Rating: 
Summary: absolutely wonderful
Review: Confessions of a Pagan Nun is a thought-provoking and breath-taking book. Horsley's style is poetic and simple and both her story and her characters are engaging. She masterfully recreates a time when Paganism was the predominant religion and Christianity was struggling to gain acceptance.
Gwynneve, the narrator of the story, is a nun living in a monastery of Saint Brigit in Ireland during the sixth century. Along side her work transcribing the writings of Saint Patrick and Saint Augustine, Gwynneve tells the story of her Pagan childhood and her life in the monastery, where events are beginning to unfold that threaten Gwynneve and force her to define her beliefs.
The language of the novel is beautiful and filled with rich imagery. When recounting the death of her mother, Gwynneve says "Soon my mother began to shed blood through her mouth. Death was surely just outside our door, drawn by the smell of her blood."
The first-person narrative creates intimacy between Gwynneve and the reader, as Gwynneve discusses the power struggle between the Old Religion and the new. "Rather than seeing a contest between druid and Christian, I see a kinship between stone chapel and stone circle. One encloses and protects the spirit; the other exposes it and joins it with the elements." She goes on to address what she believes is an illogical desire of Christianity to denounce other religions. "Even now I do not understand a jealous God, for if He made all things, than any form of worship that protects His creations and is not destructive or cruel to them must please Him."
Gwynneve also recounts how the Christians stole and reshaped Pagan rituals and places of worship. "Now they make the ancient wells and standing stones into Christian relics, attributing their power to saints," says Gwynneve. "I do not quarrel with this practice, for I believe that which is sacred does not care by what name it is called. But I often wish that I did not know history so well so that I could believe in the Christian rendition of our landscape. Knowledge often spoils devotion."
Horsley's novel is a splendid mix of fiction, philosophy and history. Confessions is an enjoyable and an enlightening read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Melancholy Tale
Review: Gwynneve's tale is rather melancholy. She is an nun in sixth century Ireland and she writes of her present as a scribal nun in service of Saint Brigit at Kildare and her strange journey through life from when she was a young pagan girl to her apprenticeship with an angry young druid to how she cam to be in the monastery. Even though it is rather sad, it is also absorbing and has the ring of truth although it is fiction. Here is a vision of a people and land in change. The Irish words interfere in the story and yet they too also enlighten. Just don't read this story if you're morose. It won't make you any happier.
Rating:
Summary: Unexpected Pleasure
Review: I began the story of Gwynneve with little expectation of what the story may hold. I honestly picked it up at the book store because I have been to Ireland and the photo of the clochan caught my eye. I was thrilled to find the story quite captivating. Although the first couple of pages didn't thrill me, I am delighted that I pressed on. The author writes in a simple style, however, the simplicity of the language holds the beauty of the story. In her simple, small view of the world around her, Gwynneve recites the story of her simple life...a woman raised pagen...trained as a druid and scribe..."converted" to a Christianity. She experiences life and death, love and loss, and stuggles as the world around her changes. The end of the story is so moving, I actually read the last paragraph twice. I was outraged and saddened. Then I sat back and contemplated who were the truly God-less ones in her tale...the pagans or the Christians???
Rating:
Summary: One of the rare literary gifts
Review: I bought this book because I was intrigued by the title and premise. Little did I expect such a powerful tale and history lesson packed into so small a novel. Like many Irish Americans, I try to reach back through the mists of time to touch upon life in ancient Ireland. Most books give a slight glimpse, this book utterly transported me back in time. We hear of the Island of Saints and Scholars and how Christianity came to Ireland. This is a much different and more realistic picture of what it was really like. It was not the gentle winning over of pagan Druids but a titanic struggle between two very different worlds with the outcome changing things forever. The character, Gwynneve, is caught between the two worlds with a dramatic result. The reader cannot help but imagine living at that time and through those events and feeling the same sweeping forces. For me this book was a mystical experience.
Rating:
Summary: Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel
Review: I would give this book 10 stars out of five, too. My husband got this for me a couple of Christmases ago. I loved the cover (why he bought it for me: it looked like "me") and sure enough, the content did not let me down. I love Kate's lyrical writing and what she writes about. Years ago, I gave up attempting to be a Christian after reading "When God Was a Woman," mainly because I realized that Christianity hasn't been around that long and really qualifies as a testosterone-laced paternalistic cult (now look at how many women voted Bush into power!! Why?).
