Unfinished Desires (49 page)
Read Unfinished Desires Online
Authors: Gail Godwin
Tags: #Psychological Fiction, #Nineteen fifties, #Nuns, #General, #Psychological, #north carolina, #Teacher-student relationships, #Catholic schools, #Historical, #Women college graduates, #Fiction
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
G
AIL
G
ODWIN
is a three-time National Book Award finalist and the bestselling author of twelve critically acclaimed novels, including
A Mother and Two Daughters, Violet Clay, Father Melancholy’s Daughter, Evensong, The Good Husband
, and
Evenings at Five
. She is also the author of
The Making of a Writer: Journals, 1961–1963
, the first two volumes, edited by Rob Neufeld. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has written libretti for ten musical works with the composer Robert Starer. She lives in Woodstock, New York. Visit the author’s website at
www.gailgodwin.com
.
Unfinished Desires
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents are the products of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Gail Godwin
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of
The Random House Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Godwin, Gail.
Unfinished desires: a novel / Gail Godwin.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-912-3
1. Catholic schools—Fiction. 2. Women college graduates—Fiction. 3. Nuns—Fiction.
4. Teacher-student relationships—Fiction. 5. North Carolina—Fiction.
6. Nineteen fifties—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3557.O315R43 2009
813′.54—dc22 2008049320
v3.0
Table of Contents
Early Beginnings
Registration Days at Mount St. Gabriel’s
CHAPTER 5 Mother Malloy’s Ninth Grade, 1951
The morning interviews
Noon—the hour of Sext—the Angelus
The afternoon interviews
Mother Malloy’s Ninth Grade, 1951
Evening, Tildy’s birthday The Swag
Early Beginnings, Continued
CHAPTER 8 The Pungent Ache of the Soul
Ignatian Examen of Conscience
CHAPTER 11 Sister Bridgets Chore List
Holy Daring: A Predawn Digression
CHAPTER 12 Girls’ Voices Upstairs
Holy Daring: A Noonday Digression
CHAPTER 16 The Christmas Critic
CHAPTER 17 Shadows on an Outing
A Confessional Cassette
CHAPTER 19 Unmerited Degradation
Monday afternoon The Stratton house
CHAPTER 22 An Errand for Agnes
CHAPTER 24 Trigonometry Midterm
Two nuns setting off for a walk
CHAPTER 34 Sister Bridgets Heart
Confessional Cassette Rerouted
CHAPTER 37 Reunion, Continued TILDY
