In July of 1960, 19-year-old Larsen (then Deborah Maertz) smoked a final cigarette before walking through the doors of Mount Carmel convent in Dubuque, Iowa. Inspired by Sister Luke in the 1956 novel The Nun's Story
, she was determined to be a perfect nun, though she somehow overlooked Sister Luke's little problem with the vow of obedience. Along with theology and scripture, she studied posture and movement, hygiene and manners, French and "custody of the eyes" (how to avoid being distracted by one's surroundings). She practiced silence, performed menial tasks and prayed daily, always following her order's rule while increasingly hungering for sensory experiences: "The fabrics I [touched] were black and white serge, wool, cotton. There was no crushed velvet, no fleece, no angora, and no slubbed silk." In 1965, after a year of college in Chicago and many visits with her confessor, she decided not to make her final vows. One among thousands of American nuns to leave religious life during the tumultuous 1960s, Larsen is now a writing teacher, poet (Stitching Porcelain
) and novelist (The White
). Affectionate rather than bitter, her memoir is a richly detailed reminiscence of convent life and a sensitive evocation of a young Catholic woman's coming-of-age. (Sept. 6)
