Sarah Domet. (2016). The Guineveres: A Novel. Flatiron Books.

Sarah Domet. 2016. The Guineveres: A Novel. Flatiron Books.

Sarah Domet, The Guineveres: A Novel. Flatiron Books, 2016.

Sarah Domet. The Guineveres: A Novel. Flatiron Books, 2016.

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32. • value: god and religion
33. • value: the convent
34. • value: teen orphans
35. • value: indignity
36. • value: changing point of view
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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Domet, Sarah
   • bioText: Sarah Domet is the author of the novels The Guineveres and The Earthshine Girls, and the nonfiction book 90 Days to Your Novel. Her short fiction and nonfiction have been published and anthologized in numerous places. Domet holds a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from The University of Cincinnati, and she currently teaches in the creative writing program at Ball State University.
   • name: Sarah Domet

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The Guineveres

fullDescription

"Deft and lovely...The perfect weight, in all ways. It's suitable for a vacation, and you can describe it in one inviting line, but then it keeps unfolding and deepening, taking unexpected turns." —The New York Times Book Review
To four girls who have nothing, their friendship is everything: they are each other's confidants, teachers, and family. The girls are all named Guinevere—Vere, Gwen, Ginny, and Win—and it is the surprise of finding another Guinevere in their midst that first brings them together. They come to The Sisters of the Supreme Adoration convent by different paths, delivered by their families, each with her own complicated, heartbreaking story that she safeguards. Gwen is all Hollywood glamour and swagger; Ginny is a budding artiste with a sentiment to match; Win's tough bravado isn't even skin deep; and Vere is the only one who seems to be a believer, trying to hold onto her faith that her mother will one day return for her. However, the girls are more than the sum of their parts and together they form the all powerful and confident The Guineveres, bound by the extraordinary coincidence of their names and girded against the indignities of their plain, sequestered lives.
The nuns who raise them teach the Guineveres that faith is about waiting: waiting for the mail, for weekly wash day, for a miracle, or for the day they turn eighteen and are allowed to leave the convent. But the Guineveres grow tired of waiting. And so when four comatose soldiers from the War looming outside arrive at the convent, the girls realize that these men may hold their ticket out.
In prose shot through with beauty, Sarah Domet weaves together the Guineveres' past, present, and future, as well as the stories of the female saints they were raised on, to capture the wonder and tumult of girlhood and the magical thinking of young women as they cross over to adulthood.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: The Maine Edge
   • content: "Beautifully detailed...A moving and sweetly engaging tale. It is sad and funny, exquisitely written with a powerful depth of characterization. It truly is a gem, a worthy read."
2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 29, 2016
     Four girls named Guinevere, “a coincidence that bound us together from the moment we met,” arrive within two years of one another at the Sisters of the Supreme Adoration convent, in Domet’s debut novel. The story is narrated by Vere, looking back to when she “was a sensitive young girl, a girl who still had faith,” but Vere sees her own story as so bound up with the other Guineveres, she commonly uses the first-person plural. There is Ginny, “a delicate creature”; Winnie, funny and down to earth; and Gwen, the last to arrive and the most worldly of the four, a pretty girl who longs to get out, who devises a plan for them to escape through a hollowed-out float during the convent’s annual festival. The Guineveres’ punishment for their failed escape is three months of service in the convent’s convalescent ward, to “reawaken sense of gratitude,” in the words of Father James. When a group of comatose and unidentified soldiers, severely injured in a foreign war, are brought in, the Guineveres develop a joint fantasy that the boys will wake and the girls will get to return home with them. Domet’s concept is strong, an homage to The Virgin Suicides with its group narration and fixation on trapped teenage girls. Though the story is a bit too long, Domet deftly weaves in the girls’ individual stories and the stories of female saints into her structure, making this a satisfying read on multiple levels.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Four girls, all named Guinevere, come of age in a convent in wartime."Of the Guineveres, Gwen was the prettiest, and she understood this as fact, not opinion." It is Gwen who teaches the other three--Win, Ginny, and Vere--to use berries for lipstick, and she who devises the plan for their escape from the Sisters of the Supreme Adoration. Inspired by a movie in which a chorus girl popped out of a cake, the girls hide themselves inside the chicken-wire-and-tissue-paper hand on a parade float, planning to bust out once it's parked overnight. The failure of the plot is the beginning of their friendship, as told by Vere. She never locates the story in a specific place or time, nor does she identify the war that rages beyond its borders, but she brings the convent and its inhabitants to life with great verve: the pinch-faced nuns, the alcoholic priest, and the troop of girls in their care. There are The Specials, "who still had contact with their parents, who received letters and birthday cards and postcards"; The Sads, "whose parents had died suddenly and sometimes violently: in fires, in automobile accidents, in suicides"; The Poor Girls, "taken away...from their destitute families"; The Delusionals, who believe they are going home any day now; and the Guineveres, bursting with life and nascent sexuality in these rigid confines. When four comatose soldiers are delivered to the Sick Ward of the convent, each of the girls adopts one of the boys and falls in love with him.Domet's (90 Days to Your Novel, 2010) energetic prose, institutional setting, Christian fabulism, and fervidly wacky plot--revolving around the ability of the comatose to get a hard-on--will appeal to fans of John Irving. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     December 1, 2016
     

