In Praise of Disobedience
Clare of Assisi, A Novel
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- £20.99
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- £20.99
Publisher Description
An author receives a mysterious e-mail begging her to tell the story of Clare of Assisi, the thirteenth-century Italian saint. At first annoyed by the request, the author begins to research Saint Clare and becomes captivated by her life. We too are transported into the strange and beautiful world of medieval Italy, witnessing the daily rituals of convent life. At the center of that life is Saint Clare, a subversive and compelling figure full of contradictions: a physically disabled woman who travels widely in her imagination, someone unforgivingly harsh to herself yet infinitely generous to the women she supervises, a practitioner of self-abnegation who nevertheless knows her own worth. A visionary who liberated herself from the chains of materialism and patriarchy, Saint Clare here becomes an inspirational figure for a new generation of readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The life of Italian saint Clare of Assisi gets a clever feminist reimagining in this biography-cum-epistolary novel by playwright Maraini (Voices). An author with the initials "DM" receives a letter from Chiara Mandalà, a Sicilian student who visited the town of Assisi and became fascinated by its 13th-century history, asking for the author to join her in learning about Clare's life. DM is baffled by the request, but her replies slowly shift from brusque dismissal to curiosity as she becomes invested in Clare's story. DM discovers that the saint came from a line of nobility and proposes that Clare committed herself to a life of poverty as a nun as a means of achieving independence from men: "To have property meant to be controlled. A control that was economic, political... and rigorously masculine." After Chiara abruptly stops responding to DM, the narrative takes the form of DM's journal as she further researches Clare's life and uncovers a vision of the saint as a strong-willed leader of her order of nuns who was generous and charismatic, "with powerfully strategic intelligence, fierce passion, and considerable peace of mind." Creatively structured and thoughtfully executed, this genre-smashing blend of history and fiction is delightfully original.
