"Lying Awake" by Mark Salzman, (2001) (192 pages).
Lying Awake invites us to ask tough questions about the nature of faith. This spare little novel is the story of Sister John of the Cross, a Carmelite nun living in a monastery on the outskirts of today's Los Angeles. Sister John is in her later years and suffers (or is blessed by?) physically debilitating but spiritually energizing visions that lead her finally not to God but to a doctor. Without giving too much away, we can say that Sister John is faced with a terrible choice: undergo treatment for her blinding headaches and take the chance of losing her "gift" for ecstatic visions, or ignore the painful symptoms and slip further into her own world. Lying Awake is a fascinating look at the intersections of modern science and one of the world's oldest religious traditions, but most of all, it's a stylistic masterpiece. There's perhaps one word to describe the feeling of reading this book: quiet. Salzman masterfully captures the peace and solitude of the monastery while giving voice to Sister's John's dilemma, and he does so with such quiet confidence, you'll find yourself reading the book in one sitting just to see how it all turns out.
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