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Agatha of Little Neon
Claire Luchette's debut, Agatha of Little Neon, is a novel about yearning and sisterhood, figuring out how you fit in (or don't), and the unexpected friends who help you find your truest self.
Agatha has lived every day of the last nine years with her sisters: they work together, laugh together, pray together. Their world is contained within the little house they share. The four of them are devoted to Mother Roberta and to their quiet, purposeful life.
But when the parish goes broke, the sisters are forced to move. They land in Woonsocket, a former mill town now dotted with wind turbines. They head up a halfway house, where they live alongside castoffs like the jawless Tim Gary and the headstrong Lawnmower Jill. Agatha is forced to venture out into the world alone, to teach math at a local all-girls high school, where for the first time in years she will have to reckon with what she sees and feels all on her own. Who will she be if she isn't with her sisters? These women, the church, have been her home--or has she just been hiding?
Disarming, delightfully deadpan, and full of searching, Claire Luchette's Agatha of Little Neon offers a view into the lives of women and the choices they make. It is a novel about female friendship and devotion, the roles made available to us, and how we become ourselves.
Agatha has lived every day of the last nine years with her sisters: they work together, laugh together, pray together. Their world is contained within the little house they share. The four of them are devoted to Mother Roberta and to their quiet, purposeful life.
But when the parish goes broke, the sisters are forced to move. They land in Woonsocket, a former mill town now dotted with wind turbines. They head up a halfway house, where they live alongside castoffs like the jawless Tim Gary and the headstrong Lawnmower Jill. Agatha is forced to venture out into the world alone, to teach math at a local all-girls high school, where for the first time in years she will have to reckon with what she sees and feels all on her own. Who will she be if she isn't with her sisters? These women, the church, have been her home--or has she just been hiding?
Disarming, delightfully deadpan, and full of searching, Claire Luchette's Agatha of Little Neon offers a view into the lives of women and the choices they make. It is a novel about female friendship and devotion, the roles made available to us, and how we become ourselves.
273 pages, Hardcover
First published August 3, 2021
About the author
Claire Luchette
2 books148 followersClaire Luchette has published work in the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and Granta. A 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Luchette graduated from the University of Oregon MFA program and has received grants and scholarships from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Lighthouse Works, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the James Merrill House. Agatha of Little Neon is Luchette’s first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 777 reviews
September 12, 2021
I just finished reading Agatha of Little Neon and I feel, I don't know, maybe the word is: "raptured." Which is different from feeling merely "enraptured," I don't even care what this story is about--although I loved the story--because what has left me feeling weepy and loose-jointed and maybe even a little in love with Claire Luchette is the prose. The words. The way the sentences leap and curve and sometimes stop still and hang there, suspended--until the next breath comes. The language stupefied me. I kept thinking: How can words on their own be so delightful? How can words keep silently making these lovely little starbursts come inside my mind, almost entirely independent of their meaning? How can a whole book of sentences just keep on, and keep on, each next-sentence so unexpected? So here is what I'm trying to say: If you're a prose person, then you may feel the same way. It's not elaborate prose. It's more like the most lovely handmade thing you ever came across in an antique shop, that handcrafted thing you've been looking for all your life and didn't know it. There it is in front of you. I can't be trusted about this novel any longer is what I'm trying to say. Because this novel has enchanted me.
I'm so happy to see a rave review for Agatha of Little Neon in the Sunday NY Times Book Review section today (Sept 12 2021)~here is a link.
I'm so happy to see a rave review for Agatha of Little Neon in the Sunday NY Times Book Review section today (Sept 12 2021)~here is a link.
March 18, 2022
Yet another favorite audio in 2021! Narrator Hillary Huber does a fantastic job voicing the narrator, Agatha.
Confession, I have always been fascinated with nuns (although from Agatha I’ve learned there’s a difference between nuns and sisters, nuns are cloistered, sisters are not). And Agatha even acknowledges to the reader that people see the group of sisters, or see the wardrobe of sisters, but no one sees their faces. I think that’s true much of the time.
As the story opens, Agatha is working with her sisters in a diocese in Buffalo NY. From the start, we learn of their day to day lives in their parish, working diligently to serve the lord. When the Buffalo diocese goes bankrupt (due to the men in charge being reckless) the four sisters are sent to Woonsocket RI where they oversee a half-way house. The sisters don’t even know what an opiate is, nor have they been trained. But there are rules that must be followed, as this is a sober half-way home (mandatory urine tests, Bible Study etc). Because it’s painted the color of Mountain Dew (the paint was on clearance), one can see the house from three streets away, so they dubbed it “Little Neon”. Yes, there is much wit in these chapters. Author Claire Luchette also chose to use small chapters, almost vignettes, telling the day to day lives of these sweet and innocent Sisters. Plus, their charges at Little Neon are interesting as well. There is Lawnmower Jill, who is quite fond of sequined dresses; Baby, a parolee; and sweet, kind Tim Gary who possesses a disfigured face due to cancer. This cast of characters, along with the innocent Sisters make for a charming read.
Yet Luchette has more on her mind than the innocents of Sisters. She exposes the dark underbelly of the Catholic Church. She provides fodder for faith given injustices surrounding the Catholic Church. Luchette told NPR that she spoke with many women of religion, and they were shocked and frustrated with the men leading the church. Agatha recognizes that these men feel they are above reproach given their stature in the Church and they feel justified in their horrible crimes. It’s no wonder there are fewer women involved in the Church.
All in all, this is a witty audio. I highly recommend it.
Confession, I have always been fascinated with nuns (although from Agatha I’ve learned there’s a difference between nuns and sisters, nuns are cloistered, sisters are not). And Agatha even acknowledges to the reader that people see the group of sisters, or see the wardrobe of sisters, but no one sees their faces. I think that’s true much of the time.
As the story opens, Agatha is working with her sisters in a diocese in Buffalo NY. From the start, we learn of their day to day lives in their parish, working diligently to serve the lord. When the Buffalo diocese goes bankrupt (due to the men in charge being reckless) the four sisters are sent to Woonsocket RI where they oversee a half-way house. The sisters don’t even know what an opiate is, nor have they been trained. But there are rules that must be followed, as this is a sober half-way home (mandatory urine tests, Bible Study etc). Because it’s painted the color of Mountain Dew (the paint was on clearance), one can see the house from three streets away, so they dubbed it “Little Neon”. Yes, there is much wit in these chapters. Author Claire Luchette also chose to use small chapters, almost vignettes, telling the day to day lives of these sweet and innocent Sisters. Plus, their charges at Little Neon are interesting as well. There is Lawnmower Jill, who is quite fond of sequined dresses; Baby, a parolee; and sweet, kind Tim Gary who possesses a disfigured face due to cancer. This cast of characters, along with the innocent Sisters make for a charming read.
Yet Luchette has more on her mind than the innocents of Sisters. She exposes the dark underbelly of the Catholic Church. She provides fodder for faith given injustices surrounding the Catholic Church. Luchette told NPR that she spoke with many women of religion, and they were shocked and frustrated with the men leading the church. Agatha recognizes that these men feel they are above reproach given their stature in the Church and they feel justified in their horrible crimes. It’s no wonder there are fewer women involved in the Church.
All in all, this is a witty audio. I highly recommend it.
July 14, 2021
"Back then, our faith was form and founded...Mother Roberta made the rules...Twice a year she sewed our made-to-measure habits from yards of a black poly-wool blend...Everything we knew about living, we knew because Mother Roberta had showed us." In Spring 2005, the Buffalo Diocese's churchgoers had fallen by half. A new Montessori school opened, setting off an "enrollment exodus" from the day care center run by four young nuns: Agatha, Mary-Lucille, Therese and Frances. In Agatha's words, "I can still see that version of us, younger and more at ease, returning from some errand...see the face of Mother Roberta...her face is expectant, lit up with love...Oh, they're back!"
"Agatha wanted to be overlooked...undistinguishable from other girls." "She found a little constancy [in church]: the familiar rhythm of the hour, the stories with endings [she] knew." While working in a convenience store, after her mother's death, Agatha saw a woman in a habit. She looked bubbly...was smiling.
"Mother Roberta refashioned our future in one afternoon." Abbess Paracleta headed an order that ran a halfway house called Little Neon in the town of Woonsocket in Northern Rhode Island. Recovering addicts and ex-convicts, people trying to start over, could stay in Little Neon as long as needed if the house rules were followed. "We knew next to nothing about halfway houses and reentry and parole...".
The nuns often referred to Mother Roberta's words of wisdom when confronted with a new challenge. "Everything can be used for something else", including the repurposing of nylons for an emergency car fix. Abbess Paracleta was nothing like Mother Roberta. Once the party of four arrived, she quickly left Little Neon and returned to her convent to continue to oversee her order's mustard production, marketing and distribution of Divine Dijon Mustard.
While ministering to the quirky occupants of Little Neon, a teacher of geometry was needed, ASAP, by the Catholic High School nearby. New hire Agatha felt that "every shape, every theorem looked foreign...All I could remember was one sentence. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares." Friendship with another newbie to teaching made Agatha look inward and reflect upon whether a different path, a life change would lead to fulfillment.
"Agatha of Little Neon" by Claire Luchette is a wonderful debut literary novel. "Goodness is somewhere inside these people-these addicts and felons...your job is to coax the goodness out...One day you'll feel like a failure, the next you'll feel like a million bucks." I highly recommend this tome.
Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
"Agatha wanted to be overlooked...undistinguishable from other girls." "She found a little constancy [in church]: the familiar rhythm of the hour, the stories with endings [she] knew." While working in a convenience store, after her mother's death, Agatha saw a woman in a habit. She looked bubbly...was smiling.
"Mother Roberta refashioned our future in one afternoon." Abbess Paracleta headed an order that ran a halfway house called Little Neon in the town of Woonsocket in Northern Rhode Island. Recovering addicts and ex-convicts, people trying to start over, could stay in Little Neon as long as needed if the house rules were followed. "We knew next to nothing about halfway houses and reentry and parole...".
The nuns often referred to Mother Roberta's words of wisdom when confronted with a new challenge. "Everything can be used for something else", including the repurposing of nylons for an emergency car fix. Abbess Paracleta was nothing like Mother Roberta. Once the party of four arrived, she quickly left Little Neon and returned to her convent to continue to oversee her order's mustard production, marketing and distribution of Divine Dijon Mustard.
While ministering to the quirky occupants of Little Neon, a teacher of geometry was needed, ASAP, by the Catholic High School nearby. New hire Agatha felt that "every shape, every theorem looked foreign...All I could remember was one sentence. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares." Friendship with another newbie to teaching made Agatha look inward and reflect upon whether a different path, a life change would lead to fulfillment.
"Agatha of Little Neon" by Claire Luchette is a wonderful debut literary novel. "Goodness is somewhere inside these people-these addicts and felons...your job is to coax the goodness out...One day you'll feel like a failure, the next you'll feel like a million bucks." I highly recommend this tome.
Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
September 6, 2021
A quiet, contemplative story with a witty, fascinating protagonist and a truly unique supporting cast; this one is a gem! A smart and beautifully written debut, I don't think this book will be for everyone, but those to whom it speaks will likely adore it. 4 stars.
May 27, 2022
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4 ½ stars (rounded up as this is a debut)
Agatha of Little Neon is a gem of a novel. Claire Luchette’s prose is a delight to read, its deceptive simplicity bringing to mind authors such as Anne Tyler and Ann Patchett. From the very first pages, I was taken by Agatha’s thoughtful introspections—on her sisters, the people around her, her new community, the church—and her quiet wit.
Not only does Luchette demonstrate huge insight into human nature but I was always aware of how much empathy she had towards the people she’s writing of, regardless of who they are. While I was reading Agatha’s story it was clear to me that Luchette cared deeply about her characters, and she showcases both tenderness towards and understanding of her characters ( their struggles, desires, ‘flaws’, regrets).
Agatha’s voice drew me in, so much so, that it seemed almost to me that I had been transported alongside her to Little Neon. After their parish experiences, some financial setbacks Agatha and her three sisters are relocated to Woonsocket where they will be staying at a halfway home, ‘Little Neon’. Over the previous 9 years the four sisters have led a symbiotic existence but once in Woonsocket Agatha finds herself growing apart from them. While her sisters stay at Little Neon, where they are meant to watch over its residents, Agatha teaches geometry at a local all-girl school. Here, for the first time in years, she is alone and unsupervised and this new independence forces her to reconsider who she is and what she wants. These realizations dawn on her slowly and over time, which made her ‘journey’ all the more authentic.
Agatha is a quiet and observant person who was drawn to the Church by her faith in God and by her desire to belong. For years her sisterhood with Frances, Therese, and Mary Lucille fulfilled her longing for connection but once she begins living at Little Neon she finds herself growing attached to its various residents in a way her sisters do not.
Much of the narrative focuses on seemingly mundane, everyday moments. Meals, chores, trips to the local shops, car journeys. Yet, many of these scenes carry a surprising weight. These ‘small’ moments are given significance, Agatha, and by extension, us, may come to know someone else better or she finds her mind drifting to her past, her faith, her sisters.
Throughout the course of Agatha’s story, Luchette shows, without telling, the many ways in which the Church disempowers, exploits, and silences its women. Luchette’s commentary on the Church and its hierarchies and inner workings never struck me as didactic. Agatha’s disapproval of the Church does not result in loss of faith, something that I truly appreciated.
Luchette’s meditations on Christianity, sisterhood, loneliness, longing, belonging were truly illuminating. The author’s prose is graceful without falling into sentimentalism. In fact, some of the imagery within the story is quite stark and much of the narrative is permeated by a gentle but felt melancholy. This made those moments of connection and contentment all the more heartfelt and special.
There was a sense of sadness too, one that often resulted in many bittersweet moments. And, this particular line broke my heart as it reminded me of Jude from A Little Life: “I don’t think I have the constitution for it. For being alive.”
Agatha of Little Neon is an exquisite debut novel. The writing is beautiful, the characters compelling, the narrative moving. While it won’t appeal to those who are interested in plot-driven stories, readers who are seeking rewarding character arcs and/or thematically rich narratives should definitely consider picking this up.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
4 ½ stars (rounded up as this is a debut)
“We were fixed to one another, like parts of some strange, asymmetrical body: Frances was the mouth; Mary Lucille, the heart; Therese, the legs. And I, Agatha, was the eyes.”
