Customer Reviews
Amazing! 
2008-08-25
This was a fantastic book! I think the other reviews described the book well. This book was absolutely amazing.
An unlikely page turner 2008-05-13
Reading "An Infinity of Little Hours," I was, somewhat to my surprise, drawn deeply into the ascetic world of this Carthusian monastery in England through the stories of the five men who entered in 1960. The book becomes an unlikely page turner as you wonder who among the five will be able to endure the silence, the alone-ness, the cold, and other privations in order to become closer to God, which was their motivation for joining this most austere of all religious orders.
The small details and trials of contemporary monastic life, little changed from the order's founding in the 11th century, are precisely described here and form a compelling counterpoint to the men's psychic yearning for the spiritual. You might both experience the "feel" of a hairshirt yet also "hear" the sweetness of a chant well-sung. You can share the frustration of one musically trained monk with his tone-deaf brothers.
Reader's tip: Keep a bookmark in the page that lists the monks' secular and religious names (it can be confusing keeping track of who is who).
This book will appeal to the religious and non-religious alike who share a fascination with those whose search for God sets them apart from our materialistic and secular society. "An Infinity of Little Hours" depicts a world which few of us would or could enter but which is nevertheless as fascinating to observe as any other rarified culture.
A window into an unknown world 2008-03-31
This contemplative, low-key text shone light into a realm unknown and unknowable to most people, and offered insights into the daily rituals and rhythms within this cloistered context. The men described were well-drawn, human, and treated respectfully, and each vignette offered different perspetives and angles on the experience inside the walls.
I have recommended this book to friends interested in learning more about lives of meditation and solitude. I found it raised many points of comparison to the lives of Buddhist monks and nuns.
Excellent. A literary and religious breakthrough 2008-02-01
simply excellent. Couldn't put it down until finished. profound, moving and direct. one has to admire her five subjects and others involved----and the author who told their individual and collective story.
Jim Whalen
Reality, not hagiography 
2008-01-29
Reality, not hagiography. This is the best way to describe An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order, by Nancy Klein Maguire. I think it is appropriate to begin this review by stating from the start what this book is not. This is not the story of five "conventional" holy men although each one was "holy" in a particular and peculiar way. The author did not set out to inspire people to pray, to excite the faith of believers nor to draw a recruiting poster for the Carthusians - although it may indeed increase the faith of some and move them to pray more or to seek admission to this strict order--and that is always good. Nor is this book about the "technique" of contemplative prayer a la Chartreuse, nor a narrative of mystical, ecstatic events.
An Infinity of Little Hours could be construed as an attempt at dispassionate, anthropological observation but without the jargon that accompanies this science. Nancy Klein Maguire has an obvious interest to find out what makes this tribe of men "tick" and how they coped with their unique circumstances during their travails at the Catholic Church's "most austere monastic order." She relied heavily on personal interviews which she coupled with her extensive research material and exceptional access to the Carthusian Charterhouse in Parksminster, England and her own observations, memories, and imagination to reconstruct for her readers the settings in which the eremitic lives of these five men took place in the early 1960's. As a child born in the mid-1960's who did not witness first hand most of the pivotal events of that decade, I find her reconstruction vivid and credible. She certainly held my attention.
The five men whose monastic adventure the author narrates came from different backgrounds in Europe, Britain, Ireland, and the United States. Each one brought with them a passion, an idea, a budding vocation, and their own temperament to the task. Of the five, only one remains a Carthusian today but all of them, each in his own way and like former U.S. Marines, remain "Carthusians" to this day, forever marked by their experience.
I found fascinating Klein-Maguire's description of the inner politics of the Charterhouse. She answered several pedestrian questions I had regarding the relationships forged and the conflicts that arose between men in this rarefied environment. If one is "silent" most of the time, what does one think? What does one do? How does that affect our perceptions of others? The author's findings were very illuminating: worldly concerns, the bread-and-butter issues of lay people, even those with a contemplative bent in the world, disappeared, subsumed in an environment focused on the pursuit of God. "Little things" such as singing in tune in choir, a careless gesture, a sustained, casual gaze on something or someone, a gruff answer, all acquired rich overtones often leading to misinterpretation, ill-will, factionalism and even spiritual, mental, and emotional disaster. Many vocations shipwrecked on these very human stumbling blocks.
Her description of environmental stresses also caught my attention. The Charterhouse was a cold, damp place most of the year; the clothing and apparel often more a hindrance than an aid to prayer - although I freely concede that my perception is due more to my very American penchant for "improving efficiency" of all things material and spiritual and not from the just appreciation of ascetical practices in the Carthusian context. I mean, if a cell is so cold that it distracts one from prayer, why not get a more efficient wood stove and do away with the 14th century model? If manually cleaning a toilet distracts one from prayer and work, why oppose the installation of flushing toilets? Again, the author proves that when worldly concerns are removed from one's psyche, the mundane is amplified beyond size and reason in one's mind. The lesson I learned was that only those who are able to set aside even the little mundane things can succeed in their Carthusian vocation. Those who cannot will leave sooner or later; no matter how advanced they may be in the ranks of the order. Their subconscious distaste for their lives will burst forth unexpectedly, overtake them, and force them to leave. Finding that out was sobering to me, as I discover the repercussions of that insight in my own non-eremitical quest to seek the face of God.
