Nuns have always been a mystery to me, having grown up in a Lutheran home. I saw them only on television in the show, "The Flying Nun," and in the movie, "Lilies of the Field," and have been curious about their lifestyle ever since.
An Unquenchable Thirst is an extremely honest book bravely written about life in the Missionaries of Charity convent during the leadership of Mother Teresa. The glory and the unendurable come to life in clear, clean writing that keeps you reading to find out what could possibly happen next in Mary's life. Some parts must have been difficult to admit on paper for the whole world to read, and must have taken a long time to express with such clarity.
The message I received from this book was how much humanness can be suppressed for the sake of "serving others." But how can one serve without the emotional and physical energy to do so? The extreme denial of the body--and the effects of illness that followed-- were a shock to me. Mary gave everything she had, out of love and devotion, and I feel she didn't receive enough (non-economic) compensation from any of those above her on the ladder to sainthood.
I was pleased when I read the book's excerpt in "O, The Oprah Magazine" and the interview in "Poets&Writers" magazine. This is subject matter far away from the mainstream, written in an accessible, authentic way.
When I finished the book I felt the cathartic vibe along with Mary, of being done with that part of her prior life. This memoir now enables her to live a life of freedom, creativity and choice. Thank you for this gift you have given us, AROHO Sister!
Jan La Roche
che is the editor of Oberon Poetry magazine. She is represented online at poetryvlog.com reading five of her poems, and on the writing blog Feral Mom, Feral Writer in an interview "AROHO Speaks, Writer to Writer." Her poems have appeared in Oberon, Mobius, Paumanok, Poems and Pictures of Long Island and Paumanok, Interwoven. She co-authored 25 Years Poems Drawings with her husband, Jef Bravata, in 2007. She is currently working on a new poetry collection, Vernacular Lens. She is also an artist.