Mr Carroll's new book is an extremely powerful adventure into human emotions experienced by two members of the Catholic Clergy. They are separated by 1000 years but are subject to similar doubts about their vocations and their stories tied together. The first to enter the narrative is Father Michael Kavanagh who is the Priest presiding over a congregation in Inwood New York, part of the borough of Manhattan. The time frame for Father Kavanagh is shortly after World War II. During a Sunday service he sees an old classmate of his "Runner" Malloy come into the church. It has been years since they saw each other but strangely Malloy doesn't stay and wanders away. Perplexed by his old friend's conduct Father Kavanagh begins thinking and almost subconsciously wanders into the "Cloisters" a museum which was a gift to New York by the Rockefellers. There he bumps into a beautiful guide and without much thought begins to talk to her. Rachel Vedette is a French Jew and comes to the United States after surviving the horrors of a concentration camp during the war.
Rachel is by education and interest a medieval scholar and is attempting to continue her late father's academic study of Peter Abelard a great teacher and thinker living in the 11th century. Abelard was also a Priest and famous for his logical approach to everything, never accepting something as given without subjecting it to logical scrutiny. There was an historical connection between him and Jewish scholars which ran against than current doctrine of the Church. For some reason Rachel feels instinctively that Father Kavanagh might share her interest in Abelard and freely starts to talk with him about the subject. One of the factors important in this novel is that Peter Abelard, contrary to the rules of celibacy enforced by the church fell in love with a woman named Heloise cohabiting with her through his life. Some historians indicate that he actually married her although the novel indicates that they only pledged their vows. What he did do was set her up as the Mother Superior in a convent close to where he was based.
Father Kavanagh is aware of Abelard and allows Rachel to lend him the manuscript she has been working on. Possibly due to reading the manuscript, conversations with her, and the subsequent finding of his old friend Malloy and learning why he left the church prompt Father Kavanagh to begin to question his place as a Priest and if he would be better off leaving the Priesthood.
The research done to allow Peter Abelard to come to life in the book is incredible. The actions and supposed conversations could be the actual ones experienced by this important scholar. In addition Heloise is threshed out as the intellectual equal of Peter and a helpmate and councilor to him even without living together as man and wife. What Father Kavanagh eventually decides is discussed and analyzed by Mr Carroll and a logical decision for the man.

I personally was uncomfortable with the slant of this historical novel. Both stories, Heloise and Abelard and modern day counterparts were interesting, but having both stories in one novel was anti-Catholic Church on steroids. Good writing though.

A new narrative historical fiction from James Carroll and Doubleday, The Cloister uses parallel storylines from the 12th and 20th centuries to illuminate and emphasize the timelessness of faith, love, fidelity, understanding and salvation.

I cannot emphasize enough how well written and lyrical this book is. It's definitely one of the more masterfully written books I've read this year. The prose is beautiful and luminous. The author's ability to write so honestly about some of the most atrocious, brutal, and heartbreaking episodes of both the 12th and 20th centuries is breathtaking.

I was really struck by the elevation and sanctity of these two couples (whose relation to one another form two potential halves of a whole circle) separated by almost a millennium, being shaped and molded by these watershed moments. That there are valuable human lessons in the midst of devastation and horror throughout time and history and that it was just as true a thousand years ago as now, was very profound to me.

This is a book which is going to stick with me. I think this is an important book, even (especially?) for people who have no active religious belief system. The book provides such an eloquent and unassailable logical argument for compassion and self control especially with regard to external belief systems.

It's not an easy book to read. It's emphatically not light reading. The language is finely crafted, but it took me time to digest and understand.

Flawless and achingly beautiful.

Five stars
Anticipated publication date: 6 March, 2018
Formats: Kindle / Hardcover, 384 pages.

The Cloister is that rare contemporary novel that demands intellectual and emotional engagement from the reader. Yes, it is the historical love story of Abelard and Heloise, and it can of course be read for that alone. But, it is more importantly a quest for understanding; an enquiry in to crimes in the name of religion; a search for redemption; and an examination of how we choose to live our live.

Heavy stuff, indeed.

James Carroll presents these themes and the reader can elect to engage in them, or not. I have been aware of the storied love affair of Abelard and Heloise for years, but never knew more than the one-sentence summary of their relationship. Their story drew me to the book, but the contemporary story that also was central to the novel was equally compelling.

