The Company of Women

Mary Gordons extraordinary novel about a young Catholic woman who pursues father figuresonly to wrestle to break free of themFelicitas Maria Taylor was brought up in a cocoon raised by five devoutly religious women. The death of her father while she was still a baby has caused her to seek out the extreme in men and that is what she finds in Father Cyprian a priest whom Felicitas visits during summers in upstate New York. The charismatic Cyprian fosters the young girls gifts and intelligence but no lover of worldly things he demands a severe loyalty.When Felicitas comes of age and begins her studies at Columbia everything seems poised to change. At the university she falls under the spell of another domineering mana professor surrounded by young activist acolytesand this time the stakes couldnt be higher. The Company of Women is a story of dangerous attachments and challenged faithand of finding an endurable future.