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    Unfinished Desires: A Novel
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    Unfinished Desires: A Novel
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    Unfinished Desires: A Novel
    Audiobook18 hours

    Unfinished Desires: A Novel

    Written by Gail Godwin

    Narrated by Kimberly Farr

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From Gail Godwin, three-time National Book Award finalist and acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Evensong and The Finishing School, comes a sweeping new novel of friendship, loyalty, rivalries, redemption, and memory.

    It is the fall of 1951 at Mount St. Gabriel's, an all-girls school tucked away in the mountains of North Carolina. Tildy Stratton, the undisputed queen bee of her class, befriends Chloe Starnes, a new student recently orphaned by the untimely and mysterious death of her mother. Their friendship fills a void for both girls but also sets in motion a chain of events that will profoundly affect the course of many lives, including the girls' young teacher and the school's matriarch, Mother Suzanne Ravenel.

    Fifty years on, the headmistress relives one pivotal night, trying to reconcile past and present, reaching back even further to her own senior year at the school, where the roots of a tragedy are buried.

    In Unfinished Desires, a beloved author delivers a gorgeous new novel in which thwarted desires are passed on for generations-and captures the rare moment when a soul breaks free.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 5, 2010
    ISBN9780307576644
    Unavailable
    Unfinished Desires: A Novel
    Author

    Gail Godwin

    Gail Godwin is a three-time National Book Award finalist and the bestselling author of twelve critically acclaimed novels, including 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, her journal in two volumes (ed. 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. Gail Godwin lives in Woodstock, New York. Visit her website at www.gailgodwin.com

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    Reviews for Unfinished Desires

