How do the relationships between Phoebe and Rebecca, Rebecca and Mary Martha, and Phoebe and Mary Martha differ? In what ways do these relationships change over the course of the novel?
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: book discussion, books, daughters, mothers, The Monk Downstairs, Tim Farrington
In the final scene of the book, Rebecca and Mike sit talking and she asks him how this feeling of peace and love she feels compares with the contemplative life of prayer Mike led at the monastery.
He refers to Filippo Lippi’s “Predella of the Barbadori Altarpiece” in which St. Augustine, bearing three arrows in his chest, beholds the Trinity. He says he used to want that experience, figuring that the arrows were “an occupational hazard.” And then he continues, ”And now I know that the moments of vision come and go — ‘no man shall see My face and live.’ We’re not equipped to live in that light all the time. The vision fades and life goes on and all we’re left with is the arrows.”
Do you agree or disagree with Mike’s point of view and why? How much does what Mike says about faith hold true for love?
Categories: fiction
Tagged: book discussion, books, Filippo Lippi, Predella of the Barbadori Altarpiece, St. Augustine, The Monk Downstairs, Tim Farrington
The New York Times named Tim Farrington’s The Monk Downstairs to its Notable Book of the Year list in 2002. How notable is the book for you? Is this a book you’d recommend to others? Why or why not?
Categories: fiction
Tagged: book discussion, books, The Monk Downstairs, Tim Farrington