This book is a lyrical version of that thought. Many times in my life I have felt out of place like the main character in this book: like I don't belong. Gwynneve is my hero. I hope you will read this book and I wish every woman would read this book. I am sad for what happens to her but she is the true saint if there are saints. I love it, love it, love it. Thanks Kate Horsley.
Rating:
Summary: This Was Completely Fictional?
Review: Kate Horsley had me completely riveted for the entire book. She prefaces the story with a translator's note about finding the manuscript in an ancient well near an Irish monastery, then writes the novel so plausibly, that it's difficult to believe she made it up (I'm still not convinced!). Wow! What a story!
Rating:
Summary: This Was Completely Fictional?
Review: Kate Horsley had me completely riveted for the entire book. She prefaces the story with a translator's note about finding the manuscript in an ancient well near an Irish monastery, then writes the novel so plausibly, that it's difficult to believe she made it up (I'm still not convinced!). Wow! What a story!
Rating:
Summary: A STIRRING VIEW OF WORLDS IN COLLISION
Review: Kate Horsley's incredible novel CONFESSIONS OF A PAGAN NUN is one of those truly rare books that succeeds on multiple levels -- it is enthralling and entertaining, believable and full of wisdom, poetry and finely crafted prose.Simply read as an historical novel, it would be an accomplished work. The author has obviously taken great care to research and immerse herself in the world she depicts. Her descriptions of the events and lives drawn here are crystalline and coarse at the same time -- these people led lives of hardship and illiteracy, in a beautiful but unforgiving landscape. Survival was difficult, and was by necessity their primary concern, directing their lives with a firm hand. The customs and living conditions of the time are laid out before the reader in almost film-like tangibility -- Horsley's descriptions of the natural world are a well-woven tapestry before which the story is played out. Telling the story of a 5th century Irish nun -- raised as a pagan and converted later in life to the 'new faith', Christianity -- the book is a moving personal history. The nun -- Gwynneve -- is a rarity among the people of her land. She has studied with a respected druid -- Giannon, her teacher and soul mate -- and is actually literate. She learns from him many other skills as well -- storytelling being one of the most impressive. From her mother Murrynn she has learned the gathering and use of sundry herbs and plants from the natural world, of their healing and other properties. Her amazement that such a thing as written language can exist, and the power that it can possess, is made clear in the author's vividly beautiful language. Gwynneve is thunderstruck by the implied power of such a gift -- and her view of words (along with justice and truth) as the ultimate tools of power will follow her throughout her life. She is also keenly aware of the relationship between justice and truth -- it is the power held by the druids whom she most admires, and she well recognizes its place in the world (from p.105): 'The truth will inevitably cause tremors in those who cling to power without honoring justice'. Over the course of the book, the author alternates chapters containing Gwynneve's record of her own life and history with 'interruptions' detailing events occurring around her as she works in her beehive-shaped stone clochan. Gwynneve comes across as an intelligent, sensitive seeker, yearning for a way to deal with the pain and loss in her own life, and to ease the journey of those around her. She possesses the wisdom to see beyond the painful aspects of grief and loss, seeing it more deeply as an actual freeing agent that allows her to pass through trials and move beyond them. The kindness she displays to the poor people she encounters in her journeys, and to those living near the nuns' compound, is sincere, generous and heartwarming -- but she is completely without conceit in her view of herself, a compelling and refreshing character. Gwynneve has much wisdom within her -- although her humble self-image doesn't allow her to see it as such. She sees the purveyors of Christianity attempting to wipe out all traces of the 'old ways' and she wonders -- with incredible honesty and acute insight -- why it can't be seen that the two could mutually, peacefully (and beneficially) co-exist. She sees a kinship not only between the goals of the two systems of thought, but in their rituals and visual aspects as well. She finds herself sympathetic to the Palagians -- an early Christian sect denounced by the Church of Rome as heretical, who see the sacred relationship between ALL aspects of God's creation -- and finds herself regretting that Patrick had come to drive them out of Ireland. She is also intensely devoted to St. Brigid, who was herself raised by druids and converted late to Christianity. The cloister of nuns that Gwynneve has joined devotes themselves to maintaining an eternal flame to Brigid -- and it is believed that one night each month Brigid herself comes to guard her own flame. Gwynneve's talents in reading and writing are soon put to use by her sisters. She is given the task of transcribing scriptures, as well as documents detailing the lives of