Catalina [Hardcover]

"Nobody ever died of love," says Doña Beatriz, the prioress of the nunnery where the Virgin Mary appears to Catalina. While thinking she's only attempting to convince Catalina to give up her unquenchable thirst for her young lover, Diego, Beatriz actually reveals her own doubly hollow soul with this line. First, she herself did die of love. She died when the young priest Blasco did not leave his order to pursue the bashful looks she gave him every morning at mass when she was a girl. But more significantly, this woman who purports to be Christ's servant on earth fails to recognize that the very one she heralds as the savior of the world died of nothing if not of love (Maugham uses "of" here as Spanish speakers use "de." We might use "from" or "out of." This usage gives a bit of an exotic feel to the passage, while allowing the author to play with "of." "As a result of" and "out of" are both valid ways to interpret it, making the line rather nuanced.). She replaced amorous love with the love of her savior, but somewhere in the midst of 16th-century Spain she lost even that.

The novel is largely about gaining fresh perspectives on life and redemption. Blasco finds a new perspective about his Greek friend Demetrios. Beatriz foils her own attempt to bring Catalina into the convent by realizing that salvation is knowable outside her nunnery's walls. Most notably, however, Catalina finds a fresh perspective every time she goes on stage-the words she speaks might be the same from performance to performance, but the audience is always different, creating a new performance every time.

From the Christian perspective, very little of what Maugham writes in this novel is controversial. For instance, everybody agrees that burning infidels at the stake is not what Christ had in mind for his Church. Yet Maugham first goes about creating a world (the Inquisition) in which there is order, in which the reader can find a place for herself (whether that of insider or outsider). Then once the world is established, it is chinked piecemeal until the absurdity of it all is plain.

An especially nice touch is the introduction at the end of the novel of an unnamed character who is very clearly Don Quixote. Maugham uses Quixote as a parallel to the Church. While insane in his demeanor and behavior, Quixote does deal with significant issues like love and virtue. Maugham writes that people around Quixote are amazed that someone who acts so oddly is able to eloquently discuss such meaningful things.

The Church is in the same position as Quixote, according to Maugham. On the one hand, the Church has done some dubious, even horribly sinful things. Yet, there is still truth to be had by her people. The Inquisition doesn't negate the redemption Christ offers. Killing dissidents is the wrong way to go about portraying love, but humankind's (and the Church's) need for redemption is precisely the point.

Overall, the novel is definitely worth a read. I have a few criticisms, but my main one is Maugham's sloppy use of pronouns. "He" is too often left vague. While that can enhance certain passages, it is regularly unnecessary and often distressing. But find a copy and read it for yourself.

Despite overwhelming pressure from the devout and self-righteous who claim to know what's best for her, she follows her own path and does indeed live to fulfill her divinely endowed potential. Religious hypocrisy is exposed for what it is in this intricately subtle and heart warming story of one girl's triumphs in the face of seemingly daunting dogmatic forces arraigned against her. "Catalina, I love you! I want you in my life again, please come back to me."

Believe me ... She's and absolute Treasure!