Klein-Maguire seems to lose her objectivity only once throughout An Infinity of Little Hours. That occurs Klein-Maguire described the exit of one of the five protagonists who discovered his homosexuality while in the novitiate. The reader can almost feel Klein-Maguire's condescending sigh as the senior monks counseled the novice that his same-sex attraction was akin to an "illness" and therefore not sinful by itself. She then wistfully describes how the novice embraced both an active homosexual lifestyle and Catholic faith due to his perception of "acceptance" by the post-Vatican II and even, becoming "partnered" later on, while barely acknowledging the "return of the conservative Church." As a discerning reader, I would have accepted the bare narrative of this man's life and travails without judging him at all for his life choices - and I still do that. But as a believing, orthodox Catholic I did not appreciate the author's editorializing. Her stance tells me that, as a Washington DC resident, Klein-Maguire looks to Georgetown and not to CUA (Catholic University of America) for clues about the moral teaching of the Church and the pastoral care of homosexual persons. Caveat, emptor.
Yet, this disagreeable lapse in objectivity was minor compared to the whole body of the work. Klein-Maguire accomplished something I look forward to in every good literature: she made me live several lives without having to stop living my own life and learned from each one accordingly. She also moved me to deeper introspection and to discover that, although I do like solitude and quiet, I am essentially a very gregarious being who needs a constant interaction from others to crosscheck note, learn, and grow as a Catholic Christian man.
The Lord has blessed me with a dear wife, a family, and spiritual preceptors who have helped me and continue to help me along the way. I need their constant contact. Despite my very secular inclinations, my admiration continues to grow for those select men and women whom the Lord have chosen to "burn themselves" in a living holocaust of prayer and sacrifice for the rest of us. Everyday I become more convinced that the destiny of the Church stands on their suffering shoulders. Blessed be God for them!
And thank you Nancy Klein Maguire for this precious book. Will you be writing about the Carthusian nuns next?
A Prayerful Experience 2008-01-26
In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest center of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behavior and lifestyle since its foundation in 1084. An Infinity of Little Hours is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now. It is also a drama of the men's struggle as they avoid the 1960s—the decade of hedonism, music, fashion, and amorality—and enter an entirely different era and a spiritual world of their own making. After five years each must face a choice: to make "solemn profession" and never leave Parkminster; or to turn his back on his life's ambition to find God in solitude. A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material to describe the Carthusian life. And in the final chapter, which recounts a reunion forty years after the events described elsewhere in the book, Nancy Klein Maguire reveals which of the five succeeded in their quest, and which did not.
An Infinity of Hours 2008-01-01
This book was a truly inspiring book of five young men and their search for God in the Carthusian religious tradition. It is neither overly romantic nor too distant from the very real dialogue of love that drives these men forward...regardless of their end decision. A real gem. Having been a Benedictine for twelve years this story is truly from the inside out.
Many are called but few are chosen 2007-09-03
I have to admit to an historic link with Parkminster (the location of this book) and the monastery in Switzerland through professional work not religious in the 1980s. My dealings with one of the monks named (Dom Bruno Sullivan) entailed a one day visit to Parkminster and the memory still lives with me (the bus trip into the middle of forest land from Worthing after a train ride from Victoria station and the long walk from the bus stop to the Carthusian abbey gate to ring the bell to gain entry are exactly as depicted in the book). The photo contained of the two floor library with all its old priceless editions of religious books was one of my fondest memories during my visit.
But this book is much more than just story telling - it is a well recorded journey of how five novices in the early 1960s took the step close together in time to enter Parkminster to see if they had sufficient spiritual vocation to be able to remain for life in a virtually silent contemplative religious order where monks, brothers and novices spend most of their time in their private cells praying or involved in solo activity, mainly leaving their cells to only participate in set daily services with the rest of the Order. The repetitive daily routines little changed from the Middle Ages with no major routine changes except in diet and religious prayer when holy feast days arise, would be a test of anyone's spirit. The fact few made it through the five years to becoming a monk did not leave any of those failing as bitter - rather they saw it subsequently when the author contacted them recently as the high point of their lives.
What makes this book so exceptional is that in covering a very private and personal approach to religious life where the inward thoughts and emotions are everything, is all accurately captured by the writer, herself a lady married to one of the ex-novices. Over the nearly seven years writing the book she was surprised at the level of openess and honesty she encountered both with the ex-novices and the monks currently still at Parkminster. She also is able to balance the personal stories with the history of the Order, the Order's approach and administration in their chosen life and the wider context within the Catholic church.
Overall she writes lucidly and keeps your interest - never once in the 240 odd pages did I find the lack of action or her coverage of the simple repetitiveness of the lifestyle boring.
As with the almost contemporary film release "Into great silence" on the French monastery at Grande Chartreuse, one wonders why the Order has decided to open itself up in this way at this point in time but we are certainly the richer for the knowledge gained as a consequence.
Much food for thought 2007-08-21
Reading this book is like finding an oasis in our hectic world. It moves the reader to look at the pace of his/her life and distinguish the "worthwhile" from the "not as important as I thought" - a fascinating study.
Interesting look into the lives of 5 young men 2007-08-21
I found this interesting as I learned more about the monk's structured society and the types of men they enticed to join them. The five young men that rang the bell that day had a path that most wonder about. This book helped explain how a person's seeking to get closer to God can influence others as well. Nancy has done a lot of research and it paid off.
