Anchoress of Shere

Rating:
Summary: "Shere" Drivel
Review: Alas! An intriguing topic and a book with much potential, which is undone by poor writing! Moorcraft is at his worst when he attempts to write dialogue, which is as bad as that in any supermarket variety bodice-ripper. Who could get into the head of a 14th century anchorite? Surely not Mr. Moorcraft.Three stars for selecting an alluring topic, though.

Rating:
Summary: Maria Monk Rides Again
Review: Julian of Norwich is the best-known medieval English anchoress, but her life is too sane for Dr. Moorcroft. His sado-masochistic novel features a little-known lapsed anchoress, Christine Carpenter of Shere. Raped by the Lord of the Manor only in Dr. Moorcraft's lurid fiction, she walls herself up in conditions no medieval parish would accept. He matches this with Michael Duval, a demented 1960s Catholic priest who kidnaps and tortures young women so that they may "become" his fantasy girlfriend, Christine. Dr. Moorcroft misses no possible cliche, no imaginable foolish error, no modern superstition about the actual Middle Ages. He hasn't got a good grip on the 1960s either. The last of Duval's victims, Marda Stewart, is a remarkably stupid young woman, who survives mostly by accident and her genuine cooperation with her captor's fantasies. In this book no one thinks; "instinct" and "intuition" rule. I felt extremely sorry for the real Christine Carpenter, a confused but earnest young woman, who honestly tried a difficult vocation and failed.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating tale of faith and redemption
Review: This book takes its time telling two stories intertwined on the page and in the mysteries of the past and the future. One story is that of Christine Carpenter, a young girl who voluntarily entombs herself as an anchoress in her 14th century church in the village of Shere... and that of Marda Stewart, who is violently entombed in 1967 in this same village of Shere by a pshychotic Priest who is obsessed with his fictional retelling of Christine's story. The narrative of the book is engrossing and very effective at pulling the reader into both stories simultaneously. Jettisoned between the harsh realities of the Middle Ages and the terrrifying events unfolding in the 1960's there are graphic descriptions of terror that are necessary in understanding the horror and exhultation that can be experienced by the body, mind and soul. Only through journeying through these graphic passages can the reader come to fully appreciate the final pages of the book which offer an eloquent and profound lesson in redemption.
The book is not meant to be a historical document on the dogma of the Church or the nature of anchoresses and instead the author uses these as the premise to paint a canvas of the evolution of faith and the power of the human spirit. But mostly, through the three main characters, the reader comes to see religion and especially faith (wether meek devotion or fanatical obsession) as an individual journey that has a mystery all its own.