The Cloister Walk

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Scholars speak with authority, and they must, as they are trying to convince the reader that they have a worthwhile point of view. Part memoir, part meditation, The Cloister Walk is the movingly written and thought-provoking record of a married, Protestant woman’s time spent in a community of men in a traditional Benedictine monastery in Minnesota. In reading Norris, one comse to feel like a spiritual collaborate and, when one's spirit fails, like a spiritual rebel. They gossip, crack jokes, fall asleep in church, suffer through depression and doubt like the rest of us…. Are there any of your own childhood experiences in established religion that have interfered with your spiritual development?

Any reader seeking a meaningful life – not necessarily a religious one – will be inspired by author Kathleen Norris’s experiences among monks who, while so little understood in our society, are admirable bearers of tradition, incorporating in their lives the values of stability, silence, and humility that we so desperately need, yet relentlessly avoid. If you like to read technical manuals and books with finely structured outlines, you will probably not like this book.

A New York Times bestseller for 23 weeksA New York Times Notable Book of the Year"A strange and beautiful book.

I watched ice form on the river outside my window one Sunday afternoon and felt loneliness more intense than any I could remember since childhood.In The Cloister Walk, persisting in [Norris's] wonderfully idiosyncratic ways, she gives us the result of an 'immersion into a liturgical world'. Many of them have jobs in the wider community as well, as teachers and counselors and nurses- but not all. In the book’s preface, author Kathleen Norris admits that in the past she has employed literature as a substitute for religion in her life (p.

In 1974, her grandmother died leaving Norris the family farm in South Dakota, and she and her future husband, the poet David Dwyer, decided to temporarily relocate there until arrangements to rent or sell the property could be made. Unlike Fermor in his short masterpiece, Norris utterly fails to convey the 'feel' of monasticism and often comes across as rather apologetic about the subject, as though she feels she needs to justify her interest in it.

I was only there a week, but it was a most inspiring event, and I have thought about it often over the years (I'm now 80).

There is a certain nervous facility to some of Norris's jabs at academics, and she is sometimes sanctimonious. will work to the good of all people despite all our groaning, quibbling, and squabbling over terminology. Read more about the condition Very Good: A book that has been read and does not look new, but is in excellent condition.

Newsday, "In The Cloister Walk , persisting in [Norris's] wonderfully idiosyncratic ways, she gives us the result of an 'immersion into a liturgical world'.