilities of breaking into other words, or into pairs and groups of letters, became her constant amusement....."

It would also appear that Anna has that odd neurological quirk of associating color with sound. (It is just mentioned in passing, but is interesting - not sure it had an official 'name' at that point.) ( )

Set in an Irish convent school in the early years of the 20th century, The Land of Spices is a novel that covers the school career of Anna Murphy, who comes to Compagnie de la Sainte Famille at the ago of six. She attracts the attention of the Reverend Mother, an Englishwoman who watches Anna from afar during the eight or ten years that Anna remains at the school.

I’ve had good luck and bad with Kate O’Brien’s novels; I disliked The Ante Room but loved Mary Lavelle. The Land of Spices falls into the “love” category for me. I wasn’t sure that a novel set in a convent school would be my cup of tea, but the novel in a greater sense is about human relationships, not just religion and spiritually. It’s also obviously a coming of age novel, about how one girl changes and adapts to her surroundings, even though her home life isn’t ideal. There’s an interesting contrast with the life of Reverend Mother, whose past as Helen Archer is revealed bit by bit. They have an unspoken bond with one another, even though Anna doesn’t realize it. There are some really beautiful observations here about the impact that two totally different people can have on one of another.

My only problem with the book is that throughout the book there are excerpts of letters written in French and other languages, which reveal key plot points but are kind of meaningless if you don’t speak those languages. But in all, this is a really powerful book. ( )