Review: The Cloister Walk

Title: The Cloister Walk

Author: Kathleen Norris

Genre: Memoir/Religion

Trigger Warnings: Death (mentions), sexual assault (mentions), mental illness (mentions), murder (mentions)

Back Cover:

Why would a married woman with a thoroughly Protestant background and often more doubt than faith be drawn to the ancient practice of monasticism, to a community of celibate men whose days are centered on a rigid schedule of prayer, work, and scripture? This is the question that poet Kathleen Norris asks us as, somewhat to her own surprise, she found herself on two extended residencies at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota.

Part record of her time among the Benedictines, part meditation on various aspects of monastic life, The Cloister Walk demonstrates, from the rare perspective of someone who is both an insider and outsider, how immersion in the cloistered world– its liturgy, its ritual, its sense of community– can impart meaning to everyday events and deepen our secular lives. In this stirring and lyrical work, the monastery, often considered archaic or otherworldly, becomes immediate, accessible, and relevant to us, no matter what our faith may be.

Review:

This is another recommendation from my mother-in-law. It sounded somewhat interesting, but wasn’t high on my priority list until she actually gave me a copy. I haven’t read a physical book in a long time, but I am trying to work through my unread shelf, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

This is not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting something solidly memoir about the author’s experience of being a Protestant-raised nonreligious person spending time in Catholic monastery. I expected a series of events presented in chronological order, along with what she learned about religion and monasticism and some reflections on monastic life. I was not expecting … whatever this is.

Kathleen is a poet, and this book reads like a poem in prose form. I know that’s an oxymoron, but I don’t have a better way to describe it. It reads like poetry – reflective and metaphorical and not limited to a particular place, time, or sequence of events – but it’s written in proper sentences and paragraphs and such like prose. It was an interesting and unique reading experience, and I rather enjoyed the slow, reflective pace.

I also found a lot to relate to in Kathleen. She was raised Protestant but rejected the religion of her youth. Although when the book opened she considered herself generally nonreligious, she still was a sort of spiritual seeker, looking for some kind of religious or spiritual transcendence. The main difference between us in this regard is that she is willing to go back to Christianity to search for it.

I’m glad she did, though, because the result was this book, which is fascinating. I have never been Catholic, so it was interesting learning about little details of Catholicism, and especially about monastic life and the Benedictine monks that she spent time with. She reflects on a lot of different topics in regards to religion and monasticism – everything from saints she particularly likes to the experience of singing psalms every day to more controversial aspects like mandatory celibacy. All of it was fascinating, and some of it was even inspiring.

Even though I have no intention of looking to Christianity for my spiritual seeking journey, I’m glad Kathleen could find positive things. And I’m very glad she decided to write about them in this book. It’s more an invitation to reflection than any sort of memoir, but I found it engaging, poetic, and surprisingly resonant in many places. It feels especially crafted for the spiritual seeker.