    3.5/5

    113 ratings32 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Love Gail Godwin's writing, but this book was about twice as long as it should've been. I was tired of the characters by the time I finished.
    • 3/5
      The fictional Mt. St. Gabriel's girls school was located in the North Carolina Mountains. It was a fairly exclusive Catholic School run by a Mother Suzanne Ravenel until the school's closure in 1990. The aging nun is now residing in a convent in the Boston area and has been asked to dictate a history of the school which will be transcribed by former students. I wanted to like the book better than I did because of its setting just across the mountains from where I live. I think the book suffered from lack of a more structured organization. The story spanned multiple generations, and it was sometimes difficult to sort the characters and figure out which generation you were currently reading if you'd put the book down a few hours. The book seemed longer than necessary to tell the story it told, and it felt that many stories were repeated in different places throughout the book. The book seems to have been inspired by a school called St. Genevieve of the Pines which merged with an all male school much earlier than Mt. St. Gabriel's of the book closed. Apparently both schools have now been absorbed by Asheville Country Day School.
    • 3/5
      For some reason, I started this book back in early 2010, and just never finished it. I can't find anything in my notes to explain why I abandoned it, but I'm glad I tried again. This is a story that resonated with me. I went to a private girls school from 9th grade through college, and the fictional Mt. St. Gabriel's is eerily similar to the real life Mt. St. Agnes I attended.....down to the fact that they are both now closed and most of the nuns who survive are living in retirement facilities. Fortunately, I don't remember anyone as controlling as Mother Ravenel, Godwin's fictional headmistress, but the adolescent angst, the rivalries and the atmosphere were evocative of the 1950's Catholicism we grew up with.Godwin's storytelling is enchanting but long. This is one of those books that could have been so much better if it had more editing. It rambled, and even with her indicating the speaker and the time frame as she changed points of view, it still was jolting to have to rearrange perspectives so many times. In doing so, there were parts of the story that seemed to be told repeatedly, and this repetition meant the book ran on for about 50 pages too many. The characters are extremely well developed, and exquisitely portrayed in the audio by Kimberly Farr who does a masterful job distinguishing between speakers and accents.With a robust cast of characters, and a sumptuous setting, it's too bad the story line couldn't have been more crisply drawn. It was a struggle to finish this one the second time around. I kept saying "Ok, ok, let's get on with it." One of the characters - Tildy Stratton's mama - carried her emotional baggage so heavily that I wanted to shake her! Her relationship with the headmistress, while central to the story, was entirely too drawn out and dwelt up. One of those "get over it" narrations that really dragged the book down in my opinion. I still enjoyed the story, but I suspect it was more because of the nostalgic walk down memory lane, rather than the emotion ridden psychological drama it turned out to be. Even the ending, although true to the title, left me empty. I don't think this one was up to Godwin's earlier standard, but still worth the read.
    • 3/5
      I found this book to be longer than necessary. The plot is interesting and the characters well sketched, if not particularly likeable. The amount of repetition, particularly about the 9th grade play and the focus of the plots, made it difficult to sustain an interest. Gail Godwin can write, but - for me - this is not her one of her best books.
    • 4/5
      Unfinished Desires focuses on the 9th grade class of Mount St. Gabriel's in 1951-52. Mother Malloy joins the faculty as their teacher and soon gets to know her girls. Tildy Stratton is definitely the ringleader of the group. She's strong-willed and often bristles against the rules of Mother Ravenel, the equally strong-willed headmistress. Maud Norton has spent most of her school years in Tildy's shadow, but when Tildy finds a new best friend, Chloe Starnes, Maud develops into her own young woman. The dynamics of this group are in part shaped by the events that occurred during the school days of their mothers and aunts, who were classmates of Mother Ravenel's at Mount St. Gabriel's in the early 1930s. Godwin moves between narrators and across time, from the 1930s to the 1950s to 2001, when Mother Ravenel is revisiting the history of the school while writing a memoir. Gradually, the pieces of past and present come together to reveal the complex ways in which we impact others and they impact us. Overall, I liked this book. Although many of the characters had some unlikable qualities, I quickly grew to care about what was happening to them. The shifting narrators provided a range of perspectives on the events that occurred, and it soon became clear that one character's actions were viewed quite differently through the eyes of another. Especially Tildy and Mother Ravenel had a tendency to remember their own actions in the very best light. The impact that others have on us, even those who are a part of our lives for only a few years, was beautifully illustrated in this novel.However, this novel was not without its flaws. As the story shifted between narrators and across time, details were often repeated without much new information being provided. Heavy foreshadowing was used when Mother Ravenel was narrating her memoirs, so when events from the past were revealed, I could often see them coming and the element of surprise was lost. I also had trouble believing that so many of the characters were that manipulative. Tildy's sister Madeleine was provided as a counter to the selfish motives of the other characters, but she was almost too selfless to believe. I would have liked to have seen more nuance in the characters.All in all, I'm glad that I read this book, and I will read more by Gail Godwin. The book is not without its flaws, but the flaw were overshadowed by my interest in the characters.
