THE CATHOLIC NOVEL - Episode 7: "Mariette in Ecstasy" nettvcatholic on April 5, 2017. This 7th episode focuses on Ron Hansen's novel, MARIETTE IN ECSTASY! "Ron Hansen has written a novel whose language …More
THE CATHOLIC NOVEL - Episode 7: "Mariette in Ecstasy"
nettvcatholic on April 5, 2017. This 7th episode focuses on Ron Hansen's novel, MARIETTE IN ECSTASY! "Ron Hansen has written a novel whose language is so exquisite that the book runs the danger of being praised only for its diamondlike prose, which is often as pleasing as the most crystalline poetry. And yet "Mariette in Ecstasy" is not solely a novel of sensibility, a mere esthete's exercise. For while its descriptions dazzle, they never preen or degenerate into overblown virtuoso riffs. The greatest beauty -- and the fundamental success -- of this gripping novel is that its author has managed to find a voice that is entirely at the service of its strange and elusive subject. It is a subject that some readers may consider alien, or at least difficult.
The story takes place in a contemplative Roman Catholic convent in upstate New York. The year is 1906, and there is about the atmosphere -- echoed effectively, except for a very few …More
nettvcatholic on April 5, 2017. This 7th episode focuses on Ron Hansen's novel, MARIETTE IN ECSTASY! "Ron Hansen has written a novel whose language is so exquisite that the book runs the danger of being praised only for its diamondlike prose, which is often as pleasing as the most crystalline poetry. And yet "Mariette in Ecstasy" is not solely a novel of sensibility, a mere esthete's exercise. For while its descriptions dazzle, they never preen or degenerate into overblown virtuoso riffs. The greatest beauty -- and the fundamental success -- of this gripping novel is that its author has managed to find a voice that is entirely at the service of its strange and elusive subject. It is a subject that some readers may consider alien, or at least difficult.
The story takes place in a contemplative Roman Catholic convent in upstate New York. The year is 1906, and there is about the atmosphere -- echoed effectively, except for a very few …More