     Four teenagers, each named Guinevere, find themselves under the strict guidance of the nuns at Our Lady of Perpetual Adoration. Although they share a common name, Gwen, Ginny, Win, and Vere all have different and equally heartbreaking reasons for coming to live at the convent. The girls are guided by the dogmatic and controlling Sister Fran and the spiritually inept Father James. Sent to the convent's convalescent wing as punishment, the young women must take care of five unidentified and comatose soldiers. When one of the soldiers awakens and another girl is sent home with him to help with his recovery, each friend imagines a future with "her" soldier outside the constraints of the religious community. The Guineveres (as the girls call themselves) navigate the liminal spaces between childhood and adulthood, and faith and skepticism through the lens of broken families and intense friendships. Although those used to quick beach reads might find the pace slow, Domet's debut will lure readers in with well-developed characters, rich language, and small miracles. VERDICT Recommended for students who are looking for weighty romance novels.-Krystina Kelley, Belle Valley School, Belleville, IL

     Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from September 1, 2016
     When we first meet the four teenage Guineveresbrassy Gwen, fragile Ginny, bold Win, and earnest Verethey are trying to escape the convent in which their various parents have left them. The attempt fails, and stern Sister Fran sentences the four to care for comatose soldiers who have been brought to the convent's infirmary. When one of the soldiers awakens, and an older girl leaves the convent to help care for him, the Guineveres see another avenue for escape. Each girl claims a solider and tends to him diligently, pinning her hopes of a life outside the convent walls on her patient. As the months wind on, and the soldiers fail to awaken, Gwen concocts a plan to identify the men in the hopes of bringing their families to the convent. The novel is narrated by Vere, who studies the female saints closely as a way to explain the lives and suffering of her and her fellow Guineveres, observing, We cling to the most painful reminders of our youth . . . perhaps so we can look back to our former selves, console them, and say: Keep going. I know how the story ends. Domet's debut is a luminous bildungsroman, brimming with wisdom about how girls view themselves, each other, and the world around them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 1, 2016
     

     Four girls, each named Guinevere and each with her own secret, heart-wrenching story, are abandoned at an austere convent. Ginny, Gwen, Win, and Vere call themselves The Guineveres. While they share a name, they are very different. Artist Ginny, Hollywood hopeful Gwen, seemingly stoic Win, and nurturing Vere form a tight bond. When four unconscious soldiers arrive at the convent with war injuries, each Guinevere chooses to watch over a boy, with unforeseeable consequences. Following the church seasons and its ageless rituals, each protagonist's story of abandonment is juxtaposed with tales of defiant Catholic female saints who experienced extreme suffering. In these adolescents' cloistered existence, life is spare and difficult. These graphic stories of the saints support the theme that there are infinite ways to experience pain and loss, and this has been true throughout time. With polished prose, Domet (90 Days to Your Novel) offers an unsettling, melancholy first novel whose tone echoes that of Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides. VERDICT This phenomenal, character-driven story is mesmerizing, with just a glimmer of hope that good can emerge from the most troublesome situations. [See Prepub Alert, 4/3/16.]--Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL

     Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     May 1, 2016
     

     Vere, Gwen, Ginny, and Win: actually, they are all coincidentally named Guinevere, and they are all abandoned by their various parents to be raised by nuns at the Sisters of the Supreme Adoration. Everything is fine until four comatose soldiers from an unnamed war are brought to the convent. Compared to Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, Domet's first novel will get a shout-out at the forthcoming Day of Dialog.

     Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from August 1, 2016
     

     Four girls, each named Guinevere and each with her own secret, heart-wrenching story, are abandoned at an austere convent. Ginny, Gwen, Win, and Vere call themselves The Guineveres. While they share a name, they are very different. Artist Ginny, Hollywood hopeful Gwen, seemingly stoic Win, and nurturing Vere form a tight bond. When four unconscious soldiers arrive at the convent with war injuries, each Guinevere chooses to watch over a boy, with unforeseeable consequences. Following the church seasons and its ageless rituals, each protagonist's story of abandonment is juxtaposed with tales of defiant Catholic female saints who experienced extreme suffering. In these adolescents' cloistered existence, life is spare and difficult. These graphic stories of the saints support the theme that there are infinite ways to experience pain and loss, and this has been true throughout time. With polished prose, Domet (90 Days to Your Novel) offers an unsettling, melancholy first novel whose tone echoes that of Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides. VERDICT This phenomenal, character-driven story is mesmerizing, with just a glimmer of hope that good can emerge from the most troublesome situations. [See Prepub Alert, 4/3/16.]--Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL

     Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 1, 2016
     Four girls, all named Guinevere, come of age in a convent in wartime.Of the Guineveres, Gwen was the prettiest, and she understood this as fact, not opinion. It is Gwen who teaches the other threeWin, Ginny, and Vereto use berries for lipstick, and she who devises the plan for their escape from the Sisters of the Supreme Adoration. Inspired by a movie in which a chorus girl popped out of a cake, the girls hide themselves inside the chicken-wireandtissue-paper hand on a parade float, planning to bust out once its parked overnight. The failure of the plot is the beginning of their friendship, as told by Vere. She never locates the story in a specific place or time, nor does she identify the war that rages beyond its borders, but she brings the convent and its inhabitants to life with great verve: the pinch-faced nuns, the alcoholic priest, and the troop of girls in their care. There are The Specials, who still had contact with their parents, who received letters and birthday cards and postcards; The Sads, whose parents had died suddenly and sometimes violently: in fires, in automobile accidents, in suicides; The Poor Girls, taken awayfrom their destitute families; The Delusionals, who believe they are going home any day now; and the Guineveres, bursting with life and nascent sexuality in these rigid confines. When four comatose soldiers are delivered to the Sick Ward of the convent, each of the girls adopts one of the boys and falls in love with him.Domets (90 Days to Your Novel, 2010) energetic prose, institutional setting, Christian fabulism, and fervidly wacky plotrevolving around the ability of the comatose to get a hard-onwill appeal to fans of John Irving.

     COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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"Deft and lovely...The perfect weight, in all ways. It's suitable for a vacation, and you can describe it in one inviting line, but then it keeps unfolding and deepening, taking unexpected turns." —The New York Times Book Review
To four girls who have nothing, their friendship is everything: they are each other's confidants, teachers, and family. The girls are all named Guinevere—Vere, Gwen, Ginny, and Win—and it is the surprise of finding another Guinevere in their midst that first brings them together. They come to The Sisters of the Supreme Adoration convent by different paths, delivered by their families, each with her own complicated, heartbreaking story that she safeguards. Gwen is all Hollywood glamour and swagger; Ginny is a budding artiste with a sentiment to match; Win's tough bravado isn't even skin deep; and Vere is the only one who seems to be a believer, trying to hold onto her faith that her mother will one day...

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