Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette

Marie has no vocation, and Groff writes that “her faith had been twisted very early in her childhood it would slowly grow ever more bent into its own geometry until it was its own angular, majestic thing.” Groff shows how the sisterhood at this abbey is formed from a mix of unweddable royals stashed away for propriety, widows and young women called by God (or who were at least seeking to avoid the typical life of marriage and early death during childbearing years, a fate that awaited a third of all medieval women).Īt first Marie fantasizes about escaping to become “a wildwoman or a lady brigand or a hermit in a hollowed trunk of a tree,” but she is a natural leader. Marie feels wretched as she arrives at the “glum damp abbey,” stinging from her exile from court and from Eleanor, whom she loves.

At court in Westminster, “Marie appalled everyone with her ravenousness, her rawness, her gauche, bigboned body.” Eleanor decides the “bastardess” Marie is too unlovely to marry off, so instead sends her to become the prioress of a royal abbey gripped by poverty and illness in the midst of England’s Dark Ages. In 1158, Marie is sent from the court of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who rules as the queen of England after marrying King Henry II.

Seventeen years old, in the cold March drizzle, Marie who comes from France,” Groff begins Matrix. The language of Lauren Groff's Matrix is powerful, precise and frequently glorious. These two novels demonstrate their authors’ keen perceptions of human nature and their rare ability to portray a variety of expressions of faith. Luchette’s protagonist, Sister Agatha, is quieter and more obedient than Groff’s Abbess Marie, but no less memorable. A cash-strapped parish in upstate New York must send a group of four sisters packing to Woonsocket, R.I., to run a halfway house while the church is roiled by continued revelations of abuse by priests. Lauren Groff, a three-time National Book Award finalist, sets her novel, Matrix, in the 12th century, weaving historical details inspired by the mystical poet Marie de France (who some scholars think might have been Marie, Abbess of Shaftsbury, the half-sister of the English king Henry II) with the output of her formidable imagination to create an indelible fictional character.Ĭlaire Luchette, whom the National Book Foundation just honored with its “5 Under 35” designation, sets Agatha of Little Neon in the contemporary church.

Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette