Having been brought up a Catholic, this evoked many familiar feelings in me and will probably resonate for quite some time.
Peopled with some very well-observed supporting characters - such as the Sunday School teacher, the Priest, and the visiting cardinal's team, it's clear how mysoginistic the whole structure remains, even as they struggle to maintain relevance in the modern world.
The girl at the centre of all this handles her role very well, I think, balancing her rebelliousness with her understandable feelings of dislocation in a new country with new surroundings and cultural (and religious) expectations, plus puberty. One feels that she has the inner strength to survive, despite circumstances so, despite being depressed that things remain like this, there is hope.
Peopled with some very well-observed supporting characters - such as the Sunday School teacher, the Priest, and the visiting cardinal's team, it's clear how mysoginistic the whole structure remains, even as they struggle to maintain relevance in the modern world.
The girl at the centre of all this handles her role very well, I think, balancing her rebelliousness with her understandable feelings of dislocation in a new country with new surroundings and cultural (and religious) expectations, plus puberty. One feels that she has the inner strength to survive, despite circumstances so, despite being depressed that things remain like this, there is hope.