Book description
Mark Salzman's Lying Awake is a finely wrought gem that plumbs the depths of one woman's soul, and in so doing raises salient questions about the power-and price-of faith.
Sister John's cloistered life of peace and prayer has been electrified by ever more frequent visions of God's radiance, leading her…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Lying Awake as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Not your typical novel. The slim, spare writing has a quietness that echoes the main character's monastic life in a cloistered Carmelite religious community. Personalities and conflicts are sharply drawn. And the main conflict is sharp indeed, especially for any reader who is a person of faith. This novel will make you think.
It’s hard for me to imagine myself in Sister of the Cross’ place, overcome with spiritual experiences so intense they are almost unbearable.
Like Saint Teresa of Avila’s ecstasies or experiences under the influence of psychedelic drugs, ordinary language cannot describe her journeys outside the normative experience of her spiritual sisters. They are, to herself and her community, barely believable.
In the end she faces an unbearable choice: to allow herself to collapse into that other, wonderful world, or be “cured.”
From Ken's list on the conflict between personal spirituality and religion.
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