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Title: Influenced my view of religion and the religious...
Review: I read this book as a teenager, and it made a deep impression on me.I couldn't (and mostly can't) imagine why anyone would put themselves through such a life. I rather assumed while reading the book that she was not free to leave, or would be shunned forever or something if she did.She seemed quite masochistic to me. I think this book helped form my feminist awareness, seeing religions as subjugating women, even making them want to efface their own identities, as well as giving merather a horror of the extremely religious (sort of the way one feels about those who flagellate themselves, or give themselves stigmata). I was so relieved when most women's religious ordersloosened up in the 70s. When I've talked to nuns about their lives more recently they don't seem to be like this at all.It was certainly well-written, but I don't think the author intended to produce this effect in me.
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