Catholic Review of: Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy

 Rumor Godden's,  Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy is about a prostitute/madame who ends up as a nun. One thing I liked about the book was that when the main character, Lise, was a prostitute/madame she wasn't all bad. While rule breaking got her into that profession, she wasn't a mean, cruel person without redeeming features, and as a matter of fact, without giving the plot away, it is that good in her that causes her to go to prison--where she meets the nuns in the order she eventually joins. However, as much good as we see, we also see her grappling with her weakness as a nun. It is a story of the saving power of Christ and yet it is not a preachy book, but an enjoyable novel.

It has been a while since I read it, but the story also features another prostitute turned nun and while both are holy women, the contrast between them shows that convents are made of real women with real strengths and real weakenesses, and real emotions, both good and bad.  These weren't cookie-cutter smiling "love God and all is well" caricatures of nuns, but women who needed Christ's saving power, and found it.  Life in the convent wasn't depicted as a bed of roses, but it wasn't a prison either. 

The title is an obvious reference to the rosary and the rosary kind of ties the story together. 

I review a lot of Christian fiction on my blog (http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com) and one thing I try to note is whether someone who doesn't share the author's religious beliefs could like the book.  In this case, I'd say probably.  Obviously, as a book about nuns that uses the rosary to tie the story together, Catholicism is an important part of this story.  However, no one is beating you over the head with "if you don't share this belief you are wrong".