Agatha of Little Neon is a gem of a novel. Claire Luchette’s prose is a delight to read, its deceptive simplicity bringing to mind authors such as Anne Tyler and Ann Patchett. From the very first pages, I was taken by Agatha’s thoughtful introspections—on her sisters, the people around her, her new community, the church—and her quiet wit.
Not only does Luchette demonstrate huge insight into human nature but I was always aware of how much empathy she had towards the people she’s writing of, regardless of who they are. While I was reading Agatha’s story it was clear to me that Luchette cared deeply about her characters, and she showcases both tenderness towards and understanding of her characters ( their struggles, desires, ‘flaws’, regrets).
“No one could understand why I hated talking, why it was so much work to come up with something to say. It was even more work to make it true or funny or smart. And then when you’d come up with it, you had to say it, and live with having said it.”
Agatha’s voice drew me in, so much so, that it seemed almost to me that I had been transported alongside her to Little Neon. After their parish experiences, some financial setbacks Agatha and her three sisters are relocated to Woonsocket where they will be staying at a halfway home, ‘Little Neon’. Over the previous 9 years the four sisters have led a symbiotic existence but once in Woonsocket Agatha finds herself growing apart from them. While her sisters stay at Little Neon, where they are meant to watch over its residents, Agatha teaches geometry at a local all-girl school. Here, for the first time in years, she is alone and unsupervised and this new independence forces her to reconsider who she is and what she wants. These realizations dawn on her slowly and over time, which made her ‘journey’ all the more authentic.
Agatha is a quiet and observant person who was drawn to the Church by her faith in God and by her desire to belong. For years her sisterhood with Frances, Therese, and Mary Lucille fulfilled her longing for connection but once she begins living at Little Neon she finds herself growing attached to its various residents in a way her sisters do not.
“How horrible, how merciful, the ways we are, each of us, oblivious to so much of the hurt in the world.”
Much of the narrative focuses on seemingly mundane, everyday moments. Meals, chores, trips to the local shops, car journeys. Yet, many of these scenes carry a surprising weight. These ‘small’ moments are given significance, Agatha, and by extension, us, may come to know someone else better or she finds her mind drifting to her past, her faith, her sisters.
Throughout the course of Agatha’s story, Luchette shows, without telling, the many ways in which the Church disempowers, exploits, and silences its women. Luchette’s commentary on the Church and its hierarchies and inner workings never struck me as didactic. Agatha’s disapproval of the Church does not result in loss of faith, something that I truly appreciated.
Luchette’s meditations on Christianity, sisterhood, loneliness, longing, belonging were truly illuminating. The author’s prose is graceful without falling into sentimentalism. In fact, some of the imagery within the story is quite stark and much of the narrative is permeated by a gentle but felt melancholy. This made those moments of connection and contentment all the more heartfelt and special.
There was a sense of sadness too, one that often resulted in many bittersweet moments. And, this particular line broke my heart as it reminded me of Jude from A Little Life: “I don’t think I have the constitution for it. For being alive.”
Agatha of Little Neon is an exquisite debut novel. The writing is beautiful, the characters compelling, the narrative moving. While it won’t appeal to those who are interested in plot-driven stories, readers who are seeking rewarding character arcs and/or thematically rich narratives should definitely consider picking this up.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
January 26, 2022
I have had a fantastic run of great books so far in January, and this was no exception. I had marked it to read some months ago because, well, nuns.Though not Catholic, I love most of the fictional nuns I've met. Not all, but most. Especially the ones with a sense of justice and humor, who find a common sense way to get around the teachings of the church, and the Priests who enforce those teachings.
I loved Agatha, who tells this story in simple beautiful sentences. Along with her 3 sister nuns, Theresa, Mary Lucille and Frances, all young women who are in charge of a halfway house for addicts. Abbess Paracleta was a pretty special lady in her own way, but the aged Mother Roberta was the wise dispenser of wisdom.
"Agatha, she said gently, "You can't change most of the questions. But you can always come up with another answer. Remember that. I think the best you can do is pray about it. But row toward shore."
This book made me happy, even though a lot of sad things happened. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage just to wake up in the morning, but we all do it anyway.
"The best part of any place is the door, and the best part of any door is the other side of it."
But only if you have the courage to open that door.
I loved Agatha, who tells this story in simple beautiful sentences. Along with her 3 sister nuns, Theresa, Mary Lucille and Frances, all young women who are in charge of a halfway house for addicts. Abbess Paracleta was a pretty special lady in her own way, but the aged Mother Roberta was the wise dispenser of wisdom.
"Agatha, she said gently, "You can't change most of the questions. But you can always come up with another answer. Remember that. I think the best you can do is pray about it. But row toward shore."
This book made me happy, even though a lot of sad things happened. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage just to wake up in the morning, but we all do it anyway.
"The best part of any place is the door, and the best part of any door is the other side of it."
But only if you have the courage to open that door.
October 22, 2021
Sister Agatha is the first person speaker of her story along with her 3 companion Sisters. Sound stifling? Don’t even think it because Sister Agatha’s voice is sharp, beautiful, and sometimes roaringly funny.
Author Luchette has fun with her setting in a halfway house and it lets her use characters with names like Tim Gary, Lawnmower Jill, Baby, and Horse. At first we see the outer shell of misfits but her unwrapping pops out nuggets of wisdom, sadness and humor. It doesn’t take much to realize that Luchette’s subtle portrayal of the men in power is one to be questioned.
This is fresh and modern. I laughed out loud numerous times and I even cried a little. It’s a beautiful message. Highly recommended.
Author Luchette has fun with her setting in a halfway house and it lets her use characters with names like Tim Gary, Lawnmower Jill, Baby, and Horse. At first we see the outer shell of misfits but her unwrapping pops out nuggets of wisdom, sadness and humor. It doesn’t take much to realize that Luchette’s subtle portrayal of the men in power is one to be questioned.
This is fresh and modern. I laughed out loud numerous times and I even cried a little. It’s a beautiful message. Highly recommended.
Shelved as 'dnf'
December 28, 2021I had just about finished this one when I simply couldn't take it anymore. Reading this book felt like watching a Coen brothers movie with all the entertainment value sucked out of it. I have no idea what the point of this book was, nor do I care.
October 15, 2021
What a gorgeous little novel, and incredibly, it's the author's FIRST! I can hardly get over how much I loved it and I really don't want to let it go.
The prose was first-rate, the story was engaging, and the characters—all of them—were so unashamedly REAL! Agatha was especially loveable😇—a sweet, caring young woman with so much trouble finding the right words to say that she says nothing, hoping to be overlooked. But as the book progresses, bit-by-bit she's drawn out of her comfort zone. For years she'd been just one of the cloistered group of sisters, but gradually she breaks apart and begins to see herself as an individual.
The first 2/3rds of the book was quite amusing (I laughed a lot), but as it continued, I found myself starting to mirror Agatha's emotions. I could really sense her sadness building. Her disappointment with the Church—particularly the men of the church—was, of course, entirely justified. The other sisters—and especially the abbess—turned a blind eye to all it's perceived faults. But Agatha could not, and she began to feel that her commitment was waning. At that point I felt something akin to gratitude that she—as someone within the Church—could see their faults as clearly as the rest of us could! The reasons for her disappointment were introduced with subtlety, but that's o.k. because we get it! We've been seeing these things for years!
