"In a country where the love of a billion bucks is the holy grail, reading about a woman’s search for love as the Holy Grail of the soul can be an extraordinary experience.... Much of her personal life is explored in An Unquenchable Thirst, including the dark nights of the soul, as well as the light-bursts of love, written as if her discoveries and revelations connect to readers one at a time." --Steve Sherman, from Keene Sentinel
More Print Reviews
“Now married and living as a writer in New Hampshire, Johnson has chronicled two decades of a no-holds-barred nun’s story while avoiding the temptation of a spiteful, smutty ‘convent confidential.’” --Jonathan E. Lazarus, from Star-Ledger Entertainment Desk
"Johnson's life is driven by a deep desire to comfort and serve. The ability to cleave to that desire for 20 years seems near-heroic, but that sense doesn't come from any self-aggrandizing writing. Johnson's prose is both conversational and humble." --Robin Vidimos, from The Denver Post
"Unlike memoirs in which the author invokes the omnipotence of hindsight, Johnson's allows for the arch of her journey to play out in real time; she becomes the protagonist in a kind of biographical novel. We experience her initial zeal, growing disillusionment, and gradual sexual, intellectual, and emotional emancipation." --Allastair Newton in Extra Magazine
"In a country where the love of a billion bucks is the holy grail, reading about a woman’s search for love as the Holy Grail of the soul can be an extraordinary experience. Mary Johnson gives us a forthright, bare-hearted book." --Steve Sherman, from New Hampshire Sentinel
"Johnson's 20 years... in Mother Teresa's order, reads like a novel... but is also an exacting account of a woman growing into her own soul. When at last she leaves the order, it's not with bitterness but with love." --Marcia Menter, from MORE Magazine
"I have problems with memoirs, as readers of my past reviews of them no doubt remember. But I can recommend Mary Johnson's "An Unquenchable Thirst" with no reservations. Johnson spares few members of her Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa in 1946, as well as the church's hierarchy-- and herself in telling her story." --David M. Kinchchen, from Huntington News
"The writing of "An Unquenchable Thirst" is so lovely that it reads like a prayer for reconciliation. " --Joshunda Sanders, from The Austin Statesman