    • 2/5
      This had the potential to be a really great book. However, it jumped around so much and backtracked and repeated itself so often that near the end I just gave up. I don't even know how it ended and by the time I was almost done, I didn't care. It had the potential, but in the end Unfinished Desires was and unfinishable read.
    • 3/5
      I read great reviews of the story but I could not get into it. It bored me at times. 2 of mother ravenel's former students from mt saint gabriel in nc want her to write her memoir. That how the story begins then the author takes us on a journey backwards to the past .
    • 1/5
      Unfortunately, I only managed about 75 pages before I returned it to the library. I simply could not get into it. I lost track of how many characters there were and how they were related (or not) to one another, and basically didn’t care about any of them.
    • 3/5
      Well i wish I hadn't slogged all the way through this book. Godwin is hung up with Catholic schools and repressed lesbianism, and she's written much more lyrically than this in previous novels. I found this to be much ado about not too much, and written in a YA style that grew quite tiresome.
    • 4/5
      I love Gail Godwin which is why I kept reading and I was glad that I did. This is a very slow book, steeped in duty and religion. Godwin examines a now-defunct Catholic school for girls in North Carolina from the present and from a troublesome year. She does a wonderful job of shifting perspectives from the mature women looking back to the girls they were at 14.
    • 4/5
      This is a stunning and absorbing novel of high school girls and their sister-teachers laid in North Carolina. It covers time from 1929 to 2008, as it tells of the sisters and the girls and their very dramatic lives. It is not told chronologically and it takes some effort to keep the characters straight, but one feels it is important to do so and that the events related are of moment and worth reading about. I read the author's Violet Clay on Mar 15, 2010, and decided I need not read anything more by her, but am glad I read this carefully crafted and attention-holding novel. I was moved to read it by Ron Hansen's review in the March 1, 2010,issue of America magazine. (I read Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstacy with considerable appreciation on 14 Feb 1999.)
    • 4/5
      While the book tends to move slowly at times, I was most entranced by the descriptions of the all-girl Catholic high school. I graduated from just such a high school and was flooded with my own memories of similar experiences.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book, an intense, nuanced portrayal of relationships among girls and women in an exclusive Catholic boarding school. The book is framed by the memories of Suzanne Ravenel, retired headmistress of Mount St. Gabriel in the Appalachians. In dictating her memoir, she must confront the "toxic year" of 1952 during which a student who is the daughter of Suzanne's former nemesis subverts the ninth-grade play, to disastrous consequences. This sounds like such a tiny, mincing subject - the class play, really? - but trust me, it's an engrossing, page-turning read.The depiction of school girls and their interactions is clear-eyed and real. It's not a typical "mean bees and wannabees" story, which has been done to death. Instead of a bunch of dominant girls terrorizing a timid girl, there is a fluid power exchange in which no girl is ever sure of herself. For that matter, neither is Mother Ravenel, a perfectly drawn character whose motives for every action can certainly be questioned or criticized, but who is never caricatured as The Bad Nun, as in so many melodramas in this kind of setting. Some readers have suggested that the girls in this book don't talk like school girls. It's true, their speech is sophisticated, but then they are well-educated girls at a time when one didn't punctuate every sentence with "dude," so it didn't seem unusual to me. At any rate, I like reading about smart women whose main focus in life is not men, sex, and shopping.
    • 4/5
      It is the fall of 1951 at Mount St. Gabriels, an all-girls school tuched away in the mountains of North Carolina. Tildy Stratton, the undisputed queen bee of her class, befriends Chloe Starnes, a new student recently orphaned by the untimely and mysterious death of her mother. Their friendship fillls a void for both girls but also sets in motion a chain of events that will profoundly affect the course of many lives, including the girls' young teacherr and the school's matriarch, Mother Suzanne Ravenel.
    • 4/5
      This is a well-written novel with many highly defined characters. Set in a girls’ Catholic boarding school in the 1950s, it tells the story of a secret event involving the headmistress, Mother Ravenel, and the 9th grade students which changes the course of all of their lives. The secret event is alluded to throughout the book, but not revealed until at the end which keeps interest high.
    • 4/5
      Gail Godwin’s Unfinished Desires is in the league with some of her best work (for instance my favorite Evensong). Desires is set nearly entirely in an elite Catholic Girl’s school only its time frame spans nearly a century. We get the perspective and stories of the schools inception into 2008 and those who shaped the school’s history (a lot of nuns, girls, and parents). Only we don’t get the story chronologically, but instead Godwin builds up a little momentum settling with one time period and narrator, and then almost arbitrarily shifts years and points of view. Not only does it get frustrating to read at times but also drags out the story so that it limps and staggers in places. All of the story’s dramatic action culminates in a play put on by the 1951 9th grade class, but we know that very early on in the book, and Godwin sure takes her time bringing the play into her story. The book manages to redeem itself through its compulsive readability. Godwin is a classically gifted storyteller and this exploration of the teenage girl dynamic gives her plenty of substance to work with. Godwin’s plotlines may be more subtle then other contemporary fiction authors, but her characterization and imagery do not fail to engage. One thing you can count on from any of her novels is that they will be a good read, Unfinished Desires is no exception. Fan should be pleased, and this novel is an excellent start for those unfamiliar with the considerable Godwin. With this delicate and complex novel Godwin adds to bookshelf of modern literary classics.
