Reviews for The Monastery

The average rating for The Monastery based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-02-12 00:00:00 Christopher Barbour This third Dr Nikola book has everything wrong with it that the first two had; ridiculous levels of coincidence driving the plot and the heroes being appalling racists by modern standards being the chief offenders; but sadly it doesn't quite manage to overcome them in the way it's predecessors did. I won't bore people with all the little niggles I had, but the main fault, to my eyes, was that the central character, the hero, the narrator of our thrilling adventure, was an insufferable prick. Entire chapters are taken up by this guy telling us how crap his life is, how nothing ever goes right for him, and how he is the unluckiest soul who ever walked the face of the earth. We get it mate, you feel sorry for yourself. I could just about put up with it until he meets the beautiful love interest and berates her every time she tries to compliment or flirt with him; he's unworthy of her affection so she should bugger off and leave him alone, please and thank you; before pursuing her relentlessly as soon as she takes a hint and loses interest. I haven't hated the behavior of a romantic male lead so much since I watched Amazing Spidey 2: Adventures of a Stalker Boy

Review # 2 was written on 2020-08-19 00:00:00 Michael Colombo "For history as far as I can see is not the arrangement of what happens, in sequence and in truth, but a fabulous arrangement of surmises and guesses held up as a banner against the assault of withering truth." The Secret Scripture is a sublime work of fiction about memory and its effect on history and truth. It's about love and loss, grief, religion and Ireland. It nearly broke my heart, but left me with a glimpse of joy and hope. It's a slow unraveling of the mystery surrounding the reason why Roseanne McNulty has been institutionalized at the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital for the past sixty years of her nearly one hundred years of life. Her story is gradually revealed through her own narrative as recorded in a hidden journal as well as through inquiries made by Dr. Grene, the psychiatrist charged with her care. Roscommon is slated to shut down and Dr. Grene must determine which patients, if any, were wrongfully committed for reasons other than mental instability. The point of view alternates between Roseanne's voice and that of Dr. Grene. What Roseanne tells us and what Dr. Grene uncovers from old documents are two different versions of "the truth". Dr. Grene must determine which to believe and how these stories ultimately matter in his own decision regarding Roseanne's fate in her old age. "The one thing that is fatal in the reading of impromptu history is a wrongful desire for accuracy. There is no such thing." Roseanne's story is a tragic one and my heart ached for this gentle soul left abandoned due to the ignorance and prejudices of other human beings. A Protestant in a country ravaged by civil war, Roseanne is a victim of the power of the Irish Catholic Church in the early 1900s. Father Gaunt is a symbol of the perversion of the influences of the church at that time over the lives and the moral judgments of those in its path. "Morality has its own civil wars, with its own victims in their own time and place." The story is told slowly and is one to be read with quiet contemplation, allowing Sebastian Barry's extraordinary prose to wash over and captivate you. I closed the book with a feeling of absolute contentment despite the grim journey. I will no doubt read more of this author's work and am in fact anxious to do so. I highly recommend this five-star book. "There are things that move at a human pace before our eyes, but other things move in arcs so great they are as good as invisible."