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Tag: I especially loved how the secret Mother Ravenal has about her past is treated as totally not a big deal

Review: Unfinished Desires, Gail Godwin

The beginning: Oddly gripping from the get-go! In Unfinished Desires (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), Old, blind Mother Ravenal, long-time headmistress at Mount St. Gabriel’s school, is asked by some adoring students to record her memories of her years as a nun, teacher, and headmistress. In alternating chapters are her very Catholic musings on the school’s history and principles, and the story of the high school class of ’55, whose behavior caused her to take a leave (enforced leave???) of absence. The important figures in the class are brash, clever, impetuous Tildy; her former partner-in-crime, Maud; and the new girl, quiet…

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