Rating: 
Summary: Thank You
Review: All We Know of Heaven by Rémy Rougeau read like a breath - short and spare. I began reading the small novel on a flight to Seattle, and had it been a longer flight I would have read it straight through in one sitting and thus risked it slipping from my memory, the way small treasures can. Instead I paused in my reading long enough to find my hotel, shop, eat dinner. As I strode the streets of Seattle, the story bubbled in the back of my mind. I finished it that evening in the spaciousness of my hotel room. Alone, without my normal distractions, it simmered. As I went to bed that night having finished Heaven, the story cooled on the window ledge high above the city, and by morning, it had set.Situated in a Cistercian (Trappist) monastery in Manitoba, this is the story of a young monk's first years of Catholic monasticism. The Cistercians are an order known for their atmosphere of silence, and perhaps this is why Heaven is pervaded by a sweet and gentle quietness. The story is about the difficulties and demons Brother Antoine (née Paul) meets in those first years at the monastery. It is about the foibles of fellow monks. It is about facing pride, anger, jealousy, bewilderment, lust; and facing these in the silent and remarkably rich world of the farm monastery, among cows and chickens, birth and death. Populated even by a visit by Tibetan monks and a Buddhist lesson on karma, the story is contemporary. The order is concerned about their dwindling numbers. Reading the book jacket and the dedication to the Cistercian and Benedictine monks with whom the author has lived and worked for many years, I wonder how much of this novel is autobiographical. But if there is a lesson to take from this book and if there is a lesson I take from my own Buddhist meditation practice and study, it is this: The book is both autobiography and about all of our own lives. It is our collective story as frail and human beings. It is about facing and trying to understand ourselves - "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Or, as the author remembers from the Psalms when a beloved fellow Brother dies, "A short span you have made my days, O God, and my life is as naught before you. Only a breath is any human existence. You dissolve like a cobweb all that is dear to him." This book is about the beauty of one small kind gesture, the offering of a Tylenol to a fellow monk in pain, and about the raw confusing ugliness of killing kittens. It is a tale of the beauty and the agony of life. Spare like a breath, All We Know of Heaven almost slipped by me. But it caught. It is like life: Everything and nothing are here. - I read All We Know of Heaven on a trip to a software development conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I read the book on the way to and in Seattle; the first draft of this review was written on the flight from Seattle to Denver. The conference in Santa Fe occupied all the daylight hours, and there was only one chance on the last day to drive out of town to see the area. The map was bad, one of those sketchy tourist things, and I took a wild shot with darkness near to try to get into the mountains, ending up in Pecos Canyon (in the mountains, but not on the mountains). Right out of the tiny town of Pecos, I was stunned to see a Benedictine monastery nestled in the valley, just beside the winding road. I stopped outside the gate to breathe the place. As if it were centuries earlier, a nun in a white habit glided through a passageway. A bell rang ten times. The nun walked back the way she had come.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent tale of monastic life
Review: I discovered this book via an article written by Rémy Rougeau. Having always had an interest in monasticism I was intrigued by the idea. I immediately picked up a copy. The novel is almost an anthology centered on the life of a Cistercian, French Canadian monk. Starting with Paul Seneschal taking leave of his parents for monastic life, it follows him as he is initiated into the abbey and eventually becomes Brother Antoine. Each story is virtually independent, centering on certain events and their subsequent revelations. Paul's interacts with everyone from Buddhist monks to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer steadily lead him down the life-long path he has begun toward enlightenment. As he learns and grows the reader cannot help but follow. This is a wonderful book. Refreshing in a sea of contemporary literature in which simple elegance is a rarity, Rougeau's novel defines the phrase.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, That We Knew More
Review: I found this novel thoroughly engaging. Remy Rougeau has written a disarmingly honest account of what could be one person's experience of Cistercian life in the closing years of the twentieth century. While the characters at times lack psychological depth, the descriptive details bring the reader right into each scenario. Each chapter, relating an off-center but plausible situation, stands on its own as an entertaining short story. His point - and he does have an important theological one - is that monks are to give themselves wholly to "the things of heaven," even as earthly life goes on in all its intensity. "The things of heaven" are only perceptible to us through human lenses. Rougeau provides a credible narrative of one human's search for God among the mundane and transitory.