    • 3/5
      Gail Godwin's latest novel "Unfinished Desires" focuses on an all girls Catholic boarding school and it's headmistress Mother Ravenel. The book opens with Mother Ravenel reflecting on her life and trying to write a history of the school where she was first a student, then a teacher, and finally headmistress. But Mother Ravenel's narrative is stuck on a particular group of girls from the early 1950s who tried to bring her and the school, crashing down. As Mother Ravenel recalls the history of the school she explores her own secrets and those of the school. This book was really a mixed bag for me. I felt like there were too many storylines and too much switching between different time periods for me to really become engaged with the book. I enjoyed some of the storylines--the 1952 girls and their reunion 40 years later--but others--like Mother Ravenel at the retirement home--just didn't work for me at all. I found myself wishing over and over again that the author--who is obviously very talented, since the book was extremely well written--would just stick with one story and really tease it out. But instead there was endless jumping and little development of any of the central narratives. I would be interested to read other books from Gail Godwin since she is obviously talented, but this one just didn't work for me. It wasn't terrible, so if you are a fan of hers, I recommend that you give it a try.
    • 4/5
      I found this book to be a fundamentally satisfying read. While Godwin never sets off fireworks, she builds a solid novel full of well-crafted characters. Unlike many novels, in which the main characters are drawn in incredible depth while the supporting cast goes flat, Godwin steps into the heads of many of the characters she writes. This is the first book of hers I've read, so I don't know if it is a normal practice of hers - however, it lends force to one of the themes of the book, that of how different people will tell the same story differently, use it for different things, that each event is complex and has meanings that are altered depending on who experiences it. The book spends a lot of time exploring how power plays out among women trapped in very restrictive gender roles - where it is cloaked in careful statements, in actions, in social connections, but still resoundingly present.
    • 4/5
      By the time I finished reading this novel, I didn't particularly care for any of the characters. I didn't dislike them all, but I found them annoying. I was looking for a noble character -- not necessarily bigger than life. Ordinary is fine, but even those characters who showed potential to be bigger than life, in the end, were just very ordinary, interesting only in the way observing strangers is interesting.Unfinished Desires is the story of a pivotal year in the life of Mother Ravenel. The story goes back and forth between 2001 and 1952. Suzanne Ravenel is writing her memoir of the school and we jump back to the memories she apparently is having a difficult time writing.The school girls of 1952 are probably not unlike schoolgirls of today, though less sophisticated. In this private Catholic school, they are typically smart and self important, but no wiser than girls of the same age anywhere, any time. Unfortunately, Mother Ravenel, headmistress and former student at the school, was only slightly ahead of her students in 1952, concerning self importance and snobbishness. This is apparent as everything leads to the fateful play at the end of the school year. We see it not as Mother Ravenel would have written it, but as it happened, without the one sided emotional content.This is a marvelously titled book. As I think on what happened in the story, it becomes clear that, the letdown and disappointment are possibly intentional. Learning about the characters at the end of the novel, in 2001, was a lot like finding old school friends on Facebook. Some turned out to be very different than expected and other were just more like they were in school. We all imagine we will end up the remarkable one, but we are lucky to live up to the modest expectations of us. Learning what happened with the play and seeing the older women in 2001 made me ask what the point was. It's something to think about. Godwin's writing is lovely and I enjoyed reading, but over all, the book was a bit disappointing to me.
    • 4/5
      After receiving a copy of Unfinished Desires in the mail through the Early Reviewers program, I intended on beginning it immediately. The synopsis on the back interested me, though I did see in it the possibility for cliches. I started to read it multiple times, but the beginning never quite pulled me in. Finally I caught up on all my work and had a sudden abundance of free time, during which I forced myself to sit down with Unfinished Desires. Despite the difficulty I had starting it, Unfinished Desires was, for the most part, enjoyable. Godwin's writing style is intelligent and unique, and all of her characters have distinct voices. A few cliches and a slightly underwhelming ending did detract from the book, but once I got past the slow beginning, Unfinished Desires definitely proved to be a pleasant, worthwhile read. I'm glad I was introduced to a book that I otherwise might not have heard of, and I plan on sharing it with my friends. I had not heard of Gail Godwin prior to reading Unfinished Desires, so I also plan on reading other books by this author, since her writing style was enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      It took me a little while to get to this book after I read it on the Early Reviewers program. It sat by my computer for a while and kept starting at me. I wanted to read it and even picked it up and started it but always had another book in progress. When I finally did pick it up, it grabbed me from