Hey, friends. The world is going absolutely crazy lately. I find the timing perfect to return to my favorite novel of all time. Mayhaps I'll begin a 6th tour of it this evening. It's really the only thing that I even want to deal with at this point, after being kept hostage in my own home for the past 3 months due to medical hysteria. I'm currently somewhat fearful of going out because of the social hysteria that started almost 2 weeks ago. It is starting to turn into absolute anarchy. On top of this, we're pregnant with baby #3, so my emotions are all over the place.
Oh, hey, Squiffy!
If any of my loyal readers are unaware, I currently work for the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton as a content curator and social media specialist. Them's just fancy words that means: I finds the quotes, I designs some of the emails. I also pretty much do whatever my boss tells me. And I kind of geek out every once in a while because my boss's boss is Dale Ahlquist. Hah.
I'm on a FANTASTIC team of talented people whose goal is to promote the wit and wisdom of G.K. Chesterton to the world!
This is one of my favorite photos of him.
A while back, I was assisting in one of the online Virtual Society meetings featuring Brandon Vogt and Joe Grabowski on distributism. Distributism is one of those Chestertonian ideals that puzzles me, but I had recently read a novel that perfectly personified it. I asked Brandon and Joe if they had ever read it as well as their thoughts regarding its portrayal of distributism. Several members of my team, including my boss, had never heard of it, and I told them all to read it. They fell head over heels, and there was emphatic talk of a book review of it to be featured, along with an interview of the author, in an upcoming issue of Gilbert! Magazine. And who, can you guess, was asked to pen such a review? Yours truly.
Now, I tell you. I was absolutely honored, for one thing, because I would finally be using that dusty old English degree that I have lying around here somewhere. Secondly, I was terrified. I only had 900 words to explain why every. freaking. person. needs to read this book. I'd read it 4 times before tackling it again for the magazine, and I didn't dare touch it with a review, even on here, because I didn't feel worthy enough.
So, I humbly submit for you now, the feeble 900 words that my little brain came up with to convince you to read my favorite novel of all time. My typical review format can be found below. I have no time, nor the permission to just retype the entire novel here, so, you should just go read it.
Charming. Cozy. Contra Mundum.
(Featured in Gilbert! Magazine Vol. 23, No. 4. Become a member and you get access to the best magazine ever!)
“To visitors, San Ireneo de Arnois looked like a place that was firmly rooted in the past. Old stone houses with gardens full of roses stood proudly along a handful of streets that led to a bustling square full of small shops and businesses, buying and selling at the steady pace of a healthy heart” (4).
“[The Man in the Wingchair] loved to watch the children reading in the sun, stretched out on the lawn, perched in the comfortable old branches of a tree, munching on apples, devouring buttered toast, leaving sticky fingerprints on his beloved books” (27).
Now, the coziness of this book is a beautiful thing. And just what does beauty do? It softens our hearts and makes us more receptive to the Truth (which we all long for).
And the truth about Miss Prim is that it is wildly subversive. It’s radically contra mundum. The reader is bombarded by worldly conventions and ideals through the internal struggles of Prudencia Prim as she encounters a unique community that cherishes different ideals. Higher ideals. Holy ideals. Allow me to list a few things that the community of San Ireneo holds dear: homeschooling, classics, community, faith, small business, tradition, wisdom, study, education, quality goods, a lack of technology, silence, simplicity, leisure, and more. Prim, much like anyone who is reading the book who has a similar background, takes some time to get comfortable with the ways of San Ireneo, eventually preferring them to the ways of the world.
And thus begins her awakening to Truth.
The Awakening of Miss Prim is a scrumptious novel about tea, cake, books, relationships, and faith. Mostly Truth. But also distributism. It personifies the practice of a well-ordered distributist society (complete with its own “Chestertonian” feminist league-a paradox, I know!). My quest to understand distributism had previously yielded confusing results. Then this unobtrusively charming and cozy little book came into my life, and I was absolutely blown away. The charming coziness and stunning beauty called to me. But the depth. The depth, dear reader, is what grabbed my soul and refused to let go. Suddenly, I knew what Chesterton was after. Experiencing distributism through the eyes of someone who didn’t understand it made it all the more palpable. So read it. Then read it again. Then have your friends over for a feast and discuss Truth.
