Vivid Portrait of an Idealistic Young Woman

I have to admit that memoir is not my thing. Most of the time I find them to be a bit self-serving and uninspiring. Not so with this book. I felt compelled to write this little review after reading others online. A few people complained that the book was "too graphic." Nonsense. If you want to see Mother Teresa and her nuns walking on water and singing Kumbyaa, then go ahead and hold onto your fantasies of rainbows and unicorns. If you want to see a vivid portrait of an idealistic young woman who matures into a real flesh-and-blood woman with doubts, hopes, and expectations, and does so while serving with one of the world's great mythical holy women, then read this book. 

This is an engaging read. I wanted to say that I couldn't put it down, but the fact is that I could, for good reason. I read, I reflected, I picked it up again, and read some more. There's no whitewashing here, but there is no overt bashing. To the naysayers, I say if you don't think this was a spiritual account of a woman's bright light and dark night of the soul, and if you can't see some of your own doubts and struggles, you are looking at a book to tell you what YOU want to hear, rather than what is the truth. Great read! Courageous. I’m anxious to hear about the next chapter of Mary Johnson's life.

...From Marguerite Maria Rivas.  Marguerite María Rivas teaches English at the City University of New York, specializing in creative writing, women’s literature, and Latino/a literature of the U.S. She holds a doctorate from Drew University and a master’s degree from City University of New York. Her work has been published in The Americas Review, Earth’s Daughters, Multicultural Review, Waterways, The Acentos Review, Changing English, and The Mas Tequila Review, among other publications. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the Marg Chandler Memorial Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation and was cited by the New York Assembly as a Woman in History for her contribution to the literary arts. Rivas reads her poetry both locally and nationally and is widely regarded as the de facto Poet Laureate of Staten Island.  Her full-length book of poems, Tell No One: Poems of Witness is forthcoming from Chimbarazu Press early in 2012.