And Then They Were Nuns Book

This is a well-written book, but disappointing. It is supposedly about nuns living in a small, remote convent in Southern California -- but there is almost nothing in the story itself about faith or spirituality. I don't think it would have been that much different if the author had called it a novel about a small eco-feminist commune. The only time that faith -- formal or otherwise -- seems to appear is when the women are in tension with formal Catholicism, but there is nothing about the women's personal beliefs, or even reflection on spirituality. There is no sense of dedication to a life of spirit, or of any kind of relationship with a higher power. I wouldn't expect that the characters all be perfectly devout and faithful in conventional ways, but I expected them to be "nuns" in more than name.

I'm not saying that these women do not have beliefs and values. Clearly they do. But again, there was nothing about the way those beliefs were expressed in the book that seemed to connect with any kind of calling as a nun, however non-traditional.