River of Fire

Starred review from May 13, 2019
This riveting memoir from Prejean (The Death of Innocents) describes her life as a nun, starting with her entrance into a convent in 1957 at 18 years old and ending in 1982 when she began her work with the Louisiana death row inmate that would form the foundation of her bestselling Dead Man Walking. Born in Baton Rouge, La., Prejean joined the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille after high school and entered a world of draconian rules: novitiate sisters were allowed no contact with family, received only heavily censored mail, and their lives were governed by strict instructions, including how to properly lay in a sickbed. This all changed in 1965 after the reforms of Vatican II, a watershed moment in the history of the Catholic Church that Prejean embraces as having a restorative influence on the church. Throughout, she persuasively shows why some choose the convent life (“I need the silence it offers, freed from the empty chatter and trivial conversations... I need the time to be in the company of other spiritual seekers”) and describes her spiritual transformation toward political activism. Providing a window into the upheaval in the church during the 1960s and ’70s, Prejean’s engrossing memoir also fleshes out how she rose to be an influential voice within the church before becoming a renowned proponent of abolishing the death penalty. Informing and entertaining, Prejean’s exceptional memoir will be of special interest to Catholics and social justice advocates.

June 15, 2019
A noted Catholic sister recounts how joining the church became the first step on her path to becoming a social justice activist. Born to an upper-middle-class Baton Rouge family, Prejean (The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, 2004, etc.) joined the Congregation of St. Joseph as a novice shortly after she graduated from high school in the late 1950s. Just 18 years old, she knew that her mission was to be an "obedient [daughter] of Mother Church" and find union with God. What she did not know was that her "Mother Church" would soon change forever. The liberalization policies developed by the Vatican II Council in the early 1960s not only affected how Prejean saw herself, but also how she understood her place, both in the church and in the world. Newly relaxed rules that allowed for more modern dress also permitted nuns and priests to openly mingle with each other. Testing her faith and the bonds she had developed with other nuns, the author became involved in an intensely emotional relationship with a troubled priest. Open conversations about the "complex new realities" of a world defined by the Vietnam War and emerging social justice movements challenged Prejean and other clerics to confront new and unsettling realities. Liberalization also allowed the author to pursue a degree in religious education and learn tools to help her "critique Church teaching in an intellectually honest way." Yet it would not be until the 1970s that Prejean awakened to her true calling to help the poor and socially disenfranchised. In 1981, she began working as a volunteer educator in the all-black St. Thomas housing project, where she began the prison pen-pal relationship that would define the next chapter of her life as an anti-death penalty advocate. A modest storyteller, Prejean chronicles the compelling, sometimes-difficult journey to the heart of her soul and faith with wit, honesty, and intelligence. A refreshingly intimate memoir of a life in faith.

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June 1, 2019
Her first book, Dead Man Walking (1993), and the movie adapted from it, made Prejean the most famous Catholic nun in America and the preeminent American critic of capital punishment. Her ministry to Death Row inmates started in 1981 as another step in a vocation that had already brought her to leadership roles in New Orleans' Sisters of St. Joseph. This book recounts her life before 1981. She grew up in a devout Catholic, middle-class, Louisiana family fortunately unencumbered by woes other than her brother's childhood ill health. She entered her order just as John XXIII became pope, inaugurating momentous times for the church. Vatican II freed nuns to minister outside cloisters, and much of her testimony concerns the opportunities opened to her. In tandem, she discusses close friendships with a fellow nun and a brilliant but troubled priest, both of whom encouraged her higher education and subsequent callings. She writes with sublime simplicity, concerned only with telling the story of an active life lived with God.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2019

Catholic Sister Prejean (Congregation of St. Joseph; Dead Man Walking), who has spent years opposing the death penalty, offers this moving reflection in answer to a question she was once asked by a prison guard: "What's a nun doing in a place like this?" Unlike other recent memoirs by former nuns who look back, if not in anger, but at least in disgust, Prejean's work shows how she's remained a faithful, although at times combative, religious sister, reflecting pensively on her past and how it has shaped her current outlook. This account reads almost like a letter from a friend; the author is candid about intimate details of her life, ruminating on the trials and tribulations she experienced in adapting to the changes wrought by the Second Vatican Council, and not shying away from speaking about the sexual revolution and its effect on many religions. She particularly recounts the church's and her own movement toward a concern for social justice. VERDICT A moving portrait of one Sister's journey through change, and a meditation on how individuals and institutions grow and adapt. This will appeal to anyone who enjoys a forthright autobiography.--Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2019

A vocal opponent of the death penalty, Sister Prejean joined the Sisters of St. Joseph at age 18 and discovered her commitment to the marginalized in her forties. Here she explores her spiritual journey toward that commitment.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.