Sister Ruth Still Steals The Show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       This is the first year in so many I have reached 100, in the amount of books read.  And book number 100, for me, was "Black Narcissus."

                                         Now, darlings, we love the movie, but the novel is an experience, too.  It takes the reader more into the minds of its characters, revealing, among other things, that Ruth is one twisted Sister!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I LOVE her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         The book is imbued with a sense of the Gothic that the movie conjured up in its visuals.  Yes, Sister Ruth still goes over that cliff, but the moment is more circumstantial, less dramatic than in the movie.  She goes over as a nun, not a sexually depraved woman in a flaming red dress, announcing proudly, and defiantly, she is leaving the order.  What Kathleen Byron did with this role; I am telling you, has to be seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          But don't overlook this wonderfully modulated book, with its ghostly implications, just a whiff of the supernatural, and its questioning of excessive religiosity, coupled with extreme isolation.  It is not "The Trouble With Angels," but it could have some readers scrambling to get into a convent!

                                          Even if that convent turns out to be the Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!