Reading Exiles by Ron Hansen

Back in graduate school, before marriage and before Husband became a Catholic, he was the one who introduced me to G.M. Hopkins. Husband loves poetry and thought Hopkins an amazing poet. His poetry is a bit hard for me, although I have come to enjoy several of his poems. (Catholic homeschool families have been introduced to the complexity of his poetry in Mary Daly's The Whole Book of Diagrams).

When we moved to Nebraska about ten years ago, Husband and I met Ron Hansen together: a contemporary Catholic writer from Nebraska? Impressive. We enjoyed many of his books, especially Atticus, Mariette in Ecstasy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. And his 2001 collection of essays A Stay against Confusion was a delicious gem to this reader. Indeed, I bought many copies once to give as gifts. One of the essays was about one of my favorite Tolstoy stories, Master and Man, another was about Babbette's Feast--both in literature and in film--and another yet is about a favorite prayer of Husband's, the Anima Christi. But the most interesting essay of all to me was about that Catholic poet-priest Husband had introduced to me years before, Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hansen tells about his personal discovery of Hopkins and how the poet was, from heaven, entangled in Hansen's career and life decisions. And he shed light onto the life of a man of discipline, artistic greatness, humour, integrity and love of God. One of Hopkins' life events that I never forgot was when he read of a shipwreck in England where five nuns died, and how this tragedy was the catalyst for Hopkins of his mature, creative and rich poetry.

This new Ron Hansen title is a unique weaving of fact and fiction of the poet's life, and it took me back me back immediately to that essay. In fact, some of the passages highlights and quotes from Hopkins are the very same in both works. The uniqueness of the book relies exactly on this juxtaposing of fact and fiction: while Hopkins' life is built on much documentation, the parallel story of the nuns' lives is makes uses of much imagination on the author's part. I have a hard time with this, but then again I never watched Becoming Jane for that reason: if people led private lives and not much is known about them, I'd say leave them alone. I didn't want to have an eschewed idea in my mind of who Jane Austen was... and I'd prefer to leave the memories of those nuns blank as they were before, as opposed to having Hansen insert in my mind personalities that of course, were not theirs.

Having said that, the book is an amazing read and I am almost afraid to finish it. Hansen's writing is magical for me, having this seldom-found effect of total engagement. His craft and creative power come delightfully as the pages are turned.

Few things in life are as good as a good book, and here's one.