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Title: A disappointment
Review: I like Mark Salzman's writing and I was looking forward to reading LYING AWAKE. Having just read it, I feel disappointed. The story and characters never caught hold of my imagination. Salzman presents a nun impassioned with religious feeling who writes of it in poetry. However, when diagnosed and treated for temporal lobe epilepsy, her intense feelings dissipate. Salzman presents us with the paradox of attributing spirituality to a physical disorder. It is a wonderful idea but his book speeds along without developing the characters, place, and issues with the complexity they deserve. A much better book about an impassioned life in a convent and the issues it creates is Ron Hansen's MARIETTE IN ECSTASY. And a provocative look at the relationship of epilepsy to visions and writing is Lauren Slater's book LYING.
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