Agatha of Little Neon is such a beautiful story. Readers can't help but love it, and I think that's, in part, because it's so relatable. There was nothing outlandish, nothing clownish about it, and no exaggerated personalities. It was about real people, in real situations and, as the reader, you can't help but feel real emotions as a result! It's not a long book—a little over 200 pages—but well before the conclusion I felt I really understood these people and I knew I would miss them when it ended. And all of this, I believe, is a testament (no pun intended😉) to the excellence of Claire Luchette's writing! She really is terrific! I hope we'll see another novel from her soon.
Five Deliver-us-from-evil stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The prose was first-rate, the story was engaging, and the characters—all of them—were so unashamedly REAL! Agatha was especially loveable😇—a sweet, caring young woman with so much trouble finding the right words to say that she says nothing, hoping to be overlooked. But as the book progresses, bit-by-bit she's drawn out of her comfort zone. For years she'd been just one of the cloistered group of sisters, but gradually she breaks apart and begins to see herself as an individual.
The first 2/3rds of the book was quite amusing (I laughed a lot), but as it continued, I found myself starting to mirror Agatha's emotions. I could really sense her sadness building. Her disappointment with the Church—particularly the men of the church—was, of course, entirely justified. The other sisters—and especially the abbess—turned a blind eye to all it's perceived faults. But Agatha could not, and she began to feel that her commitment was waning. At that point I felt something akin to gratitude that she—as someone within the Church—could see their faults as clearly as the rest of us could! The reasons for her disappointment were introduced with subtlety, but that's o.k. because we get it! We've been seeing these things for years!
Agatha of Little Neon is such a beautiful story. Readers can't help but love it, and I think that's, in part, because it's so relatable. There was nothing outlandish, nothing clownish about it, and no exaggerated personalities. It was about real people, in real situations and, as the reader, you can't help but feel real emotions as a result! It's not a long book—a little over 200 pages—but well before the conclusion I felt I really understood these people and I knew I would miss them when it ended. And all of this, I believe, is a testament (no pun intended😉) to the excellence of Claire Luchette's writing! She really is terrific! I hope we'll see another novel from her soon.
Five Deliver-us-from-evil stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
April 20, 2022
After almost a decade in a Buffalo Catholic diocese, Agatha and her 3 fellow sisters are transferred from their more insular existence to a halfway house in the depressed Rhode Island town of Woonsocket. There, without any training, they're expected to minister to recovering addicts and ex-convicts. Suddenly, the people at the center of Agatha's life aren't the other sisters, but the residents of Little Neon and her high school geometry students.
Claire Luchette's wonderful debut novel Agatha Of Little Neon is a story of a young woman's self-discovery.
Agatha's first adventure separate from her sisters is learning to roller skate.
"I'm still not sure what scared me more as I stood and looked into the dark with little wheels on my feet; staying there or not staying there. But the night looked lovely and wild and immense, and so I lunged headlong onto the driveway before I could talk myself out of it. The only sound was the skate wheels spinning on the blacktop and thwacking over the cracks and then I was there, on the street, and I dragged my right toe to stop. When I turned around Little Neon looked blue in the night, and I could see that Tim Gary was grinning, radiant under the bare bulb that hung in the garage. He called to me in a whisper that was also a shout. 'You did it! You did it!' "
This little bit of a secret from her sisters is the first of a string of things that she keeps for herself.
Then on her first day entering the high school: "When I stepped in the front door, it felt as if it was the start of something, as if I could decide right then and there to become someone new. I hadn't felt that way in years."
Luchette tells her story in short vignettes which show various incidents in the sisters' lives from the poverty of eating radicchio in some form for dinner every night for days to the ordinary trip to the general store for antacids to the drama of a store clerk going into labor. I can see Agatha begin to see her sisters differently and slowly pull away.
"You could learn to live without a part of yourself. You could live without a lot of parts of yourself. I did. For years I lived like this. And then I started to yearn for what I'd lost."
You don't have to be Catholic to connect with Luchette's portrayal of a lonely young woman yearning for community and also yearning for everything she's had to give up to be part of that community. I know I have done this in a much smaller way--as a child choosing the navy dress instead of the red one I really wanted to please my father, drinking Coke instead of milk in the high school cafeteria. Much sooner than Agatha, I decided that I needed to follow my own path and hoped that community would follow.
Luchette's novel also explores the power dynamics within the church. In the book's opening, the diocese is going broke because, as Agatha tactfully says, " the men in charge had been reckless." As time goes by Agatha permits herself more anger and disgust about the sexual and monetary misconduct of the priests in charge.
"I felt a familiar eddy start up inside of me, a private countercurrent of rage. They had not imagined consequences, these priests, these men who could baptize and anoint and transubstantiate, men who could stand at the pulpit and speak of temptation, then, warped by a rape in the middle of the day, then sit on the other side of the confession box and listen to people list their sins. They had believed they were beyond reproach. And in a way, they were right, because for so long, nothing happened to these men. Reassignments, maybe, and resignations, but nothing like reproach."
"I was all out of deference."
Church politics, though having a direct impact on the sisters, are in the background of the story, which focuses on the people and their relationships.
This novel could have been grim, and there is an undertone of melancholy, yet it feels light and full of life. The characters are fully realized, Agatha's voice is sharp and wry. Her relationships with her friend Nadia and with Little Neon resident Tim Gary are full of sparkle and warmth.
I will definitely be looking for future work from Claire Luchette.
Claire Luchette's wonderful debut novel Agatha Of Little Neon is a story of a young woman's self-discovery.
Agatha's first adventure separate from her sisters is learning to roller skate.
"I'm still not sure what scared me more as I stood and looked into the dark with little wheels on my feet; staying there or not staying there. But the night looked lovely and wild and immense, and so I lunged headlong onto the driveway before I could talk myself out of it. The only sound was the skate wheels spinning on the blacktop and thwacking over the cracks and then I was there, on the street, and I dragged my right toe to stop. When I turned around Little Neon looked blue in the night, and I could see that Tim Gary was grinning, radiant under the bare bulb that hung in the garage. He called to me in a whisper that was also a shout. 'You did it! You did it!' "
This little bit of a secret from her sisters is the first of a string of things that she keeps for herself.
Then on her first day entering the high school: "When I stepped in the front door, it felt as if it was the start of something, as if I could decide right then and there to become someone new. I hadn't felt that way in years."
Luchette tells her story in short vignettes which show various incidents in the sisters' lives from the poverty of eating radicchio in some form for dinner every night for days to the ordinary trip to the general store for antacids to the drama of a store clerk going into labor. I can see Agatha begin to see her sisters differently and slowly pull away.
"You could learn to live without a part of yourself. You could live without a lot of parts of yourself. I did. For years I lived like this. And then I started to yearn for what I'd lost."
