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Mariette In Ecstasy (Paperback)

by Ron Hansen (Author) "Half-moon and a wrack of gray clouds ..." (more)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (Sep 15 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060981180
ISBN-13: 978-0060981181
Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.5 x 1.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 159 g

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #177,907 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

A novel about convent life at the turn of the century? Hardly the makings of a page-turner, yet Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy is a gripping, even life-changing book. For the Sisters of the Crucifixion, each day is a ceaseless round of work, study, and prayer--one hardly separate from the other. Their daily life is itself an act of devotion, caught here in a series of illuminated tableaux: hundreds of yellow butterflies alighting on eight gray habits, moving through a field; a sister praying as she "turns over a great slab of dough that rolls as slowly as a white pig"; nuns warming their hands on the flanks of horses, swinging scythes through timothy grass, crushing grapes with their feet.

Into this idyll comes Mariette--young, pretty, devout, but, as her father says, perhaps "too high-strung" for the convent. Prone to "trances, hallucinations, unnatural piety, great extremes of temperament, and, as he put it, 'inner wrenchings,'" Mariette scalds her hands with hot water as penance, threads barbed wire underneath her breasts while she sleeps, and is convinced Jesus speaks to her. Her very glamour disturbs the gentle rhythm of the nuns' lives. But when she begins bleeding from unexplained wounds in her hands, feet, and sides, the convent is thrown into an uproar. Is Mariette a saint? Or just a lying, hysterical girl? Where do we draw the line between madness and faith, mysticism and eroticism, the life of the spirit and that of the world?

It's to Hansen's credit that he never provides easy answers. Mariette's stigmata may or may not be genuine; the novel's achingly gorgeous prose is the true miracle here. Mariette in Ecstasy is a brief, precious book, not a single word in excess, not a single word left out. --Mary Park

From Publishers Weekly

In this quiet and forceful study of religious passion, Hansen ( The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ) places an extraordinary spiritual experience in the center of a deftly evoked natural world, namely, rural upstate New York just after the turn of the century. At summer's end, when she is 17, Mariette Baptiste, educated daughter of the local doctor, enters the cloistered convent of Our Lady of the Afflictions as a postulant. Her religious fervor, understated but determined, makes an impact on the small community of nuns whose days and nights are measured in a round of prayer and farm work changing only with the seasons. Their ordered life is disrupted, however, as Mariette begins to fall into a series of trances from which she awakens with stigmata, which heal as spontaneously as they appear. The feelings of skepticism, jealousy and adoration evoked in the nuns, Mariette's own response and that of the Mother Superior are delicately, indelibly drawn in Hansen's authoritative prose.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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First Sentence
Half-moon and a wrack of gray clouds. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Another Grand Slam by Mr. Hansen!, Feb 23 2004

By	S. Henkels (Devon, Pa United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ron Hansen is among the best writers delving into unusual real-life historical situations, and trying to make sense of them. Mariette is a pretty 17 year old drawn to the convent, who immediately becomes a special, vision influenced, faith inspired, stigmatized True Believer. Many of the older nuns are skeptical (to say the least), while the younger ones are in awe. Mr. Hansen's guides us right into the heart and soul of this Catholic community, and of course Mariette. After reading this book, one feels a certain understanding of this potential saint, and how religion may become an obsession. I would personally agree with her physician / father, the scientific skeptic, but Mariette's story is certainly believable in the hands of a fine writer like Mr. Hansen!

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2.0 out of 5 stars A Nun in 1906 Upstate New York..., Aug 12 2003

By	Michael J. Armijo (Marina Del Rey, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was quite surprised at this book after reading it in a single day. It's not a long book (only 179 pages) but it wasn't what I expected. I wanted a more intricate story with sub-plots and more controversy. It's clear that Catholic convents had strict rules in the early 20th Century. It took me into a loop when Mariette has a stigmatic experience that no one took seriously; whereby, she was dismissed from becoming a nun. The story really lacked a good plot and there were too many SISTERS in the story. One is better off finding the excellent film, THE MAGDALENE SISTERS (which is based on a true story). The writing by author Ron Hansen cannot be overlooked as he does have a special style. This was a National Bestseller in 1991. I think a lot of readers were intriged and 'let down' by the title alone. Oh well...it added a completely new subject as a follow-up to my last book (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN--Haha).

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5.0 out of 5 stars Descriptive, evocative, sensuous and beautiful. Read it., Jun 11 2003

By	Ian Dodson "iandodsoniandodson" (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

The arrival of a young, eager and devout postulant throws a country convent into turmoil.
She becomes a mirror of truth within the convent walls, revealing to all the motives of their own hearts.

Hansens evocative prose conjures the earthy smells sounds and colour of an idyllic country convent setting. I enjoyed tremendously his keen appreciation of the minutiae of life, the tiny details that are so important and potentially explosive in a closed order.

The setting never once overwhelms the characters but gives meaning and support and indeed sense to their harsh draconian lifestyle. The atmosphere elevates the simple, the everyday and ordinary to the level of rite, ritual and liturgy.

What I can only call the organic 'oneness' of the sisterhood is marvelously portrayed as their daily, seasonal and even menstrual cycles merge. It is this harmony which is threatened by the arrival of Mariette Baptiste. As she travails in her own devotion to God, she is favoured and feared in equal measure. The juxtaposition of sexual and religious ecstasy is clearly evoked by Hansen, allowed to evolve but never endangers the story.

Within the convent Mariette is the catalyst that stirs reaction. To some she is the image of not just a youth, but a life left behind. To the complacent she is a threat to the routine they have come to accept. To the luke warm, she is an offence. But to those who seek genuine devotion, she is a gift from God.

Descriptive, evocative, sensuous and beautiful. Read it.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous achievement, awesome writing
Hansen re-creates the sights and smells of rural upstate New York in 1906 in exquisite, golden detail as if he had been there. Read more

Published on May 3 2003 by Dan Allison

3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing
This was ambitious of Hansen, who has labored skillfullly but without distinction in general. Worth the read, though without the profundity the subject matter might suggest. Read more

Published on Oct 9 2002 by forloveof art

4.0 out of 5 stars What do Good Prose and the Stigmata Have in Common?
Hansen's novella "Mariette in Ecstasy" is beautifully written. Many have commented on the passion with which Hansen writes, and I'll add my two cents in as well. Read more

Published on May 21 2002 by Barry E. DeWalt

4.0 out of 5 stars Mariette in Ecstasy
A book so vividly written -- on a subject so removed from most of us -- that I alternated between being astonished by the story, and astonished that it could have been written in... Read more