Unfinished Desires

September 7, 2009
Bestselling author Godwin (Evensong
; The Finishing School
) brings readers back in time to the early 1950s in this endearing story of Catholic school girls and the nuns who oversee them. As Mother Suzanne Ravenel begins a memoir of her 60-plus years at Mount St. Gabriel's School in Mountain City, N.C., she's forced to re-examine the “toxic year” of 1951–1952, one of her worst at the school—beginning with the arrival of ninth-grade student Chloe Starnes, who's recently lost her mother, and Mother Malloy, a beautiful young nun assigned to the freshman class. Starnes and Malloy's arrivals presage a shift in the ranks of freshman Tildy Stratton's cruel clique, with significant consequences for all involved. Change, when it finally comes, stems from the girls' attempt to revive a play written years before by Ravenel. 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.

Starred review from July 15, 2009
After a couple of subpar efforts, Godwin (Queen of the Underworld, 2006, etc.) is back in top form with a gripping tale of jealousies and power struggles at a Catholic girls' school.

In the year 2001, elderly Mother Suzanne Ravenel tape-records her memories of her 50 years at Mount Saint Gabriel's in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. Her worst memories are of the dreadful school year 1951-52, when a turbulent ninth grader provoked an outburst that resulted in the headmistress being sent on a leave of absence. Mother Ravenel's own student years at Mount Saint Gabriel's in the 1930s also figure in the story, as does her fraught friendship with Antonia Tilden. This being the South, the separate generations are connected by blood and grievances. Antonia's orphaned niece Chloe is in that 1951-52 ninth-grade class, and she becomes best friends with manipulative, needy Tildy Stratton, daughter of Antonia's embittered twin Cordelia, who's convinced that Suzanne Ravenel's pushiness led to Antonia abandoning her true vocation as a nun. Cordelia's animosity and malice drive the plot, as Tildy takes up her mother's vendetta against the admittedly bossy, self-righteous Mother Ravenel. Chloe's kind Uncle Henry is the only male character of any significance; the emphasis is on female friendships, especially the adolescent variety, with its gusts of hormonal emotions and intricate maneuvers for position. Bad mothers get a good deal of attention as well (there are quite a few of them), and Godwin elicits our understanding for all her characters without letting them off the hook for bad behavior. She skillfully unfolds fascinatingly tangled motives as she keeps the action bustling along. Moving final scenes show an old nun realizing that mixed motives matter less than a lifetime of service, and two old friends reconnecting after 55 years, matured and seasoned by what they've endured, but not so very different from what they were at 14.

A strong story populated by a host of memorable characters—smart, satisfying fiction, one of the author's best in years.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 15, 2009
Godwin's latest novel (after "Queen of the Underworld") is a convoluted tale of intrigue at a girls' boarding school that spans generations. Mount St. Gabriel, an exclusive academy in the North Carolina mountains, was founded by two nuns at the beginning of the 20th century. The school's sheltered atmosphere promoted rigorous academic and religious education but allowed adolescent jealousies to fester unchecked. The story's major characters attended the school in the early 1950s, when the school's headmistress was the manipulative Mother Ravenel, herself an alumna from the 1920s, as were some of the students' mothers. The story hopscotches in time from the school's founding to the near present, when the elderly Mother Ravenel dictates her memoir and aging classmates reunite to reminisce. It's a chore to keep the many generations of characters straight, especially when so many are superficially drawn. The promise of uncovering Mother Ravenel's involvement in a past incident of seeming import to one of the families lures the reader on, but the denouement, though tragic, reveals little motivation beyond schoolgirl pettiness. VERDICT Of interest to die-hard Godwin fans.Reba Leiding, James Madison Univ. Libs., Harrisonburg, VA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2009
Madeline describes Mount St. Gabriels, the venerated all-girls Catholic school in Mountain City, North Carolina, as a hotbed of bitchery. Self-possessed and beautiful at 16, Madeline had followed her sharp-tongued photographer mother, Cornelia, and her mothers twin, Antonia, to Mount St. Gabriels, only to be expelled. Now Madelines scheming younger sister, Tildy, is equally in danger of triggering the wrath of the schools flinty headmistress, Mother Raving Ravenel. Theres a reason for Ravenels hostility toward the family, but before Godwin reveals that secret, there are many other intriguing entanglements, conflicts, and tragedies to sort out, and readers will be in no rush. Godwins scintillating thirteenth novel is a perfect take-a-break tale. Delectably funny, shrewdly melodramatic, and complexly spiritual, it takes place in two time frames. The stories of Madeline and classmates Tildy, wild Maud, and Chloe, a budding artist mourning her mother, take place in 1951. In 2001, Mother Ravenel, still fierce at 85, is recording her memories of Mount St. Gabriels, and struggling with the resurrection of long-suppressed feelings. With a viney plot, smart and sensitive characters, and elegantly witty dialogue, Godwins novel is as refreshing as just-picked berries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)