You don't have to be Catholic to connect with Luchette's portrayal of a lonely young woman yearning for community and also yearning for everything she's had to give up to be part of that community. I know I have done this in a much smaller way--as a child choosing the navy dress instead of the red one I really wanted to please my father, drinking Coke instead of milk in the high school cafeteria. Much sooner than Agatha, I decided that I needed to follow my own path and hoped that community would follow.
Luchette's novel also explores the power dynamics within the church. In the book's opening, the diocese is going broke because, as Agatha tactfully says, " the men in charge had been reckless." As time goes by Agatha permits herself more anger and disgust about the sexual and monetary misconduct of the priests in charge.
"I felt a familiar eddy start up inside of me, a private countercurrent of rage. They had not imagined consequences, these priests, these men who could baptize and anoint and transubstantiate, men who could stand at the pulpit and speak of temptation, then, warped by a rape in the middle of the day, then sit on the other side of the confession box and listen to people list their sins. They had believed they were beyond reproach. And in a way, they were right, because for so long, nothing happened to these men. Reassignments, maybe, and resignations, but nothing like reproach."
"I was all out of deference."
Church politics, though having a direct impact on the sisters, are in the background of the story, which focuses on the people and their relationships.
This novel could have been grim, and there is an undertone of melancholy, yet it feels light and full of life. The characters are fully realized, Agatha's voice is sharp and wry. Her relationships with her friend Nadia and with Little Neon resident Tim Gary are full of sparkle and warmth.
I will definitely be looking for future work from Claire Luchette.
November 22, 2021
Agatha of Little Neon is about a 29 year old nun's life. Agatha currently lives with three other sisters (nuns) who have been assigned to work in a halfway home with recovering addicts - something they have no training for. These are unworldly, young women who are unprepared for their street smart clients. As the story progresses, we learn that Agatha had felt ill at ease with other people while growing up. As a young women, she's had to teach herself how to make eye contact with other people. Agatha feels safe and comfortable with her life in the Church. Agatha especially loves being with the other nuns, whom she views as real sisters.
The story is told in 90 short chapters. I admired the author's creativity in writing this way, but the short chapters did not always flow. I think also, that the author delighted too much in showing how quirky her characters were. Inane moments were mixed in with more significant ones. Only two characters were fully sketched: Agatha and Tim Gary, a recovering addict.
The majority of reviewers have lauded the novel. For me, the writing grew more interesting in the last one-third of the book. This is when Agatha began to grow and question her life's choices.
3.5 stars for this creative and original story.
Additional: In the book, Agatha and the other nuns had begun to hear about priests' sexual abuse of children, along with the general public. Agatha in particular, had strong feelings about this.
Today, I learned that a new report has come out in France citing the sexual abuse of more than 200,000 children there by Catholic clergy during the past 70 years.
The story is told in 90 short chapters. I admired the author's creativity in writing this way, but the short chapters did not always flow. I think also, that the author delighted too much in showing how quirky her characters were. Inane moments were mixed in with more significant ones. Only two characters were fully sketched: Agatha and Tim Gary, a recovering addict.
The majority of reviewers have lauded the novel. For me, the writing grew more interesting in the last one-third of the book. This is when Agatha began to grow and question her life's choices.
3.5 stars for this creative and original story.
Additional: In the book, Agatha and the other nuns had begun to hear about priests' sexual abuse of children, along with the general public. Agatha in particular, had strong feelings about this.
Today, I learned that a new report has come out in France citing the sexual abuse of more than 200,000 children there by Catholic clergy during the past 70 years.
September 6, 2021
I was really taken aback by this exceptionally poignant novel. I don't know what it is about Luchette's writing style that is so encapsulating -- it's quite simple and sparse, yet also tender and nuanced.
December 3, 2021
There was so much to love in this book—a youngish nun, clearly a bit lost in her vocation; a community of misfits; a great supporting cast. Agatha is something of a follower, looking to belong in a life she’s never quite known how to manage. The Catholic church and its budget issues send her from her home parish to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and declares the displaced sisters in charge of a halfway house for drug addicts, with Agatha a math teacher at the local parochial school. What do the nuns know about addiction (or math)? Nothing, really, but Agatha’s nonjudgmental observations about the lives around her, and her own slowly dawning realizations about herself and her place in the world are gently and sweetly told, with enough honesty and humor to make it a quick pageturner. Really beautifully written.
April 3, 2021
2.5 rounded up
I've been mulling over how to review this novel in the couple of days since I finished reading, and I've been struggling to form a view on it. After some thought I think this stems from my difficulty in working out what Agatha of Little Neon is trying to be as a novel.
Agatha (the name she takes on when she becomes a nun) has been a nun since her late teens, going about her daily life with her three sisters (Frances, Therese and Mary-Lucille). Their church runs out of money, and they are sent to Rhode Island to help out at a halfway house for recovering addicts -- taking the nuns out of their comfort zone and forcing them to interact with a group of people quite different to them. After the move to RI, alongside her duties at Little Neon (so-called because it is a small building the colour of a tennis ball) Agatha becomes a geometry teacher at a local Catholic school, and through this - and her relationship with the residents of her new residence and a fellow teacher - she begins to question her surroundings, her daily life and whether she is happy or fulfilled by it.
I guess I'd describe this as a gentle or sweet story, which sometimes hints at something darker in Agatha's past. It reads very quickly but did feel a little rushed or glossed over in places. I'd have liked to learn more about Agatha's past, but I expect it was the author's intention to leave this a little bit vague.
Thank you Netgalley and Farar, Straus and Giroux for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
I've been mulling over how to review this novel in the couple of days since I finished reading, and I've been struggling to form a view on it. After some thought I think this stems from my difficulty in working out what Agatha of Little Neon is trying to be as a novel.
Agatha (the name she takes on when she becomes a nun) has been a nun since her late teens, going about her daily life with her three sisters (Frances, Therese and Mary-Lucille). Their church runs out of money, and they are sent to Rhode Island to help out at a halfway house for recovering addicts -- taking the nuns out of their comfort zone and forcing them to interact with a group of people quite different to them. After the move to RI, alongside her duties at Little Neon (so-called because it is a small building the colour of a tennis ball) Agatha becomes a geometry teacher at a local Catholic school, and through this - and her relationship with the residents of her new residence and a fellow teacher - she begins to question her surroundings, her daily life and whether she is happy or fulfilled by it.
I guess I'd describe this as a gentle or sweet story, which sometimes hints at something darker in Agatha's past. It reads very quickly but did feel a little rushed or glossed over in places. I'd have liked to learn more about Agatha's past, but I expect it was the author's intention to leave this a little bit vague.
Thank you Netgalley and Farar, Straus and Giroux for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
August 24, 2021
4.5 beautiful and touching and lesbian nuns have my heart
March 4, 2022
I’m not sure how a story about four nuns running a halfway house in Woonsocket, Rhode Island could be so captivating, but it was. I will chalk it up to the writing.
July 31, 2021
What a charming and emotional novel! I was hooked just after the first paragraph. "Agatha of Little Neon" is a beautiful story about 4 sisters (Catholic nuns) who get transferred to work at a halfway house for recovering addicts. Agatha is the main protagonist and wow; I thought she was such a down-to-earth and relatable character. Agatha really goes an emotional journey throughout this novel; you can't help but root for her.