The Awakening of Miss Prim
Back cover reads: When clever, accomplished Prudencia Prim accepts the post of private librarian in the village of San Ireneo de Arnois, she is unprepared for what she encounters there. Her employer, a book-loving intellectual, is dashing yet contrarian, always ready with a critique of her cherished Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott. The villagers, too, are capable of charm and eccentricity in equal measure.
Paganry? Nope
Swearing? Damn, hell.
Violence? Negative.
Appropriate age? 16+ It'd have to be a mature teenager though to appreciate the likes of this. Hidden beneath the surface of this charming and cozy story there lurks some very subversive ideas. It's wonderful.
Writing Style: Charming. Cozy. Contra Mundum. I can't do it any justice. Just read it. One of the things that I appreciate the most about it, though, is Fenollera's style of humor. Some of her one-liners literally make me guffaw in public.
Notable Quoteables: Here are just seven of my favorites.. If I didn't have a strict limitation, I'd just retype the whole book.
The Awakening of Miss Prim
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
Abacus Books
320 pages
So when I attended my first Chesterton Conference in 2016 in Slippery Rock, the word “Distributism” definitely piqued my interest. This radical idea completely baffled me. As someone relatively new to Chesterton at the time, I wanted to hear what the Apostle of Common Sense had to say. I found it a little interesting but very confusing. I could somewhat grasp the idea, but I just didn’t get it. I really wanted to. I did. But I let it go. About a year later, one of my online book clubs introduced me to The Awakening of Miss Prim.
Spread like butter and jam on toast across 320 delicious pages, the novel only took me 3 days to devour. The coziness. The Catholicism. The cheek. The Classics. Miss Prim made me want to dive into distributism, cozy up to Chesterton, read more books, and not look back.
This book made me ecstatic about distributism, so naturally, I researched the topic, delighted to discover and read The Hound of Distributism in an effort to understand this concept. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. So I returned to Fenollera’s novel. Again. And again. I just recently finished my 5th (1st!) reading in order to prepare a review for you, dear reader. So, allow me to introduce you to my absolute favorite book of all time (only slightly beating out my childhood favorite, Harriet the Spy).
Proud and proper, Miss Prudencia Prim takes on a job as a personal librarian in San Ireneo, a small town in the middle of the countryside that seems oddly steeped in the past. Her employer, only identified as “The Man in the Wingchair” throughout the novel, is a mysterious character whose life is filled with books, curious children, education, and faith. The overqualified Miss Prim longs to escape from the noise of her life in the city, but is somewhat just as exasperated by the old-fashioned simplicity of life in San Ireneo.
We are hit with the inner-workings of the community immediately, beginning with education and the importance of family. Small business comes next, followed quickly by farming and the ideals of self-sufficiency. By page 4, the seasoned Chestertonian knows that this novel is already dripping with distributism. The unseasoned Chestertonian won’t see it coming until a cathartic upheaval somewhere near the end of the book. The peaceful introduction to the community stands in stark contrast to our introduction to Miss Prim, who represents the educational product, ways, means, and noise of the modern world.
Fenollera’s novel is cozy. The residents of San Ireneo are always congregating around hearths, sipping tea or hot chocolate, and eating together. If there is anything that brings a community together, it is the proper practice of feasting in a warm and inviting atmosphere. This gentle invitation to the culture of San Ireneo is skillfully woven throughout the entire novel. Fenollera’s writing is imbued with a simple and profound beauty that stirs the heart. These descriptions, for example, make me want to pack my bags and go there immediately:
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
Abacus Books
320 pages
So when I attended my first Chesterton Conference in 2016 in Slippery Rock, the word “Distributism” definitely piqued my interest. This radical idea completely baffled me. As someone relatively new to Chesterton at the time, I wanted to hear what the Apostle of Common Sense had to say. I found it a little interesting but very confusing. I could somewhat grasp the idea, but I just didn’t get it. I really wanted to. I did. But I let it go. About a year later, one of my online book clubs introduced me to The Awakening of Miss Prim.
Spread like butter and jam on toast across 320 delicious pages, the novel only took me 3 days to devour. The coziness. The Catholicism. The cheek. The Classics. Miss Prim made me want to dive into distributism, cozy up to Chesterton, read more books, and not look back.
