About this title: In a Carmelite monastery on the outskirts of Los Angeles, life continues virtually unchanged for centuries. Sister John of the Cross has spent years there in the service of God. The only one to experience intense visions and the author of a best-selling book on religion, she is regarded by the other nuns as a spiritual master. But Sister John's visions are accompanied by powerful headaches and when a doctor reveals that they may be dangerous, she faces a devastating choice. If her spiritual gifts are symptoms of illness rather than grace, will a 'cure' mean the end of her visions and a soul ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 01/2000
ISBN-13:9780375406324ISBN:0375406328
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 01/2000
ISBN-13:9780375406324ISBN:0375406328
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780375706066ISBN:0375706062
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Illustrated.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780375706066ISBN:0375706062
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 192 p. Contains: Illustrations. Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 2000-09-24
ISBN-13:9780375406324ISBN:0375406328
Description: Like New. Inscribed, dated Feb 21 2001 and signed by author on title page; sixth printing. interior bright and clean, DJ glossy, with mild rubbing, and small edge crease at bottom of back panel. read more
Description: Very Good. 0375706062 Very Good Condition, No Markings, highlighting or notes, ex-library book, ** Satisfaction Guaranteed ** Orders ship same or next business day. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780375406324ISBN:0375406328
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780375706066ISBN:0375706062
Description: Good. 138-U This copy states 200. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"When I am wavering between stars, I have decided to rate 'up.' This is a short and rather provocative - in that it is thought-provoking - little read. The story is pretty narrow, in that it is about a Carmelite nun, so there is not a lot of extraneous material, fitting the spare life of the nun. Questions are raised about faith and personal quests to find God. I liked learning about Sister John of the Cross's history, a little about how she came to live the life of a religious, her struggle to find meaning in her service, her openness to the idea of God in everything. Not being Catholic, some of the events had less meaning to me than they probably would to a Catholic, but it was all within reach of my understanding. The idea that the close relationship with God she has finally found - after so many, many years - is probably a result of a kind of epilepsy that can be cured by the removal of a small tumor, raises questions in her of whether she is willing to be healed and thereby give up that relationship that she has given her life for. One of my favorite parts is where the other sisters come to 'watch with her' as she prays to know whether or not to have the surgery.
***Spoiler Alert*** The way the author wrote Sister John's perceptions does not change after the surgery, which leads me to believe that she did not entirely lose the gifts she had been enjoying because of the tumor. But that is an unanswered question and, really, is of less importance than the overall lesson of her life of devotion."
"This is a short book (less than 200 pages) about life inside a Carmelite convent in Los Angeles. The main character is Sister John of the Cross who has become known for her mystical experiences and her poetry of ecstasy. The novel traces her individual path to her vocation and the challenge she faces when is diagnosed with a brain tumor. She is concerned that her feeling of being close to God will be taken away from her.The book portrays every day life in the religious community surrounded by the hubbub of Los Angeles.Mark Saltzman also wrote the well-known memoir "Iron and Silk" which relates his experience with martial arts in China."
"Salzman's first dozen pages always leave my eyebrows up and skeptical, but then I ease into faith in him. This is a beautiful narrative that takes us into the cloister and shows the humility of a nun's life (and the constant struggle of that humility). Salzman has a great style of surprising, clear, short sentences and an attention to visuals.
But the primarily conflict here is too much of a thought-experiment, not sufficiently grounded in the actual character. It makes the story thin, the protagonist naive, and the poetry melodramatic. In snippets, the novel's alright; as a whole, it's a bit dishonest in the way that it holds back. A bit of sugarcoating, too."
"A wise, gentle book with a very different feel from Salzman's earlier book, The Soloist. It is unashamedly filled with religious language, rendered faithfully and sympathetically. We really feel like we get inside the religious struggle of a longtime nun--and do so, miraculously, without psychologizing. This nun, who struggles for 25 years to know God, finally has a spiritual breakthrough just as she develops severe headaches that turn out to be caused by mild epileptic seizures. Does this mean that her religious experience, which she has written about in a well-received book, was inauthentic? What does that mean for her personal, intimate relationship with God, her calling, and her role in the community? These are hard questions which Salzman explores remarkably faithfully & deeply without offering easy or pat answers. This nun's humility & selfless seeking offer a striking contrast to the (however sympathetically rendered) exclusive, arrogant, selfish striving of the main Pentecostal character in The Hallelujah Side. Even more amazing, this spiritually deep & rich book is a very accessible read that can be read in a couple of hours. I was, however, puzzled by chapter titles that seem to bear no relation to the chapter's content. I must have missed something."
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