the beginning. I was immediately interested in the characters and the situations that Godwin presented. I've never read a book by this author before, so wasn't sure what to expect. She has a wonderful writing style, extensive vocabulary, (I love when I have to look up words in the dictionary), and an excellent ability to develop her characters. That being said, the first half of the book I was able to get through quickly. I felt like I was learning about the characters and their lives and the story was unfurling in a fashion that made it so that I wasn't sure what would happen next. Then, about half way through, I hit some sort of wall. It just seemed to slow down for me. I'm not sure how to put my finger on it, but it seemed that maybe because there had been so many small subtle clues to the secrets of the characters that I kind of felt like I already knew what was going to happen. However, I do feel like the final few chapters did an excellent job of reeling me back in and making me realize how much I had grown to like or dislike the characters. I did feel the last chapter ended a little abruptly, and I was actually looking for just a little more about Chloe, but that was just me. I feel, overall, that I will probably look to read some of Ms. Godwin's other books as I truly did love her writing style.I'm still not sure if the reader was supposed to love or hate Mother Ravenel...and I don't know how I feel about her, even now!
    • 4/5
      If I hadn't been reading this book for the Early Reviewers program, I probably would have abandoned it about a third of the way through, which is sad since I have really enjoyed some of Godwin's other novels, particularly "The Odd Woman." That being said, I'm glad I kept with it, because when I reached about the halfway point, the novel really broke open for me and I couldn't get enough of it (hence the four-star rating).I agree with some of the other reviewers who mentioned that the scandal built up through much of the book turns out to be "tame" by today's standards. But since Godwin is writing about women, especially Catholic women, coming of age in the 50s, this seemed like just the right touch to me. It would have been enough to scandalize people in that time period and would, I think, even make potential religious in today's sociey question the validity of their vocation.I enjoyed all of the characters -- once I got them straight in my head. The fact that some of them were related in addition to being boarding school classmates made it a little difficult until their individual voices were established for me. I don't know if this novel will be universally appealing because of all the emphasis on Catholicism, but I found it very engaging and will continue to be a big Godwin fan.
    • 2/5
      It took me a long time to muster the enthusiasm to begin this book. That being said, once I did start it I enjoyed it, to a point. The author does a wonderful job at painting rich and well developed characters with a host of thoughts and feelings and complicated motivations. This is most definitely what would be considered "character driven fiction." The religious aspects were interesting and the setting was masterfully done. At the end of the book though, I must confess to being pretty disappointed. In the beginning and into the middle there is a setup for some pretty dramatic plot and there are secrets hinted at and a whisper of scandal...that all play out to be pretty tame. It is a lot of buildup, albeit well done buildup, for not much in the end. In the beginning the complicated characters and well done dialogue is intriguing and entertaining, but at a certain point it gets exhausting and I found myself impatient for the end.So, to sum Unfinished Desires up in a word: anticlimatic.
    • 5/5
      This is a brilliant novel, with a complex cast of characters and intense psychological drama. Mother Ravenel, a headmistress of a Catholic boarding school, is composing a memoir of the school's history. This frame explores three generations of events, history repeating itself in tight coils altered only by the individual's cast of the replay. And it is in many ways a play, the characters dancing across the stage fully realized in their viewpoints, but holding up complex and distancing masks to each other. Godwin is an evocative writer with an eye for detail and tone. I gave it five deserved stars, but there are a couple critiques to offer: the novel repeats itself often, events recast through another person's eyes. Which is interesting, to see how each character interprets things, but does get a little tiring in the end. There's also an abrupt and seemingly unnecessary point-of-view change (from limited third to first) which seems like it should be edited before the final printing.I'm really glad Random House and LibraryThing sent me this book. It worked; I'm recommending this one to my friends and reading everything else Godwin has written.
    • 3/5
      The premise of this book won me over straight away. The retelling of the freshman year/class of a group of girls matriculating through a Catholic boarding school in the early 1950s. First off–I am a big fan of stories set in boarding schools. Why is that? I have no idea. But anyway, that fact, coupled with the Catholicism slant, got me very excited for this book.Mother Ravenel was the headmistress and a youngish nun in 1951 when Mother Malloy, and even younger nun, was sent to Mount St Gabriel’s as the ninth grade teacher. Mother Ravenel warns Mother Malloy right off the bat that the ninth grade class in ‘51 is extremely difficult and scheming. At the head of everything is Tildy Stratton, a dyslexic girl who preys on her classmates to get what she wants. Maud Norton has been Tildy’s best friend for lterbigyears but at the start of the ninth grade year decides to pull away from Tildy and make her own decisions. Then you have Chloe Starnes, who has only recently moved to the area after the death of her mother, Agnes Vick, class of ‘34. The class of 1934 is enmired in the story; Mother Ravenel was also a graduate of Mount St Gabriel in the same year (although she was then known as Suzanne Ravenel), as were Antonia and Cornelia Tilden, the latter of whom is Tildy’s mother.The family ties actually go deeper and are