The book cries out for a sequel. I can hardly wait to read how things go at the new down-sized monastery in Bruxelles!
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Little Book!
Review: I was drawn to this book by its cover, never suspecting its real treasure within the pages...story after story of a young monk's search for meaning. Human nature as it is, Paul (or Brother Antoine) and his fellow monks are no different than most of us in our desires, needs, and limitations. This is one reason why the book is so captivating -- each chapter tells a story (through Antoine's eyes) of a rather ordinary human experience made extraordinary. The author is a wonderful storyteller. This book is definitely one I couldn't put down until I regretfully turned to the last page! I hope we will have much more from the talented Remy Rougeau.
Rating:
Summary: An Inside Look at Monastic Life
Review: In a time when much of what we read about the Catholic Church is negative, Remy Rougeau, a cloistered Trappist monk, offers a delightful look at the reality of day-to-day life in a monastery. All We Know of Heaven follows the story of Paul Seneschal, a young nineteen year old, who decides that instead of going to college, he wants to become a Trappist monk. After battling his rather formidable mother about his decision, (a rich and comical character all by herself), Paul enters the monastery and we the readers are offered the chance to make the journey with him. All We Know of Heaven is written in a comfortable timeline style that takes the reader across more than twenty years in the short period of a few hundred pages. We find ourselves with a Birdseye view of mysterious world of the monastery. We witness young Paul's own struggles to determine whether he is truly called to the challenging life of work and prayer, his decision to remain, and his own growth and maturity as he passes a number of years as a fully professed monk. We meet men who extend a genuine hand of welcome to him as he enters, other who might have sent the weak or doubtful, running for the door because of their innocent oddities, and yet still others, who could be stand-up physical comedy entertainers. Finally, among the group and the most unexpected characters we also meet the fewer, truly holy men, who seem almost mystical. It is through Paul's innocent eyes, that Rougeau dispels the notion that a monastery is an all too serious and possibly boring place without personality or joy. His "too-real-to-be fiction" cast of characters offers us the chance to encounter a peacefulness, the opportunity to laugh out loud and even the chance to unexpectedly shed a few tears. Ultimately, All We Know of Heaven is a joyous human story that left this reader with a sense of peace, an admiration for those who choose the monastic life, a realization that is not a calling for me, and a reminder that we often discover saints and moments of grace and joy in the mist of the simplest and often most unexamined moments of our day to day lives. A quiet and joyful read! Highly recommended. Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Rating:
Summary: AN ENJOYABLE AND BELIEVABLE VIEW BEHIND THE WALLS
Review: Remy Rougeau -- a Benedictine monk himself, and therefore eminently qualified to tell this tale -- has given us on the 'outside' a literate, compelling look at life in a monastery in Manitoba. Set in the present day -- beginning during the Nixon debacle in the 70s -- it allows the reader to gain quite a bit of valuable understanding about the cloistered religious life. Narrated by Paul Seneschal -- 19 at the story's outset -- the story allows us to take a life's journey with a young man who finds himself called to a vocation that will shut him off from the outside world, with few and rare exceptions. This is not to say that he finds his calling to be a dramatic, obvious one -- from the very beginning of the novel he is beseiged with doubts, and they recur all through the story. This aspect alone makes the story believable for me -- for how could he be human and not feel doubt from time to time? The novel is told in a series of stories that follow Brother Antoine (his montastic name, given to him by his abbot) through his years at St. Norbert Abbey, located just outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The other monks in the cloister provide a wide -- and endearing -- range of characters to fill this novel. We see them as intensely devotional -- as one would expect -- but also as beset with human frailties and traits that underscore their humanity. They complain about their conditions, about the food, about the enforced silence and isolation -- they bicker bitterly with each other and with their abbot at times. But they are ultimately bound together by their love for each other, and their devotion to God, which is, after all, at the heart of not only their vocation, but of their lives. The story is told skillfully and dramatically (but not overly so). The author's narrative skills are great and graceful, and his descriptions of the surrounding countryside -- and the monk's interaction with and view of it -- are vivid and life-giving. This fine novel is entertaining as well as uplifting -- a great read.
