Little Saint, by Hannah Green.
New York: Random House, 2000. $25.95 - 276 pages.

The season of Lent, the traditional 40 days of fasting, penance, prayer, and almsgiving for Christians, is a time for spiritual reflection. For many Lenten pilgrims, this reflection includes the day reading of spiritual books and pamphlets. Although not approved by any church, one book which might yield some treasure to both believers and non-believers is Hannah Green’s Little Saint.

Little Saint is one of those marvelous literary works that operates on many levels simultaneously. At the surface, Little Saint is the story of Green’s encounter with the village and the people of Conques in the mountains of south-central France. It is also the story of a 12-year-old girl living under the Romans in the 4th century who, betrayed by her father, was tortured and beheaded for her Christian beliefs. On a deeper level, Little Saint is the story of this beloved martyr, Sainte Foy, and the American author Hannah Green, and of the mystical relationship between the two. It is finally a meditation, a prayer in print, regarding the nature of man, history, and God.

Green helps to bring Conques alive through her usage of time. Ostensibly set within the space of 24 hours, the book goes back and forth between present and past as well as between past and past; Green’s approach allows us to see, to feel really, the ancient ties that bind a place like Conques, where the bricks and mortar of every alley and narrow street exert on the present the strong tidal pull of the past.

Beating steadily at the heart of this rich past is Sainte Foy, the child martyr. Standing before the saint’s statue for the first time, Green, an Episcopalian, begins to understand the mysterious meaning of the line from the Nicean Creed - “the Communion of the Saints;” she perceives that there is a living, vibrant communion between the saints who are with God and the people living in the world. She writes:

I could feel the stirrings of that long procession of human beings who had come here down through all time to fall on their knees and pray for her help, again and again in their devotion renewing her life - this eternal girl-child, daughter becoming woman, who held within herself the promise of all that is good and beautiful and healing, and all that is bountiful.

Green’s intelligence, her love of beauty, and her exacting sense of craft shine through on every page of this book. Known as a perfectionist —- the only other books written by her are the short novel, The Dead of the House, and a children’s book, The City of Paris - Green has in this book clearly worked and reworked her written words, enabling her to give us the sense of rapture which she felt toward Sainte Foy.

Hannah Green died before adding the final touches to her manuscript. Her husband, the artist Jack Wesley, and her editor Sarah Glasscock, left her work largely intact, dropping some unintended repetitions and correcting some details regarding the villagers of Conques. Both Wesley and Glasscock deserve our thanks for their care in editing Little Saint and for helping to bring us this minor masterpiece.

Gorrillas in the Myth, by Cecil Bothwell.
Black Mountain: Brave Ulysses Books, 2000.

In Gorillas in the Myth, Cecil Bothwell gives readers 40 essays, short and pithy observations on the environment, the natural world, corporations and modern technology. Although readers will not agree with all of Bothwell’s observations - he doesn’t hesitate, for example, to hit out at both Democrats and Republicans —- Bothwell’s wit and his eye for the absurd make for an interesting collection. His essay “Dick’s and Jane’s Addictions,” which looks at the enormous amount of toys owned by children in this country, will ring a bell with most parents. His title essay, “Gorillas in the Myth,” speaks to the vast differences between small local industries and transnational corporations:

Back in the ’70s, they (the politicians of Moore County, S. C.) attracted ProctorSilex with tax breaks, cheap labor and environmental flimflam. They even tossed in a $5.5 million water-and-sewer bond issue when the plant expanded. But in 1990, ProctorSilex flew south (because Mexico upped the externalization ante, on all counts) —- dumping 800 workers. (“More jobs!”) Moore County still pays for the bonds and the drums of toxic waste the company forgot to put in its luggage (“Increase the tax base!”)

Bothwell’s collection may be obtained from your local bookshop —- he doesn’t allow the chain stores, which he regards as part of the corporate problem, to carry the book - or directly from the publisher at: Brave Ulysses Books, 300 Rush Creek Rd. ,Black Mountain, N.C., 28711.

(Jeff Minick owns Saints and Scholars Bookstore on Main Street in Waynesville)

 

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