Diane Barnes's Reviews > The Ninth Hour

Oh, how I loved these nuns! The Little Sisters of the Sick Poor, spending their lives nursing and providing for the needs of poor people in turn of the century Brooklyn, NY. It wasn't easy, but they did what they could, given the bounds of the Catholic Church, the Priests, lack of money, and human nature. Of course, that meant that sometimes rules had to be broken.
Sister St. Savior has no problem with this. She even has a ledger where she keeps a list of the sins she committed in her quest to give aid and succor. "Hold it against the good I've done, she prayed. We'll sort it out when I see you."

How to do what you know is right, and best, when it contradicts the rules of God? God can be awfully slow sometimes, while people suffer waiting for him to make up his mind. Keeping your mouth shut, when you know certain things, is one way around it. Actively participating in some practices gets a little trickier, but absolution and atonement can help with that. Do what you can to make lives better, because maybe God doesn't see, or care, the way you do.

Sister Jeanne, Sister Immaculata, Sister Lucy, are the nuns we get to know here, along with Annie and her daughter Sally, who are direct beneficiaries of their goodness. The writing style is quiet and hushed, no earth shattering events. Life and death are dealt with matter-of- factly, things happen, life goes on. As it does outside of novels.

I love Alice McDermott, and have never read a bad novel by her. There is always a first time, I suppose, but not this time. Excellent by my standards in every way, "The Ninth Hour" goes on my favorites list.