The story takes place during the church abuse scandal in the early to mid 2000's The main plot is not about sexual abuse misconduct, but about Agatha's relationship with her sisters, and the people who live at the halfway house (the house is called Little Neon). Agatha begins a friendships with one of the recovering addicts, Tim Gary, and Agatha begins teaching at the nearby Catholic high school.
It's best not knowing much going into this book, it's more character-driven but I still teared up at the end. The writing was hilarious, breezy, and heartbreaking. Hard to believe this Claire Luchette's debut novel. I'll definitely keep my eye out for more by Luchette in the future. I finished this book about a week ago and I can't stop thinking about it. An absolute gem!
Thank you, Netgalley and FSG for the digital ARC.
Release date: August 3, 2021
The story takes place during the church abuse scandal in the early to mid 2000's The main plot is not about sexual abuse misconduct, but about Agatha's relationship with her sisters, and the people who live at the halfway house (the house is called Little Neon). Agatha begins a friendships with one of the recovering addicts, Tim Gary, and Agatha begins teaching at the nearby Catholic high school.
It's best not knowing much going into this book, it's more character-driven but I still teared up at the end. The writing was hilarious, breezy, and heartbreaking. Hard to believe this Claire Luchette's debut novel. I'll definitely keep my eye out for more by Luchette in the future. I finished this book about a week ago and I can't stop thinking about it. An absolute gem!
Thank you, Netgalley and FSG for the digital ARC.
Release date: August 3, 2021
August 13, 2021
3.5 thoughts soon.
July 31, 2022
"Four sisters in heavy habits, muttering Glory Bes, who slept with their mouths open and ate beef jerky straight from the plastic. We were the opposite of invisible, but still difficult for people to see. When people saw our habits, they ceased to see our faces."
This foursome, this small group of religiously conjoined women, living a life dictated by church/God/religion in relative peace and "happiness". Or were they?
I was old enough to know what a sin was. I could tell what things I wasn't supposed to think. I know this sounds like repression"...."But it didn't seem like that at the time. It felt like discipline. I thought I'd overcome something, in disclaiming myself. It looked, to me, like choosing the better life."
A story that slowly builds from that complacent togetherness to an awakening of sorts for Agatha, our narrator, to the realities of the outside world, to the stains hidden behind stained glass, to the ways she fails to fit into the habit she wears, to the questions she hasn't found answers to yet; when the yearning to become"The sort of person you'd think about as you fell asleep, comforted to remember that in this world of bad luck and rising sea levels and impossible pain, at least, thank God, there was her."leads her to unexpected places.
Told in short vignettes the sisters are booted from their convent (thanks to the fiscal irresponsibility of the priest) to a half-way house for ex-cons and drug addicts where they supply free labor despite their lacking all appropriate skills. Alternately lighthearted and melancholy, we are introduced to an eclectic group of likeable and imperfect souls through Agatha's eyes, as tidbits dropped hint at her growing dissatisfaction.
"There were ways to tide a man over. My sisters were very skilled at steering unhappy men toward God. They could give a man a why. But whys can leak from you, I knew. You couldn't help it. You had hope, and then it slipped away. You belonged somewhere, and then you didn't."
A quiet story, told with simple elegance, packing an almost invisible punch by the end. A story that made me think of all the ways we might "disclaim ourselves", and the unhealthy outcomes it brings.
This foursome, this small group of religiously conjoined women, living a life dictated by church/God/religion in relative peace and "happiness". Or were they?
I was old enough to know what a sin was. I could tell what things I wasn't supposed to think. I know this sounds like repression"...."But it didn't seem like that at the time. It felt like discipline. I thought I'd overcome something, in disclaiming myself. It looked, to me, like choosing the better life."
A story that slowly builds from that complacent togetherness to an awakening of sorts for Agatha, our narrator, to the realities of the outside world, to the stains hidden behind stained glass, to the ways she fails to fit into the habit she wears, to the questions she hasn't found answers to yet; when the yearning to become"The sort of person you'd think about as you fell asleep, comforted to remember that in this world of bad luck and rising sea levels and impossible pain, at least, thank God, there was her."leads her to unexpected places.
Told in short vignettes the sisters are booted from their convent (thanks to the fiscal irresponsibility of the priest) to a half-way house for ex-cons and drug addicts where they supply free labor despite their lacking all appropriate skills. Alternately lighthearted and melancholy, we are introduced to an eclectic group of likeable and imperfect souls through Agatha's eyes, as tidbits dropped hint at her growing dissatisfaction.
"There were ways to tide a man over. My sisters were very skilled at steering unhappy men toward God. They could give a man a why. But whys can leak from you, I knew. You couldn't help it. You had hope, and then it slipped away. You belonged somewhere, and then you didn't."
A quiet story, told with simple elegance, packing an almost invisible punch by the end. A story that made me think of all the ways we might "disclaim ourselves", and the unhealthy outcomes it brings.
December 17, 2022
This book started off promising as it slowly detailed the past and present experiences of young Sister Agatha. She was most happy when in the company of the three other Sisters in her Order as they assisted in the church daycare. Then came a big change as they were reassigned to live with and aid recovering addicts in a halfway house. Quite a change, indeed, and one Agatha was game for, even when feeling inadequate, at times. Then she is asked to teach math at the high school, and her life is turned upside down, for her closeness to her fellow sisters is threatened in the process.
So far so good, since Sister Agatha was likable and had me rooting for her, and had me wanting to learn more about her as her secrets were gradually revealed during a crisis of faith. But it all fell flat by the end and had me questioning the purpose of the story. Its downward spiral felt like an opportunity for it to soar upward into an inspiring book, with adversity and feelings of alienation being a launching pad for it. Instead, it simply lay there inert at the end, no matter how much I prodded it to tell me something more than an ultimately sad story.
So far so good, since Sister Agatha was likable and had me rooting for her, and had me wanting to learn more about her as her secrets were gradually revealed during a crisis of faith. But it all fell flat by the end and had me questioning the purpose of the story. Its downward spiral felt like an opportunity for it to soar upward into an inspiring book, with adversity and feelings of alienation being a launching pad for it. Instead, it simply lay there inert at the end, no matter how much I prodded it to tell me something more than an ultimately sad story.
July 31, 2021
There is something new here. A thoughtful, wry voice with eyes that are open wide. From page one I pronounce myself an Agatha fan, and am interested in her day-to-day world as she lives a life I never in a million years would choose. It didn't not put me off at all. In fact, like best friends who make weird choices, I was right by her side, and as she confessed her vulnerabilities, quirks, preferences, questions and concerns, I realized we are not so very far apart. She's a champion, making hard choices, seeing and hearing sights and sounds missed by her beloved sisters, and dispelling fear in the best way possible: just walking through it.
There's a lot we don't get here, on purpose . . . but the author is artfully leaving gaps small enough to allow readers to build their own bridges in the narrative. Still, you can't blame me for wanting more from Agatha in the future, the rest of the story. I highly recommend this book and hope for another!
A Sincere Thanks to Claire Luchette, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #agathaoflittleneon #NetGalley
Pub date: 03 Aug 2021
There's a lot we don't get here, on purpose . . . but the author is artfully leaving gaps small enough to allow readers to build their own bridges in the narrative. Still, you can't blame me for wanting more from Agatha in the future, the rest of the story. I highly recommend this book and hope for another!