This book made me ecstatic about distributism, so naturally, I researched the topic, delighted to discover and read The Hound of Distributism in an effort to understand this concept. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. So I returned to Fenollera’s novel. Again. And again. I just recently finished my 5th (1st!) reading in order to prepare a review for you, dear reader. So, allow me to introduce you to my absolute favorite book of all time (only slightly beating out my childhood favorite, Harriet the Spy).
Proud and proper, Miss Prudencia Prim takes on a job as a personal librarian in San Ireneo, a small town in the middle of the countryside that seems oddly steeped in the past. Her employer, only identified as “The Man in the Wingchair” throughout the novel, is a mysterious character whose life is filled with books, curious children, education, and faith. The overqualified Miss Prim longs to escape from the noise of her life in the city, but is somewhat just as exasperated by the old-fashioned simplicity of life in San Ireneo.
We are hit with the inner-workings of the community immediately, beginning with education and the importance of family. Small business comes next, followed quickly by farming and the ideals of self-sufficiency. By page 4, the seasoned Chestertonian knows that this novel is already dripping with distributism. The unseasoned Chestertonian won’t see it coming until a cathartic upheaval somewhere near the end of the book. The peaceful introduction to the community stands in stark contrast to our introduction to Miss Prim, who represents the educational product, ways, means, and noise of the modern world.
Fenollera’s novel is cozy. The residents of San Ireneo are always congregating around hearths, sipping tea or hot chocolate, and eating together. If there is anything that brings a community together, it is the proper practice of feasting in a warm and inviting atmosphere. This gentle invitation to the culture of San Ireneo is skillfully woven throughout the entire novel. Fenollera’s writing is imbued with a simple and profound beauty that stirs the heart. These descriptions, for example, make me want to pack my bags and go there immediately:
“To visitors, San Ireneo de Arnois looked like a place that was firmly rooted in the past. Old stone houses with gardens full of roses stood proudly along a handful of streets that led to a bustling square full of small shops and businesses, buying and selling at the steady pace of a healthy heart” (4).
“[The Man in the Wingchair] loved to watch the children reading in the sun, stretched out on the lawn, perched in the comfortable old branches of a tree, munching on apples, devouring buttered toast, leaving sticky fingerprints on his beloved books” (27).
Now, the coziness of this book is a beautiful thing. And just what does beauty do? It softens our hearts and makes us more receptive to the Truth (which we all long for).
And the truth about Miss Prim is that it is wildly subversive. It’s radically contra mundum. The reader is bombarded by worldly conventions and ideals through the internal struggles of Prudencia Prim as she encounters a unique community that cherishes different ideals. Higher ideals. Holy ideals. Allow me to list a few things that the community of San Ireneo holds dear: homeschooling, classics, community, faith, small business, tradition, wisdom, study, education, quality goods, a lack of technology, silence, simplicity, leisure, and more. Prim, much like anyone who is reading the book who has a similar background, takes some time to get comfortable with the ways of San Ireneo, eventually preferring them to the ways of the world.
And thus begins her awakening to Truth.
The Awakening of Miss Prim is a scrumptious novel about tea, cake, books, relationships, and faith. Mostly Truth. But also distributism. It personifies the practice of a well-ordered distributist society (complete with its own “Chestertonian” feminist league-a paradox, I know!). My quest to understand distributism had previously yielded confusing results. Then this unobtrusively charming and cozy little book came into my life, and I was absolutely blown away. The charming coziness and stunning beauty called to me. But the depth. The depth, dear reader, is what grabbed my soul and refused to let go. Suddenly, I knew what Chesterton was after. Experiencing distributism through the eyes of someone who didn’t understand it made it all the more palpable. So read it. Then read it again. Then have your friends over for a feast and discuss Truth.
 |
A continuation in typical format
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
320 pages. Reading time ranges between 3 days and a few weeks, depending on my status in life. Hah.
320 pages. Reading time ranges between 3 days and a few weeks, depending on my status in life. Hah.
Prudencia had hoped for friendship in San Ireneo but didn't suspect that she might find love - nor that her new life would offer challenge and heartache as well as joy, discovery, and fireside debate. Set against a backdrop of steaming cups of tea, freshly baked cakes and lovely company, The Awakening of Miss Prim is a distinctive and delightfully entertaining tale of literature, philosophy and the search for happiness.
