On the road but with no rock star entourage

In: Catholocism| Cultural History| Historical Fiction| Sacred Hearts| Sarah Dunant

9 Jul 2009

Hi Margot. Thank you for that.  Sacred Hearts will be in your hands soon enough. Please let me know what you think.

Meanwhile I have been hurtling around Dublin on the opening of this mad international tour.  Such a friendly city, coping well with a recession which is as low as the boom was high.  Also reeling from revelations of abuse within the Catholic church, all now documented in a new public report. So there was much talk about religion an how each and all religions handle the high octane pressure of  sexuality and how far Catholicism in particular demands too much from those who end up as priests and nuns. All of course utterly wonderful for me as these are just some of the kinds of questions – albeit 500 years ago, that I am asking in Sacred Hearts.

Anyway, the high spot of the crazy 48 hours was to find myself staying in  the same hotel as Bruce Springstein  Of course I didn’t see him, but just to know that he might have been in the same lift. Everyone has to have heroes don’t you think?  Next stop Toronto…

5 Responses to On the road but with no rock star entourage

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Cathy

July 13th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

I follow Luis Alberto Urrea @urrealism on Twitter, being a huge fan of The Hummingbird’s Daughter and found you there. I will be buying Sacred Hearts and am eager to explore your books! Also, must say Bruce is one of my favorites!

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Liam Banks

August 18th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

Hi,
I’m a huge fan of your work and am really enjoying ‘Sacred Hearts’.
However whilst I don’t wish to sound pedantic ,I have come across two jarring notes in the UK version -perhaps they’re in the US version as well-namely in Roman Catholic monasteries Abbotts and Abbesses had the same ecclesiastical standing as the local bishop and should appear in the text with a Capital letter i.e. not abbess but Abbess.
Also the only person in Roman Catholicism referred to as Holiness is and was the Pope -never the local bishop as in this book.They correct way to address a bishop was and is ‘my Lord Bishop ‘ or ‘his Lordship…’

Sincerely
Liam

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Sarah Dunant

February 19th, 2010 at 5:11 pm

Only just read this, Liam ( shame on me I know, but I will be more reactive now the site is cleared of spam_.

Thank you. I am going to pursue this and change it. Don’t worry about pedantry. The world does not have enough pedants in the true use of the word.

Sarah

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Michael Paul Burns

March 18th, 2010 at 11:18 am

Hi Sarah, just finished “Sacred Hearts” and thoroughly enjoyed it. As someone who experienced this sort of life on the inside some years ago (though not in as extreme a form!) it rang true… and your descriptions dealt positively and even sympathetically with things that many would simply treat in a negative way. Just one or two comments: Holy Communion in the Catholic Church until Vatican 2 involved receiving only under the form of bread for all except the priest, so no “wine” for the nuns! Also, in administering the Host, the priest always used the words “Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen”
For many people, exactitude in these matters probably isn’t very important, but for those with an intimate knowledge of Catholic life, it can be jarring when the wrong terms are used. To give an example, (not from your book) it sounds very odd to a Catholic when people speak about a priest “Taking” Mass – he “Says” or Celebrates” Mass. But as Liam mentioned above, one mustn’t be pedantic.
Congratulations on a great book – I now look forward to reading more…
Yours,
Paul

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Sarah Dunant

April 10th, 2010 at 4:37 pm

Paul, I am very grateful to you. I was born and brought up a Catholic ( not wine for me either then!) but moving back five hundreds in time, the possibilities for mistakes are huge and – as I hope you can tell – I take authenticity very seriously. The “Celebrates” mass I certainly should have known sinceI heard it said often enough. In my defence against using the whole Latin for the moment of communion, I was eager to try and keep the pace of the narrative moving then, and too much Latin in a book always puts me off. Also I wanted to emphasise the transubstantiation moment, but it is still a valid criticism.

I am just glad that despite all this the novel worked for you. It sounds from your post as if you were deeply involved with the church for some years. I wonder what you are doing now?

very best and thanks. Sarah

It isnlt prdeanyry.

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