Rating:
Summary: AN ENJOYABLE AND BELIEVABLE VIEW BEHIND THE WALLS
Review: Remy Rougeau -- a Benedictine monk himself, and therefore eminently qualified to tell this tale -- has given us on the 'outside' a literate, compelling look at life in a monastery in Manitoba. Set in the present day -- beginning during the Nixon debacle in the 70s -- it allows the reader to gain quite a bit of valuable understanding about the cloistered religious life. Narrated by Paul Seneschal -- 19 at the story's outset -- the story allows us to take a life's journey with a young man who finds himself called to a vocation that will shut him off from the outside world, with few and rare exceptions. This is not to say that he finds his calling to be a dramatic, obvious one -- from the very beginning of the novel he is beseiged with doubts, and they recur all through the story. This aspect alone makes the story believable for me -- for how could he be human and not feel doubt from time to time? The novel is told in a series of stories that follow Brother Antoine (his montastic name, given to him by his abbot) through his years at St. Norbert Abbey, located just outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The other monks in the cloister provide a wide -- and endearing -- range of characters to fill this novel. We see them as intensely devotional -- as one would expect -- but also as beset with human frailties and traits that underscore their humanity. They complain about their conditions, about the food, about the enforced silence and isolation -- they bicker bitterly with each other and with their abbot at times. But they are ultimately bound together by their love for each other, and their devotion to God, which is, after all, at the heart of not only their vocation, but of their lives. The story is told skillfully and dramatically (but not overly so). The author's narrative skills are great and graceful, and his descriptions of the surrounding countryside -- and the monk's interaction with and view of it -- are vivid and life-giving. This fine novel is entertaining as well as uplifting -- a great read.
Rating:
Summary: A wise and warm novel
Review: Remy Rougeau has written a deceptively simple and utterly charming novel about monastic life. Over the course of what could easily be considered a series of short stories we witness Brother Antoine's journey from naivete to the first gleanings of wisdom. Rougeau offers a touching and often humorous picture of life behind monastery walls; at the same time, he disillusions us about what it means to be a monk. Rougeau dismantles one-dimensional images to remind us that first and foremost monks are human beings. Even within monastic enclosure and silence, individual personalities will manifest themselves, with comedic or disastrous results. The book is marred only by the introduction, in the waning pages, of a meditation on art and the need for detachment from it. One senses for the first time the presence of a bright young author struggling with letting go of this otherwise wonderful novel. Brother Antoine, without knowing it, has taught us quite a bit about the miraculousness of the mundane and the often accidental nature of spiritual growth. A book I suspect I'll cherish. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Quiet and Beautiful
Review: The peek into his monastic life inspired me to write about mine. The cloister has always been a magnet for the odd, the eccentric, and the brilliant. Rougeau painted his brothers well.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and voyeuristic
Review: This book jumped into my hands a few days ago, and I couldn't put it down. It's not that the plot twists and turns or that the characters are so riveting--though they are, it was just a very beautifully told story. Soft and quiet, like a stream to sit by, compelling in the most understated way. I'm not Catholic, but who hasn't been intrigued by the life of a monk? Growing up on the Canadian border (Buffalo) I was very comfortable and familiar with the French-Canadian theme, if not the religious aspects. I was very taken by the humanity of these people, not saintly and overly pious as I had imagined. Not completely sure of their choices and convictions, any more than any of us are. I simply loved this book and will be sharing it with many friends who may at first glance find it an odd selection. I highly recommend it not only for the rare glimpse of a rare life it offers, but for the questions it provokes in one's own life. I will be looking for future works by this author.
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