more confusing than listed above, but for the sake of simplicity, I will leave it at that. As a freshman at St Gabriel’s, Mother Ravenel writes a play called “The Red Nun” based on a sculpture of red Italian marble that stands in the school’s grotto. The play has become a tradition of the school, and Tildy is given the honor of being the director for her class’s production of the play. However, Tildy has an axe to grind with Mother Ravenel–really she is the mouthpiece for Cornelia, who blames Antonia’s death on Mother Ravenel and seeks to somewhat avenge said death.It all sounds very wicked, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Mother Ravenel made the ninth grade class out to be absolutely horrible. This was far from the case. With the exception of Tildy, everyone seemed timid and mild. And even in Tildy’s case, she couldn’t be held completely responsible. Cornelia Tilden Stratton was rotton to the core. She stopped at nothing to get what she wanted (and she was by FAR my favorite character, if due only to her entertainment factor). In this way she encouraged Tildy to be devious and bitter. By the end of the book, I pitied Tildy over anything else. So I thought the portrayal of this “awful” class was anything but. Which turned the story into something that was anti-climactic.I feel like the cover did nothing to amp up the book. (On a side note, how funny that I’ve had such strong reactions to the cover of a book in my last two reviews!) The colors and 9sr_frances_nunvisage are so muted that I can’t see it driving any prospective reader to give the book a second glance. And while we’re on the subject of the cover, let me say a word about the title as well. again, I don’t think the title lends anything positive to the book. Hearing the title, I would expect this to be erotica or something. And while I think the book does deal with “unfinished desires”, I think it is an uninspired title.Overall, there was a lot going for this book to grab my attention. In that respect, I feel like I enjoyed the book more than the average person. The Catholicism for example–I am a recent convert and find the faith to be very new and intriguing. But maybe the religious aspect of this book would turn people away. I just don’t see that there is anything special to grab the reader’s attention. If I were one to rate books, I would give this book a 3/5–pretty much right in the middle. I enjoyed it well enough to keep reading it through to the end, but overall there’s not really anything special about this book.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It started so slow, and I had a difficult time getting through it at first. I thought the cliques and the politics of the Catholic girls school and the religious aspects were interesting. But I think the trouble for me was that I just couldn't sympathize with any of the characters. I didn't care much what happened to them, making it hard to get through the whole book.
    • 4/5
      Godwin's newest novel is skillfully written, full of intrigue, and nothing like what I expected. The unique narrator provides the reader with a structure of foreshadowings that propel the story, as well as creating an ongoing grim anticipation for the reader. Unfinished Desires is one large story made up of numerous parallel storylines, which can be confusing when poorly done. Fortunately, Godwin's many characters and their tales are equally engrossing, which allowed me to enjoy each passage without rushing through to the next, favoring one plot thread over the rest. I savored the novel and it's beautiful imagery, and will surely read another of Godwin's works in the future (this being my first).Many thanks to LT and Random House for the chance to be an Early Reviewer of this creative, interesting novel!
    • 4/5
      I was not at all sure I would like this book, given that I don't usually read lit fic. But I kept wanting to know what happened. There were quite a few cliches floating around the writing, and sometimes it was clunky, but I had to keep reading to find out what the big tragedy was. I was a little disappointed by the ending--sometimes it seemed like the buildup was too huge for a summary ending. I kept finding myself thinking, oh, come on, tell us what the bad thing was already, instead of hinting about it *again*.It was interesting reading about Catholic school, something I was completely unfamiliar with, and nice to see the period details. The characters really have voices, very individual.3 1/2 stars because I had to keep reading, but that last half-star is lost because of the overly drawn-out hints.
    • 3/5
      This is a very long and detailed novel that is beautifully written. Gail Godwin tells an interesting story, though sometimes it is hard to follow because she moves around from more or less present to the early fifties and sometimes earlier. Basically it involves some teenage girls and cliques and how some secrets can hurt. But it is also about boarding schools, young girls interacting with nuns and the whole religion thing. I think Godwin's writing is lovely and she certainly puts you in the mountains of North Carolina during the early 1950s.
    • 4/5
      Unfinished Desires is the story of Mother Suzanne Ravenel, headmistress of a boarding school called Mount Saint Gabriel's. In the present (2001ish), she is in a retirement home, the school closed, her religious order's membership almost nonexistent. Some former students as her to record her memories of her time as a teacher and headmistress onto audio tapes. The focus of the novel is on her memories of girls who were freshmen in the 1951/1952 school year. Tildy, her former best friend Maud, and new best friend Chloe, put together a production of a play Ravenel wrote about the founding of the school when she herself had been a student there. Chloe and Tildy are daughters of former schoolmates of Ravenel, and through that connection they know (or think they know) secrets about her that they want to reveal at the play. This novel was wonderfully sympathetic to all the characters -- everyone is complex, there's no obvious bad (or, for that matter, good) characters. The beginning is a touch slow, but if you get through the first fifty pages, you'll breeze through the book, and not wish it to end.