Agatha of Little Neon

I will happily add this lovely little debut novel to my list of favorite books about sisters (not nuns - nuns are cloistered, who knew?), in the vein of In This House of Brede and Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden. Four sisters, including the narrator Agatha, are transferred from their day care center duties in Lackawanna, NY, and their beloved elderly Abbess, to a halfway house in the working class city of Woonsocket, RI. Their lives are filled with ministering to the resident recovering addicts and alcoholics, and realizing how ineffective they are in performing miracle cures, but they all can celebrate little achievements, such as GED success and their aid to a woman giving birth. Agatha becomes a math teacher in a local parochial show more school for girls and becomes increasingly comfortable with her competency and with her dawning recognition of her sexuality, but this comes with the high price of alienation from her three sisters, until dual tragedies force her to forge a new path. There's gentle humor here, and deep empathy for hardships and travails of the struggling Woonsocket residents. show less

Charming, insightful, compelling!

Sometimes I start to read a book and after a few pages realize this is a book I did not realize my soul was yearning for at this moment in time. Luchette’s charming debut of a young nun’s journey to finding community and fitting is soothingly graceful and poignant that it blocked out all of the noise of nightly news with its disheartening divisive messages and allowed me to relax into the power of story to be uplifting and inspiring.

Agatha (our narrator) and her three sister nuns are twenty-nine and have been together for the past seven years and have bonded/merged into being one voice. They have now been assigned to a half-way house to help the residents overcome addiction and other demons, a show more position none are qualified for except they are free labor due to the self-inflicted financial problems of the Catholic Church. Agatha has been given an additional assignment as a high school math teacher because she is the smartest of the nuns. Agatha is now beginning to see the world and others through individual eyes, and her identity begins to switch from a collective one to an individualized one.

This well paced story is told through flashbacks in short chapters that are impassioned in the most gentle way making the storyline relatable and compelling. The standout in the craft of this book for me is the well-drawn characterizations both in the everyday mundane details and the dignity provided to them along with the use of dark humor in the most humane way and the unexpected friends who help you on your journey to be you.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

This is an odd sort of coming of age book. Agatha and the three sisters of her convent are uprooted from their home in Buffalo, NY when the diocese runs out of funds because of the abuse lawsuits against priests. They are sent to run a home for recovering addicts in Woonsocket, RI, a job that none of the sisters has any experience or training for.

The four sisters act in unison most of the time with Agatha reflecting that they are like different parts of the same body: Frances is the mouth, Lucille is the heart, Theresa the legs, and Agatha the eyes. When the parish school needs a geometry teacher and Agatha is recruited for the position, again with no training. This job separates her from the other sisters during the day and her show more experiences at the school open her eyes to new ways of seeing the world.

Meanwhile, of the several residents in the halfway house, Agatha is most sympathetic toward Tim Gary, who has a severe facial deformity as a result of cancer treatment and feels very isolated from the rest of the world.

The story is told mostly from Agatha's point of view and through vignettes of interaction between the sisters and the outside world. We see Agatha's perspective broaden and she gains a deeper understanding of life and the world outside of the narrow one that she is currently living.
The writing is refreshing, sometimes humorous, and deeply empathetic. A great debut novel. show less

This is the kind of spare writing that does a lot with the spaces in between, bringing to life distinct characters with just dialogue and minimal description. I’ll never forget Tim Gary, Lawnmower Jill, or Mother Roberta, not to mention the four sisters. Credit too to the excellent reader, Hilary Huber.

I’m not sure how to feel about the plot. Without wanting to spoil, I hoped this book would take me a bit outside my comfort zone, but the ending fell back within it. It resonated with me but didn’t quite take me to the different place I was hoping for. So 4.5 stars.

This was a little gem of a book. I can't help but think that this is the book that Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan could have been, but was not. Agatha didn't need men to save her, she just needed the time, space and support to figure things out for herself. Like most of us, I suppose. I want to press this book into the hands of every woman I know.

When the diocese needs money to pay off all the abuse lawsuits against its priests, Agatha and her sisters are uprooted from the home that they shared with Mother Roberta for the past nine years. With no training and no experience all four sisters are sent to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, to run a halfway house, relying upon their faith and one another for support. Agatha says that they are like parts of some strange body with chatty Frances as the mouth; soft Mary Lucille, the heart; practical Theresa, the legs; and Agatha herself, ever observant, the eyes. Through her eyes, we meet the downtrodden residents, some of whom flee as quickly as they can: Lawnmower Jill, heroin addict Horse, bald Pete, and Baby, who works at an ice factory. But show more it is Tim Gary, his face deformed by cancer, whose sorrow and loss most affect Agatha. When Agatha reluctantly becomes a geometry teacher, she makes a friend and begins to see the world’s flaws and attractions more clearly. This is an original novel, beautifully told in spare and elegant vignettes that gradually build to a surprising end. You will root for Agatha and will remember her long after the last page.

Disclaimer: I received a gratis copy of this book in exchange for a review at Manhattan Book Review show less

I'd never thought I'd be interested in, Agatha of Little Neon, a book about a small group of religious women who are transferred out of their usual home because of budget constraints and into a half-way home in Rhode Island. Agatha learns to teach geometry. Can you imagine doing such a thing? The sisters have a can-do attitude about all their challenges and I started out thinking this was going to be a nice feel good book. They're all, or almost all of them, very nice and friendly, social, competent, and willing to sacrifice. The reason for the Catholic church's need for budget constraints is just kind of casually slipped in. The way the sisters interact with the community and with each other is paramount, and those interactions are show more very realistic. I never would have thought I'd like a book about religious women so much. show less