Susan D'Entremont's Reviews > The Ninth Hour

I received a free copy of this book at an event for librarians. At the event, I heard the author speak on a panel, and I later got to speak to her one-on-one at a book signing. She was so incredibly gracious and down-to-earth. The fact that this National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize nominated author was willing to shoot the breeze with me about a college class my daughter is taking on Catholicism and how this book might fit into her course probably made me predisposed to like this book. From this short interaction with her, I suspect that McDermott is an attentive professor at Johns Hopkins who isn't just there because of her name, but who really teachers her students.

This book is a short and quiet gem. McDermott's way with words is, of course, remarkable. Yes, the book is Catholic, and many of the characters are nuns. But that is just one aspect of them, their job. She does not rely on Catholic tropes or cliches. Instead, the characters are real, well-rounded people, whose Catholicism is important, but only one part of them. McDermott also subtly reminds us of the work these women religious did - the risks they took, the way they reached out into the world in a way that would have been hard for women to do otherwise at that time, and, as one character said, how they were the backbone of the church. (Priests were just Mama's boys, according to the same character.)

I wasn't thrilled with the ending, although I knew something was coming due to McDermott's presentation. It made sense in the context of the book, and was a sound narrative, I just didn't like what happened and/or wish it had been explored more. But that was part of the theme of the book - how in that era lots of things weren't openly discussed and people didn't delve too deeply into their feelings.