Lapsing - Softcover

This story of Tessa, a bright Catholic young woman at Oxford in the 1950s, captures the spirit of the time and place. Moreover, it is an interesting look at the faith of the very faithful under various stresses: forbidden love (a priest); political crisis (Suez, the bomb); intellectual confusion (cloister fever). Tessa is beautiful and devout. She is also selfless, kind, and loving. Hints of wit do not redeem her from an earnestness that is almost melodramatic. Walsh is a gifted writer of children's and YA novels. She looks at Tessa's life with the cool irony of 1980s maturity and without undue nostalgia, and tells her story well. But it is a story bordering on soap opera until very near the end.Ann Donovan, Central Washington Univ. Lib., Ellensburg
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.