Patric, Augustine and other saints. It is her steadfast -- and heartfelt -- refusl (or simply, perhaps, her inability) to renounce the teachings of her druidic past that makes her a perceived threat to some of her sisters, and to the abbot risen to power and position who oversees their group. She is intelligent, sensitive and strong-willed -- she will not be moved from the beliefs she holds sacred within her soul. The novel is not a lengthy one, at just under 200 pages -- but it is an incredibly rich one. It is a work of fiction, but it is presented as an ancient codex, dating from around 500 a.d., supposedly found at an excavation in County Kildare. The author -- in her 'translator's note' at the first of the book -- lays out her purposes in relating the story to the reader, as well as her reasoning in the use of Gaelic and Latin terms that appear in the text (a very helpful glossary of these is found at the end of the novel). The presentation is thus given a very authentic and natural feel -- this is a carefully constructed, shining work. It is moving and poetically charged, filled with wisdom, hope and insight -- it's an experience I know I will never forget, and I can give it my very highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Lyrical yet realistic, rates: 5 HANDKERCHIEFS
Review: Spoiler alert: CONFESSIONS OF A PAGAN NUN is a brilliant novelette, guaranteed to break your heart! I have to warn you so that you can brace yourself to handle the inevitable, tragic ending. The author, however, does leave a miniscule possibility for us to imagine that Gwynneve, the gallant heroine, did not suffer all that much in the end; so feel free to augment the finale with your own imagination. Kate Horsley's writing is multi-faceted: lyrical yet often no-nonsense, albeit on occasion hard to read because of the bevy of Gaelic words and expressions, yet her knowledge of the era (6th Century)and locales and terrain (County Kildare, Ireland) is strong, and her insights into the character of Gwynneve, the Druid turned a nun, are illuminating. Once you enter Gwynneve's thoughts, you get to be part of her flesh, and page after page, you suffer from the cold and the dampness, shiver as goosebums appear along your arms, run down the back of your neck, your feet trouble you as if they were about to disintegrate into the mulchy earth full of rotting leaves, and your eyes... burn from the smoke of that one waxen candle lighting the parchment in front of you.
Thankfully, Gwynneve does experience moments of happiness. And of course, there are those short-lived Irish summers, "when the wind is green," and you, the reader, may feel as tempted as our heroine to pause in your work and "stand outside on the hill and see the valley and the waves of hills beyond."
Raised in a village of fishermen and pigkeepers during the time of Ireland's transition from Paganism to Christianity, she is blessed with the love of Murrynn, her wonderfully drawn, strong-hearted, vibrant mother (Murrynn deserves a novel of her own!), and later on with the love of handsome Giannon, her Druid teacher, reluctant lover, a very complex, tormented man who seems tempted by Christianity to foresake his druidic soul.
Gwynneve is deeply romantic yet level-headed, learns quickly, retains what she learns, suffers the tragic loss of her beloved mother, then gets separated from her equally beloved teacher, in time bridges the gap between Paganism and Christianity, and still manages to retain her remarkably clear sight of how things truly are: "... I wonder if she (Sister Ailenn) has taken her thoughts from St. Paul and St. Augustine, who connect self-disgust with righteousness. Self-hatred seems to me an evil thing in itself rather than an antidote to evil. If we practice self-hatred, then the sacrifice we make of ourselves and our lives is not sacred, for it is then a gift of something we hate rather than of something that he have nurtured and loved."
CONFESSIONS OF A PAGAN NUN, despite its brevity, shows well the clear-eyed observations of a young woman who, while caught in the relentless machinery of the fast-approaching dark era, continues to think independently, and of course, pays the price. "... I had thought that the love of Christ would make us kinder and less likely to smash skulls. But now I see that we will be asked to smash skulls for Christ."
This part from the Epilogue, written by "Giannon, the Mute," is still haunting me: "... I have news that should be known.... In her own death, Gwynneve was not false... and as she sat down on the stones around the well, she addressed the abbot gently, saying, "I wish I could live more."
I like to repeat that you should brace yourself before you read this novel; but when you finish it, offer a little prayer for Gwynneve's soul. Although she died fifteen centuries ago, she returns to life each time one of us reads her story, and thus her wish of being allowed to live, is granted. Slainte, Gwynneve!
Rating:
Summary: Great insights
Review: This is by far one of the best books I have had the pleasure to read. Ms. Horsley gives great insights into the 5-6th century irish world. A time of the druids and the new religion as well. A changing world of the old and new ways. A time of conflict of faith and world views. Deeply human and full of depth of the spirit.
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