The Close: A Young Woman's First Year at Seminary

Rating:
Summary: An honest story told in compelling prose
Review: Chloe Breyer's story of a young woman's first year in a Christian (Episcopal) seminary is well-conceived and written brilliantly. She tells a fascinating story and demonstrates a deep sense of kindness and respect for those whom she encounters whether they be professors, fellow students, or people she finds in the wilderness that is New York City. Here is a young woman, very much living in the post-modern world, who is able to confront the doubts and uncertainties, the anomalies and eccentricities, the ambivalences and ambiguities of trying to be a person clinging to an ancient faith while at the same time exploring whatever it may be she feels led to explore. She descibes her journey with a balance of both seriousness and whimsy and has achieved impressive doses of wisdom and insight in the process. This book will have special appeal to clergy and those thinking of becoming clergy. It might also provide older folks a view of how younger folks feel, thing, and believe.

Rating:
Summary: Insights for Those Considering Ordination
Review: I purchased this book with some anticipation, being familiar with General Theological Seminary in New York. I too had considered attending General as a candidate for ordination. Given my reaction to much of what Breyer encountered in her first year, perhaps it's just as well that the plan never worked out.

Seminary, as this book makes clear, is in many ways more concerned with learning early Greek declensions and the various parts of a musical organ that it is perhaps concerned with the holiness or spirituality of its attendees. This isn't a glimpse into "how to...". Breyer's discussions are really rather pragmatic in describing her experiences with the realities of training today's Church professional. Much of what she says corroborates the discussions I had with male and female priests in making my own decision about whether or not I belonged in the priesthood.

But she learns from her experiences and in turn that learning is what gradually emerges as her own understanding of faith and responsibility.

Certainly this is not your ordinary "feel good" spirituality book but it is a very realistic glimpse into life on the Close at General Theological.

Rating:
Summary: Close But Not Quite
Review: Ms. Breyer's description of a year in the seminary left me disappointed in two respects. First, the discussion of academics was very similar in tone to "One L", the story of a first year law student at Harvard, without the compelling human interest aspect. We hear too often of her struggle with learning Greek and how tired she was from studying Greek. Unless you are actually considering the seminary, this is only relevant and/or interesting to a point.

My second complaint with the book is more substantive. Ms. Breyer readily admits that she was actively writing this book throughout her first year at General Seminary. As a consequence, I found myself doubting her motives as she described her turmoil with certain crucial decisions. For example, she writes that her decision to take an internship as associate chaplain at Bellevue Hospital in New York was based on the potential for spiritual and personal growth; however, I often thought another motivation might have been the potential to recount in her book the unique and often tragic stories of Bellevue's patients. Other instances also left me wondering whether she was only gathering more fodder for the pages of her book.

There are, fortunately, wonderful aspects to this book, not the least of which is her description of counselling a mentally ill patient and how each of us can try to do too much.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth your time or money
Review: Reading this book, I found myself thinking that Breyer must have had an "in" with an editor or publisher. It is a painful read. Breyer forces the structure of the liturgical year, which begins four weeks prior to Christmas, onto her first academic year in seminary, which began in September, as most academic years do. But this structure simply doesn't work for her material, which is itself extremely thin. Did she think, "Oh what a neat structure that would be" and decide to use it before she knew what the content would be? Perhaps, if she had allowed her material to find its own shape and had the guidance of a good editor, this could have been a better read. I was hoping that she would continue in the lineage of Kathleen Norris and Anne Lammott, but she lacks their perspective and sense that the world is a complex place, as well as their ability to write beautiful prose. After 25 pages I wanted to quit reading, but I really wanted the book to be good, so I kept plodding away at it. It never got better.