A Sincere Thanks to Claire Luchette, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #agathaoflittleneon #NetGalley
Pub date: 03 Aug 2021
July 8, 2024
Agatha of Little Neon, by Claire Luchette, is a curious and thoughtful book. It is one of the most unusual books about the loss of faith that I’ve ever read because the titular character doesn’t lose her faith in god; instead, she loses her faith in the church that ordered her days and explained all mysteries. Nearly all of the books I’ve read about loss of faith have characters who find peace in agnosticism or atheism. Some of them are angry books. Most of them are melancholy. Agatha of Little Neon is sometimes angry and sometimes melancholy, but there is a strange feeling of hope as Agatha learns to find her way in the world...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
December 9, 2022
This book is so wonderful and I’m not quite sure I can articulate why that is.
For one thing it feels like a new kind of novel – while not journalistic or a fictitious memoir, it doesn’t read entirely like fiction, either. It hits a quiet spot. There’s so much to Sister Agatha’s narration that sounds like true memory, the language one might use when writing a diary, un-selfconscious and unworried about missing the ‘important parts', writing just what comes to mind. Beautiful moments and terrible things happen in these pages, and they are recorded with the same earnest voice as another passage describing an evening cooking supper, the funny things one of the Sisters said that made them all fall to laughing.
At the very start, Sister Agatha and her fellow Sisters are forced to move from their long held home, a convent the colour of mayonnaise, to a half way house the colour of Mountain Dew; from dull but comforting creaminess to harsh neon soda pop. In their old home they lived an extremely gentle life, a ‘mayonnaise’ life, knitting and holding bake sales, tending infants left in their care. When their home is shuttered due to a lack of funds, they’re sent from peaceful upstate New York to a run down Rhode Island small town. There, instead of cooing over babies, they’re left to look after a group of junkies trying to get clean and a man who’s lost the better part of his jaw to surgery necessitated by drug addiction. A Mountain Dew life indeed, the sickly, sticky neon green draped over not just the halfway house but somehow the town itself, where the most visited place of business is a gas station stop with rows of cheap, stale bags of chips and candy.
The novel moves at the pace of interior thought, Agatha’s vision of the world around her, and her part in it, sometimes a steady line, sometimes unexpectedly jarred off course. One can foresee the connection she’ll forge to the down and outs living in the halfway house, but it’s her connection to the other Sisters that fully shapes her character. There’s a wonderful passage when she comes back home after her first day ever of teaching at a local high school - a day filled with new experiences and new people - and when she asks the other sisters what they did in her absence, they describe a long walk in sweltering heat to a local college to pin up a flier on a bulletin board - and then not agreeing about where the flier should go - a day so tedious one imagines Sister Agatha comparing her day to theirs and starting to think: oh, is this really what I’ve been doing all these years? But instead, Agatha is inwardly upset that she missed out on the day with her Sisters, imagines in detail every second of the walk, the college campus, finding just the right place for the flyer.
Nothing is rushed and yet the novel never feels too slow or cumbersome. It’s undramatic yet heartbreaking, a thoughtful storm of experience and emotion, and of what it means to live with, and without, faith. I loved Sister Agatha of Little Neon, never more than when I came to its powerful ending, a last page of such perfection that I sat with it quietly for a while, and thought – oh, what a gift a book can be.
For one thing it feels like a new kind of novel – while not journalistic or a fictitious memoir, it doesn’t read entirely like fiction, either. It hits a quiet spot. There’s so much to Sister Agatha’s narration that sounds like true memory, the language one might use when writing a diary, un-selfconscious and unworried about missing the ‘important parts', writing just what comes to mind. Beautiful moments and terrible things happen in these pages, and they are recorded with the same earnest voice as another passage describing an evening cooking supper, the funny things one of the Sisters said that made them all fall to laughing.
At the very start, Sister Agatha and her fellow Sisters are forced to move from their long held home, a convent the colour of mayonnaise, to a half way house the colour of Mountain Dew; from dull but comforting creaminess to harsh neon soda pop. In their old home they lived an extremely gentle life, a ‘mayonnaise’ life, knitting and holding bake sales, tending infants left in their care. When their home is shuttered due to a lack of funds, they’re sent from peaceful upstate New York to a run down Rhode Island small town. There, instead of cooing over babies, they’re left to look after a group of junkies trying to get clean and a man who’s lost the better part of his jaw to surgery necessitated by drug addiction. A Mountain Dew life indeed, the sickly, sticky neon green draped over not just the halfway house but somehow the town itself, where the most visited place of business is a gas station stop with rows of cheap, stale bags of chips and candy.
The novel moves at the pace of interior thought, Agatha’s vision of the world around her, and her part in it, sometimes a steady line, sometimes unexpectedly jarred off course. One can foresee the connection she’ll forge to the down and outs living in the halfway house, but it’s her connection to the other Sisters that fully shapes her character. There’s a wonderful passage when she comes back home after her first day ever of teaching at a local high school - a day filled with new experiences and new people - and when she asks the other sisters what they did in her absence, they describe a long walk in sweltering heat to a local college to pin up a flier on a bulletin board - and then not agreeing about where the flier should go - a day so tedious one imagines Sister Agatha comparing her day to theirs and starting to think: oh, is this really what I’ve been doing all these years? But instead, Agatha is inwardly upset that she missed out on the day with her Sisters, imagines in detail every second of the walk, the college campus, finding just the right place for the flyer.
Nothing is rushed and yet the novel never feels too slow or cumbersome. It’s undramatic yet heartbreaking, a thoughtful storm of experience and emotion, and of what it means to live with, and without, faith. I loved Sister Agatha of Little Neon, never more than when I came to its powerful ending, a last page of such perfection that I sat with it quietly for a while, and thought – oh, what a gift a book can be.
February 21, 2022
First time I absolutely hate and despise a book. Although feel good-cosy isn´t my type of read, after some heavy reading I thought this one would be light and nice. It definitively isn´t.
Firstly, I fail to see the point of it. No plot, no character development,just random situations,silly "events",important topics (not) adressed ,although I suppose some readers might think they were, and feel "enlightened".
Secondly, the animal abuse. I can´t tolerate it, but sometimes,in books, it´s there for a reason. Not so here.The two incidents served no purpose in the narrative,and,worse,they were ignored AND condoned.
Thirdly, the depiction of nuns´ lives, vocations,choices. It worries me that some reviewers here think it´s "real". It´s not. It´s disrespectful, and insulting.
A despicable book (I never thought I´d use that adjective in relation to books, how sad)
Firstly, I fail to see the point of it. No plot, no character development,just random situations,silly "events",important topics (not) adressed ,although I suppose some readers might think they were, and feel "enlightened".
Secondly, the animal abuse. I can´t tolerate it, but sometimes,in books, it´s there for a reason. Not so here.The two incidents served no purpose in the narrative,and,worse,they were ignored AND condoned.
Thirdly, the depiction of nuns´ lives, vocations,choices. It worries me that some reviewers here think it´s "real". It´s not. It´s disrespectful, and insulting.