Initial Reaction: Now, the initial reaction has been forgotten, other than a vague memory of my mind being completely blown. In the discussion thread for Prim in one of my facebook groups, I remember writing a glowing reaction to the read-along in the likeness of some slobbering fan-girl who wants a movie-version made of the book just so it can have a film score composed by Dario Marianelli. Found it: Wow. Phenomenal. The second movement of Miss Prim's concerto ends, and the next movement begins. While I would have loved to read a bit more about her homecoming, I don't really think the author needs to continue the story. We see her metanoia and know what she's going to do. So good. I was imagining a huge orchestra playing at the end of the book... and the last note sounds and has a looooong hang time. It was intense! Oooh. I feel like Dario Marianelli would do it justice if a movie version came out.
Promote Virtue? Oh, you betcha.
Transcendentals? Transcendentals. Transcendentals everywhere. Fenollera's writing is absolutely resplendent. It's simple. It's cozy. It's filled with humor. It is beautiful and good. And it leads you to the Truth, no matter how much it has to drag you kicking and screaming.
Overcome human condition? Spoiler alert. Yes. Full-blown metanoia.
Attitude toward Catholicism? IT IS Catholic distributism on a plate. Well, on a page. Several, actually. It's basically The Benedict Option personified. The mystery. The conversion. The awakening. It's just so gorgeous. AND THE SUBTLE THOMISM. MY HEART.
Transcendentals? Transcendentals. Transcendentals everywhere. Fenollera's writing is absolutely resplendent. It's simple. It's cozy. It's filled with humor. It is beautiful and good. And it leads you to the Truth, no matter how much it has to drag you kicking and screaming.
Overcome human condition? Spoiler alert. Yes. Full-blown metanoia.
Attitude toward Catholicism? IT IS Catholic distributism on a plate. Well, on a page. Several, actually. It's basically The Benedict Option personified. The mystery. The conversion. The awakening. It's just so gorgeous. AND THE SUBTLE THOMISM. MY HEART.
Paganry? Nope
Swearing? Damn, hell.
Violence? Negative.
Appropriate age? 16+ It'd have to be a mature teenager though to appreciate the likes of this. Hidden beneath the surface of this charming and cozy story there lurks some very subversive ideas. It's wonderful.
Writing Style: Charming. Cozy. Contra Mundum. I can't do it any justice. Just read it. One of the things that I appreciate the most about it, though, is Fenollera's style of humor. Some of her one-liners literally make me guffaw in public.
Notable Quoteables: Here are just seven of my favorites.. If I didn't have a strict limitation, I'd just retype the whole book.
"The day before, he'd [the man in the wingchair] found the homilies of St. John Chrysostom in the pantry, between the jars of jam and packets of lentils. How had they got there? It was difficult to know. It could have been the children- they treated books as if they were notebooks or boxes of pencils; but it could just as easily have been him. It wouldn't be the first time, and it probably wouldn't be the last." (26)
"Was he some kind of urban hermit?" (72). Bahahaha I wanna be an urban hermit.
"Had she ever sat down with pencil and paper to list the pros and cons of the marital state? had she? Miss Prim had to admit that she had not." (89)
"If you were convinced that the world had forgotten how to think and teach, if you believed it had discarded the beauty of art and literature, if you thought it had crushed the power of the truth, would you let that world educate your children?" (114)
"Tradition is a bulwark against the decline of culture." (168)
"Miss Prim flatly refused to have someone know her essence. She refused both in principle and in practice." (182)
"Miss Prim had always had sufficient respect for poetry not to write any herself" (254). Baha!
Final Summation: I've read The Awakening of Miss Prim five times since it came into my life- 3 times alone during my second pregnancy- and I know I'll most likely read it at least once per annum until the end of my life. It is my new favorite novel of. all. time, only slightly beating out my childhood favorite, Harriet the Spy. It is, and always will be
Great words: Now, while the book doesn't particularly have an elevated lexicon, it is CHOCK FULL of great books, authors, and philosophers. There is even an appendix entitled Miss Prim's Library Catalogue that lists all the of the authors or works alluded to or appearing in the book. Lovely!
Final Summation: I've read The Awakening of Miss Prim five times since it came into my life- 3 times alone during my second pregnancy- and I know I'll most likely read it at least once per annum until the end of my life. It is my new favorite novel of. all. time, only slightly beating out my childhood favorite, Harriet the Spy. It is, and always will be
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