the incredible book blog tour - the scent of god

i've read beryl's writing for many years - her eloquent columns of life on the north shore provided much-needed balm to my city-dwelling soul, stranded in minneapolis. i longed to be on a lake, in nature - and she gave me that, even if it was only in a monthly dose, on paper.  when beryl's book, the scent of god, came out, i found myself in a psychologically awkward situation - that of loving the writer, loving her words - and being somewhat taken aback by the title and theme of the story.  luckily for me, my faith in beryl overcame my avoidance of religion. as a spiritual person, rather than a religious one, starting the book was akin to entering a foreign culture.  right from the start, beryl immerses the reader in a world that most of us do not experience - and i am so very grateful to her for that, for expanding my mind as well as my soul.

beryl interlaces her memoir with short passages about the calls to prayer - matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, and compline.  this introduction to a way of life is the best way to introduce us to part of *her* life - that of a journey, whether it be through the day or years.   richly evoking the glory of growing up, the painfulness of adolescence, the colorfulness of life in puerto rico, and leading us to the uniqueness of cloistered living, beryl draws such superlative pictures with her words, it is almost as if we lived this life, along with her.  in many ways, beryl's writing allows us glimpses into an ancient past - that of the catholic church, and its rituals and meanings - as well as her growing into her own future.

and what a future it is - the glory of love, living and breathing and loving life with vittorio, finally achieved after years of struggle and roadblocks.  this love they shared is all the more powerful for her sharing it with us. i feel the juicy drip of fresh strawberries, the hot sun beating down on the italian countryside, the aroma and crunch of fresh bread. and yes, beryl's impudence is felt too, her humanity toward the aspects of life that we can't change, or control. and what a gift, those two darling children, hearts of their hearts, so gladly shared with us.   and i fell crying at the end of the book, in sorrow and joy and life, and amazement at the joy of a life well-lived, fully-lived, and so exquisitely shared.

I had the chance to interview beryl, for this book blog tour: 

how has living and traveling abroad (outside of the US) influenced you as a writer? do you feel the passion and life of other cultures seep through your writing veins?


Ah Jessie, You have asked a question that no one has asked till now. For me, travel has been more than a "how." Travel became a "who," an intoxicating fellow - proper and refined yet totally seductive. I am madly in love with him. We abscond to many places together. In Italyfor one he tempts me with scent of lemon and sandalwood, rosemary and oil on pizza fresh from the oven. He buys me transparent silks the color of amber and rubies and amethyst,  lures me to the cool of marble, the ice of alpine lakes, the skin of tomatoes warmed by the sun. We dine under trellises - spring lamb and artichoke, fresh figs and prosciutto, gelato of berries and chocolate. His  kisses tell me my words must be rich as our love and delicate as dew. That is what Travel has done to my writer's blood.

you have had such a long, tumultuous journey with god.  how do you respond to people, when they ask you about your faith, about crises of faith?

 
I usually tell them that crises of faith and the practice of silent prayer have slowly severed my ties to dogmatic security and opened me, not to the knowledge of God but to the experience of what is indefinable. I do not believe that God can be taught or imposed on others by those who claim to "know the truth" but that truth must be sought and encountered personally. I tell them that I am a practicing Catholic but not a docile Catholic. I love the Church for its saints and mystics and scholars, for its rituals and sacraments and am trying to erase the deeply ingrained inclination to think of hierarchy when I say Church and replace it with the body of Christ - its members.

do you have another book in the works? what's next? i can't wait to hear about judi, your brothers, mom, and of course, your children and if and how you raised them with both US and Italian blood and customs...

Yes, I am working on the sequel to The Scent of God which is actually much harder to write because it concerns the ongoing journey to self knowledge as it relates to my children. As you know, my daughter died violently. At first I began writing what I thought would be a book about grief , about losing my daughter but it is becoming instead a search to find her - to understand who she was in all her beauty and torment. In other words I am looking for Francesca.

i've read about your writing and re-writing (and re-writing!) of this book, until it was finely honed and the gem that we are lucky enough to read.  how did you *know* when the book was in its true form? how did you find your voice, and allow it to speak so truthfully?

Eight drafts into the book, I thought it was finished. I'd had an award winning book critic help me reduce it to its essential story (The Love Story), several writing friends had read the manuscript in its entirety and loved it, and a publishing friend and one of the most highly respected editors in the nation was so excited about it that she sent it to a well-known agent so that it would "get it into the larger world where I could make some money on it." That agent sent it back to me and told me that the story was amazing but that I hadn't told it yet-that she didn't know if it was due to my reticence as a former nun but that I had danced away from huge issues into detail rather than confront them. I knew she was right, but my heart was no longer in the book. My daughter had just died and I was moving into what eventually became a major depression. Two years later I took the manuscript out and reread it and saw exactly what needed to be done. Then I started to pray - for the courage to confront what I'd avoided and the honesty to tell as fully as I could - and I began to rewrite the book and I knew, when I'd finished that I'd done the absolute best I could do and that it was in God's hands from then on. And then I sent it out into the world to an agent and she loved it and sold it within days.

Thank you, beryl! I have to say, this is an eminently re-readable book. I place it right up there, in my canon, with austen, shakespeare, and many children's books,  for being able to draw me in again and again. you are a shining star.