Changing Habits

Trini Alvarado's pleasant, unpretentious voice and carefully measured reading style perfectly match the characters of Kathleen, Joanna, and Angelina, three young women who become novitiates in the early '60s. Their reasons for entering the convent vary: Kathleen enters at her parents' urging, Joanna runs from betrayal and a broken engagement, and Angelina feels drawn to serve God. When each of the women experiences a crisis of faith, Alvarado's narration is delivered with appropriate anguish coupled with heartfelt emotion. Her portrayal of culture shock when the women leave the convent depicts astonishment and incredulity. Alvarado's soft, adaptable voice is appropriate for convent life and carries the story to a satisfying conclusion. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

April 21, 2003
Macomber (Between Friends; Navy Wife) covers familiar emotional ground in an unusual setting, giving readers a glimpse of life in a Minneapolis convent. In the early 1960s, three young women find themselves taking vows: Angelina Marcello, answering what she believes to be God's call; Kathleen O'Shaughnessy, who is following the urging of her devout parents; and Joanna Baird, who is fleeing heartbreak (her fiancé arrived home from a tour in Vietnam with a pregnant Vietnamese bride a month before their planned wedding). They initially find fulfillment in service—Joanna as a nurse, Angelina as a home economics teacher, Kathleen as an elementary school teacher—but as the years pass, each confronts a crisis of faith that she cannot resolve within the convent walls. In the early 1970s, they return to secular life to face a society that has changed dramatically in the previous decade, particularly in relations between men and women. The premise is inventive, but the challenges the sisters face—a young student's back-alley abortion, an alcoholic priest, encounters with violent and lascivious men—are predictable, and Macomber gives them stock treatment. The development of the women's friendship occurs off the page, so that it seems jarring when they reminisce like soul mates at a reunion years later, with families in tow. Macomber's historical research about the Second Vatican Council and church politics is seamlessly woven into the story and adds badly needed depth to the novel. Author tour.