Overview:
Gail Godwin’s newest book, Unfinished Desires, is an intriguing character study of the female students and nuns who inhabit an outwardly idyllic Catholic girls’ school in North Carolina, Mount St. Garbriel’s. The novel takes place primarily in the 1950′s where the students jockey for power, prestige and friendship. The nuns, too, have their own histories and secrets. The Mother Superior at the School, Suzanne Ravenal is writing a history of the school. This part of the book takes place in 2001 when Sister Ravenal is in a retirement home for nuns. The book goes back and forth from the every-day school intrigues of the 1950′s to 2001 when Mother Ravenal is writing her school’s history.
All the characters in the novel have unfinished desires – - for God, friendship, love (sapphic and heterosexual), personal dreams and hopes. They aspire toward the good and the evil as is not uncommon with pubescent girls. What is interesting is that the current mixture of students is compared to the students who attended Mt. St. Gabriel’s when Suzanne Ravenel, now headmistress, was a student there herself. We are privy to the old histories, agendas, friendships, angers, loves and alliances that existed when Sister Ravenal was a student, many of which continue into the 1950′s. The same families continue to send their daughters to Mt. St. Gabriel’s generation after generation and alliances and enmities form.
There is a definite hierarchy of students, such that exists in virtually every school. Tildy Swinton considers herself the Queen Bee. The summer has just ended and a new semester is opening when the book begins. Tildy has decided that her best friend Maud is no longer right for her and so she decides to invite Chloe into her circle, excluding Maud. Chloe is fragile, a recent orphan and easily manipulated by Tildy. As the story opens we learn that Tildy’s mother, Cornelia, was an identical twin. Her sister died on her honeymoon. More interesting, perhaps, is that she was Suzanne Ravenel’s best friend at school. Suzanne was secretly in love with her and has been trying to atone for this love for years. There have been bad feelings between the Swintons and Sister Ravenal for many years because of many intrigues and complex issues. These feelings have been passed down the generations. The Swinton girls often feel singled out by Sister Ravenal for punishment.
Gail Godwin writes beautifully. We can imagine sitting in an idyllic pasture at Mt. St. Gabriel’s with a slight breeze blowing, reading an assignment and then stopping to worry about whether our latest acquaintance is the right one for us. One of the most interesting and important characters in this book is a new teacher, a young nun named Sister Malloy. She is pallid and beautiful – like a tragic pre-Raphaelite figure – with a real frailty about her. The students love her and she has a tender and empathic way with the girls. She, too, is dealing with unfinished desires. She had been in the middle of her graduate studies when she was moved to St. Gabriel’s in order to take over for another teacher who had been forced to leave the school due to an act of cruelty by the students.
Godwin captures brilliantly the subtleties of friendships between teenage girls, their ambivalence toward religion and their momentous struggle to define people—especially themselves. Poignant and transporting, this faux memoir makes a convincing, satisfying novel.
"A large, roomy story of love, loss, fidelity, secrets, rivalry and faith in the lives of a charming, flawed troupe of characters.... Provocative and rewarding."—Boston Globe
"This rich world...draws and holds the reader from the first to the final pages of the work. " —Denver Post
"Tender but clear-eyed ...Godwin’s South has always been a place where charm and good manners can barely conceal the emotional drama pulsing beneath the surface...Recalls the fraught family bonds of Godwin’s best novels..."—San Francisco Chronicle
"Godwin’s reserved yet powerful new novel is set in a boarding school in the mountains of North Carolina...Though it’s a beautiful well-intentioned institution, the school is anything but serene...."—New York Times Book Review
"If you plan on reading just one great novel in 2010, this might be it... a big old-fashioned book about jealousy and passion at a Catholic girl’s school, written with Gail Godwin’s trademark depth and humor...."—Bookpage
"Godwin’s writing is ... marvelous, engaging, clever." —Christian Science Monitor
"Poignant and transporting...convincing, satisfying."—Publishers Weekly
"Intoxicating... Godwin’s latest novel charms."—Asheville Citizen-Times
"Masterly."—Dallas Morning News
“A strong story populated by a host of memorable characters–smart, satisfying fiction, one of the author’s best in years.”—Kirkus Reviews starred review,
"If you plan on reading just one great novel in 2010, this might be it. Unfinished Desires is a big old-fashioned book about jealousy and passion at a Catholic girl’s school, written with best-selling author Gail Godwin’s trademark depth and humor &hell...
ENJOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
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