I love the intellectual cattle prod that accompanies a reading of this book and am grateful to NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary copy (in exchange for an honest review). This book was difficult for me to read because of the suffering imposed on the characters, but it will remain with me for a long time and will remain one of the most interesting books I've read this year.

The Cloister by James Carroll tells the story of the forbidden love of Peter Abelard and Héloïse in 12th century Paris Two brilliant minds teaching lessons that placed the Catholic church in a new perspective.
It also tells the story of Rachel Vedette, a French scholar and Holocaust survivor studying Abelard’s work, and Father Kavanagh, a catholic priest in New York in 1950, and the influence that Abelard’s and Héloïse’s legacy has on their lives. Abelard’s views on Catholicism certainly made me see the church in a new light.
Carroll smartly intertwines the different characters and timelines, but thereby leaves me with the feeling that all the separate stories feel incomplete and unfinished. It took me quite a while to get into the story, which is sporadically difficult to understand with limited knowledge of theology and old catholic texts at hand.

3.5 stars

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book which means I will not be able to review it. I truly appreciate the opportunity and apologize for the inconvenience the lack of review may cause you.

On a side note, I wanted so much to like this read, but it's just too much in one book. Each of the stories are strong enough to stand on their own as individual books and I truly believe I would have loved both books if they were, in fact, separate books.

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley.

A stunning book, beautifully written. Carroll brings to life the story of Abelard and Heloise, but not to focus on the tragic nature of their romance, which resulted in Abelard's brutal castration. No, he depicts the love that arises when two brilliant people come together, each feeding the other's brilliance. The result of that love echoes through the centuries to change the lives of two people in New York City in the aftermath of World War II: a Catholic priest, left staggered by the return of a friend from his youth, as he realizes his own poignant isolation in the clergy; and a young woman, a Jew from France whose father studied the texts of Abelard, and essentially died for it during the war.

There are layers upon layers here. This book is not a melodrama. It's about nuance. It's about people being people. It's about surviving, at great cost. It's about losing God, and finding him again. It's about the history of Catholicism and Judaism, and how churches--like people--have a difficult time realizing their errors or making an effort to correct them.

This is a book that will haunt me, in the best sort of way. I am left with a profound need to not only read more about Abelard and Heloise, but to look for more of James Carroll's work.

The Cloisters is a novel of ideas that made me feel as breathless and on edge as I do when reading a thriller. With masterful writing and pacing, the author creates two worlds for the characters to inhabit—1140s Paris and the scholastic sphere of the brilliant Peter Abelard and Heloise, and their inevitable, and separate, retreat from the world.

How this all fits into Nazi occupied Paris, concentration camps, and on to post WWII New York City is an amazing literary feat. Entering this hall of mirrors is the Catholic priest Kavanaugh and the Jewish docent for the Cloisters, Rachel. Rachel’s father is the link back to Abelard and Heloise, as before the war he was a scholar in Paris working on a study of Abelard’s work Dialogus inter philosophum, Judaeum, et Christianum, (Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian) 1136–1139. She carries Abelard's book History of My Calamities with her wherever she goes because it was her father's. When the priest seeks the shelter of the Cloisters during a rainstorm, they fall into conversation, and she spontaneously hands it over to the priest.

The themes of obligation and exploitation, retreat and annihilation, manipulation and survival are golden threads to follow through this labyrinth. A beautifully horrifying and shattering story.
I'd give this 10 stars if I could.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday. I will add the link to the review on my blog later.

I was given an advance copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

WoW! An excellent book that tells the epic love story of Heloise and Abelard and the importance and context of Paul Abelard's teachings. The story moves between 12th century time of these lovers then tells the story of a father and daughter living in the Polish ghetto during World War II, and finally in a small Irish Catholic parish in New York City in the 1950's. I know that these stories don't really seem to relate to one another, but the author uses these more modern stories to illustrate the impact of the teachings of Paul Abelard and how the Catholic church ignored them.

I have long not understood how the Catholic church has long blamed Jews for the death of Jesus Christ. This will definitely give you insight into how this has been perpetrated through the years.

It was extremeley well-written and flowed seemlessly between the stories. I could not put the book down. I heartily recommend this book!

I gave up on this without finishing it. It just didn't hold my attention.