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A review by stefhyena
Lambs of God by Marele Day
5.0
This strange and unsettling book is full of destabilising events. We begin in an abbey, where there are only three sisters left and their religious observances have taken on a peculiar flavour all of their own. They weave fairy tales and ancient myths as well as pagan beliefs through their understanding and observance of Christian monastic life and they have begun to connect with the environment in ways that are represented by dirt, by the wool they spin and wear and the sheep they have a symbiotic relationship with (and know they have begun to resemble). There are three nuns of differing ages, but they manage not to take on quite the stereotypes you would expect from them (although Carla comes close) nor do they quite fit the old cliche of maiden, mother, crone.
Their life is enclosed, they do not even see the seals, nor the causeway that is as shifting as the plot and relationships of the book and comes and goes to connect their "island" to the mainland, but at low-tide when there is a causeway a young and ambitious priest comes across to look at what he thinks is an abandoned monastery and to get it ready for selling or developing.
This is where it gets weird, with Ignatius as sort of a colonist coming into what he has already decided is "terra nullius" and all too ready to see the inhabitants as savages, especially given the lack of separation between themselves and their environment. Things like cutlery and dependence on technology are presented as evidence of being "civilised" while the sisters are portrayed as animalistic, instinct driven, rarely even speaking and kind of disgusting actually. At the same time throughout the book this view of them is undermined from time to time, both by Ignatius' occasional sexual attraction to one of them and by the many instances of culture by these "savages" their greater ability to weave myths and daily life together in complex ways as well as the technology of carding, spinning and knitting...human hair added to the mix. This is about gender- gendered power, culture and technology as the conflict of interests between Ignatius and the community becomes a potentially deadly game of wits.
Ignatius underestimates the three women by a long way and the reader is almost led to do the same (though there are hints all along). The "happy ending" almost seems too contrived and simple, it is achieved through the author unravelling the ideas of enclosure and in some ways self-defeating because the sisters can only win through by using power from the world they have abandoned (and a male is pivotal in this). In this story ONLY the master's tools can destroy the master's house but along the way we get some cynical views of church, culture, male power and ownership. Place and personhood are explored (often uncomfortably) and "knowing" is made complex as the irrational triumphs again and again. Surprising amounts of tolerance and forgiveness strew the emotional landscape but abuse and suffering can also lead to violence and death, while all sorts of unpleasant odors are constantly present along with dirt and degradation.
There's a disappointingly conventional and heteronormative view of sexuality, although the exploration of celibacies was sort of interesting, it wasn't quite as cynically treated as I expected (as you often find). At the end the author, reader and characters in effect have their cake (honey biscuits) and eat it too, the story weakens to allow resolution and to bring back a sense of taking the spirituality in the text more-or-less seriously (I had mixed feelings about this).
It's well worth a read and very thought provoking.
Their life is enclosed, they do not even see the seals, nor the causeway that is as shifting as the plot and relationships of the book and comes and goes to connect their "island" to the mainland, but at low-tide when there is a causeway a young and ambitious priest comes across to look at what he thinks is an abandoned monastery and to get it ready for selling or developing.
This is where it gets weird, with Ignatius as sort of a colonist coming into what he has already decided is "terra nullius" and all too ready to see the inhabitants as savages, especially given the lack of separation between themselves and their environment. Things like cutlery and dependence on technology are presented as evidence of being "civilised" while the sisters are portrayed as animalistic, instinct driven, rarely even speaking and kind of disgusting actually. At the same time throughout the book this view of them is undermined from time to time, both by Ignatius' occasional sexual attraction to one of them and by the many instances of culture by these "savages" their greater ability to weave myths and daily life together in complex ways as well as the technology of carding, spinning and knitting...human hair added to the mix. This is about gender- gendered power, culture and technology as the conflict of interests between Ignatius and the community becomes a potentially deadly game of wits.
Ignatius underestimates the three women by a long way and the reader is almost led to do the same (though there are hints all along). The "happy ending" almost seems too contrived and simple, it is achieved through the author unravelling the ideas of enclosure and in some ways self-defeating because the sisters can only win through by using power from the world they have abandoned (and a male is pivotal in this). In this story ONLY the master's tools can destroy the master's house but along the way we get some cynical views of church, culture, male power and ownership. Place and personhood are explored (often uncomfortably) and "knowing" is made complex as the irrational triumphs again and again. Surprising amounts of tolerance and forgiveness strew the emotional landscape but abuse and suffering can also lead to violence and death, while all sorts of unpleasant odors are constantly present along with dirt and degradation.
There's a disappointingly conventional and heteronormative view of sexuality, although the exploration of celibacies was sort of interesting, it wasn't quite as cynically treated as I expected (as you often find). At the end the author, reader and characters in effect have their cake (honey biscuits) and eat it too, the story weakens to allow resolution and to bring back a sense of taking the spirituality in the text more-or-less seriously (I had mixed feelings about this).
It's well worth a read and very thought provoking.