Does the surgery serve Sister John or does it serve god? Is opting for the surgery a rejection of god? If her mystical experience was due to epilepsy, does that mean that it is was not due to god and that, therefore, her faith is fake? Science is not the opposite of religion, it demands different criteria. Science tests evidence, but faith asks you to reach only one conclusion, with or without evidence. The problem is, even in such a circumscribed life, it is not always clear what behavior serves god. Sister John sits in this either-or outlook for a while: god or epilepsy. I guess such a construct allows the outcome to have certain meaning. But, thankfully, this novel is not so simple-minded as to stay there. It is Salzman's accomplishment to put us convincingly inside the doubtful mind of a sixty-something nun as she struggles to reach a decision. Salzman does not make the order a dour and untouchably holy place. He reveals the people behind the wimples.
A nun who appeared to be in her late thirties introduced herself as Sister Elizabeth, then presented Helen with a copy of The Interior Castle, Saint Teresa of Avila's spiritual masterpiece. Sister Christine, a nun about the same age, leaned in and stage-whispered, "She's giving it to you so someone will finally tell her what's in it."The humor humanized this order for me, which was helpful to spending so much time inside the head of one its members without feeling like the story had nothing to do with me. Although, there were times these scenes seemed like something right out of The Sound of Music. I wondered if Julie Andrews would appear and they would all break into a chorus of How do you solve a problem like Maria?
Sister Elizabeth shooed her away. "Do we have to let the new girl see what we're like so soon?'
A middle-aged nun with the bluest eyes Helen had ever seen handed her a bouquet of wildflowers and said, "Welcome to God's hidden garden. I am Sister Emmanuel."
"She's our infirmarian, " Sister Elizabeth explained, "and I'm the refectorian. She's very good at her job, which I take credit for, because I'm so bad at mine. I give her plenty of cases to learn from."
"That's not true!" Sister Emmanuel protested. "Only that one time, really." Several of the nuns laughed out loud when they heard this, leading one of them to warn, "If we don't pipe down, the neighbors might call the police."