A despicable book (I never thought I´d use that adjective in relation to books, how sad)
August 12, 2021
Loved this. It starts out quirky and almost whimsical with Sister Agatha's first-person POV voice jumping off the page. The story is simple: there's a group of four nuns living in a Lackawanna (Buffalo), NY convent which has fallen into financial difficulty. The foursome is relocated to a half-way house of ex-cons and recovering drug/alcohol users in a rough town in Rhode Island.
At first, the nuns' naiveté and limited life experience shows up as good-hearted if slightly misguided ministrations to the residents of Little Neon (the house is a fluorescent chartreuse colour thanks to on-sale paint). But the Neons are, each of them, folks with difficult pasts and big problems, and the only tools the sisters have at their disposal are too light for heavy work. We soon see that there is callousness and a distinct lack of compassion, even cruelty, being perpetuated – albeit unintentionally.
Luchette's writing of these scenes and the way she executes the gradual shift in tone is phenomenal. The novel unfolds steadily in short chapters, almost snippets, which end abruptly. There is a lot of gentle, wry humour; lots of it based around the built-in anachronisms of a 'modern' nun's life. So one doesn't quite realize how the story is building, deepening, growing ever more sharp and serious.
Concurrently, Agatha's character, through her observations and narration, is fleshing out. Words have always been hard for Agatha, we learn, but the more of hers we get, the more we recognize that there is something about her not like the others. She is separate from, and separating from, the flock.
This is a slow burn of a novel, concise and deceptively simple – until it's not. And then it packs a real punch.
I really hope this is considered for the Tournament of Books this year. It deserves wide readership.
I listened on audio performed by the absolutely exceptional Hilary Huber.
CW:
At first, the nuns' naiveté and limited life experience shows up as good-hearted if slightly misguided ministrations to the residents of Little Neon (the house is a fluorescent chartreuse colour thanks to on-sale paint). But the Neons are, each of them, folks with difficult pasts and big problems, and the only tools the sisters have at their disposal are too light for heavy work. We soon see that there is callousness and a distinct lack of compassion, even cruelty, being perpetuated – albeit unintentionally.
Luchette's writing of these scenes and the way she executes the gradual shift in tone is phenomenal. The novel unfolds steadily in short chapters, almost snippets, which end abruptly. There is a lot of gentle, wry humour; lots of it based around the built-in anachronisms of a 'modern' nun's life. So one doesn't quite realize how the story is building, deepening, growing ever more sharp and serious.
Concurrently, Agatha's character, through her observations and narration, is fleshing out. Words have always been hard for Agatha, we learn, but the more of hers we get, the more we recognize that there is something about her not like the others. She is separate from, and separating from, the flock.
This is a slow burn of a novel, concise and deceptively simple – until it's not. And then it packs a real punch.
I really hope this is considered for the Tournament of Books this year. It deserves wide readership.
I listened on audio performed by the absolutely exceptional Hilary Huber.
CW:
April 14, 2021
Reading a galley in my usual genre (Female-Fronted aka "Jam Out With Your Clam Out" Fiction) has just been inundated with autofiction lately. Did y'all at first also think that autofiction was like, "automatic writing" fiction? I feel like I operated under that assumption for a long ass time. When I was in college, I transferred from a small, niche creative writing school to a large urban and urbane university, and I decided to make my way with a writing concentration. So I enrolled in a class called "Creative Nonfiction," which I also had miscategorized as "Yr life story, but with lying," So to know that autofiction was a genre all along? That 21 year old me, LB, would have thrived in? Breathtaking! My first piece for that Creative Nonfiction class I was blasted by another kid who said, "I don't think this is nonfiction. You already said you didn't know what Creative Nonfiction is, and this piece is about how you lied and made up quotes for stories in your last journalism class and they were published as fact. I believe that. But I don't believe you."
Why I'm writing all this on a book review that is not a book that at all smacks of autofiction is besides the point. Maybe I'm going to start reviewing for like, real publications, idk. I may have lied in two semesters of college journalism but I am not lying here. There is nothing in this book that comes across as "A life I kinda lived," for which the author should be given all the credit in the world. I've got no clout, I'm just a librarian with a bad attitude, but I'm gonna get this book ordered at my library.
Why I'm writing all this on a book review that is not a book that at all smacks of autofiction is besides the point. Maybe I'm going to start reviewing for like, real publications, idk. I may have lied in two semesters of college journalism but I am not lying here. There is nothing in this book that comes across as "A life I kinda lived," for which the author should be given all the credit in the world. I've got no clout, I'm just a librarian with a bad attitude, but I'm gonna get this book ordered at my library.
September 9, 2021
As a teen this was Agatha’s first impression of a nun she encountered:
“… this woman was different, many years younger and smiling, buoyant. She looked buoyant. And this was unusual because nobody in South Buffalo looked buoyant. Everyone looked as if they’d already sunk.”
Something I didn’t know: In the Catholic religion nuns take a solemn vow and live a cloistered life while religious sisters take simple vows and live a life of prayer and charitable works. Sisters Agatha, Frances, Mary Lucille and Therese (Torres) find themselves assigned to watch over a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and felons in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
While her fellow sisters are left to tend to the house and its residents, Agatha is sent to teach Geometry at an all-girls school. This causes her to gradually absorb the outside world in a different light while making her feel excluded from the sisterhood she shared for a number of years with the other nuns.
This was a heartfelt story about belonging and letting go. While there are sad situations, they are revealed in a gentle way. The writing is wonderful and the story is unique.
Loved it.
“… this woman was different, many years younger and smiling, buoyant. She looked buoyant. And this was unusual because nobody in South Buffalo looked buoyant. Everyone looked as if they’d already sunk.”
Something I didn’t know: In the Catholic religion nuns take a solemn vow and live a cloistered life while religious sisters take simple vows and live a life of prayer and charitable works. Sisters Agatha, Frances, Mary Lucille and Therese (Torres) find themselves assigned to watch over a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and felons in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
While her fellow sisters are left to tend to the house and its residents, Agatha is sent to teach Geometry at an all-girls school. This causes her to gradually absorb the outside world in a different light while making her feel excluded from the sisterhood she shared for a number of years with the other nuns.
This was a heartfelt story about belonging and letting go. While there are sad situations, they are revealed in a gentle way. The writing is wonderful and the story is unique.
Loved it.
September 27, 2021
Too minimalistic to fully engage me. I wanted more depth of characterization of Agatha and her fellow nuns. Agatha is a shut down person whose decision to enter the convent seems to have been driven more by her fear of confronting her attraction to women than by religious fervor. Most of her interactions with other people, especially male people, are deflating and sometimes even damaging. Though there are small moments of wry humor, the book's atmosphere is mostly permeated by depression: it hangs over the hopeless lives in Little Neon, it is embodied in the bleakness and poverty of the halfway house and its environs, it is intensified as the priest sexual scandal comes ever more to light, it undermines the sisters' efforts to save the people in their care -- which they naively believe is possible. The one ray of hope in the book is the character of Mother Roberta, but I wished for more development of her and Agatha's relationship. Most of all I wanted a sense at the end that Agatha will come into her own, but was left unsatisfied.
September 6, 2021
A quiet little gem. A little wry, a little melancholy, a lot contemplative. Seeking purpose and community, questioning the status quo along the way.
February 20, 2023
I loved this book but WHEW, what an emotional ride!
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