The Whore's Child

         The first story in this book is the one that the book is entitled after, "The Whore's Child." "The Whore's Child" tells the tale of Sister Ursula, a nun that that the narrator of the story has in his college writing course that he teaches. The story is told in sections. It starts off with the professor meeting Sister Ursula and her attending his college course. It summarizes each of the stories she submits, which are submitted to him in a series of installments, all about the same character. Interestingly, the first-person narrator is Sister Ursula, and she essentially writes a memoir of her life. The story is told through summaries of each story, as well as the workshops done in class and the encounters the professor has with Sister Ursula.
         Sister Ursula's story begins in the convent that she is sent to. Her mother is a prostitute and her father does not have a job, so they send her to a convent for her education. She is treated extremely poorly there and is constantly ridiculed by the children and the nuns. She is called "The Whore's Child" by all of the people in the school, because of her mother's life. She turns to God in the story, praying constantly and comparing her father to Jesus. Later on in the story, he mother passes away from syphilis. She never sees her father again and she is unsure of what really happens to him. After her mother's passing, the nun that takes her home tells her she will become one of them. She then begins the process of becoming a nun. Eventually, she becomes a nun and ends her story with a summary of her life since entering the ministry. During the workshop of the last installment of the story, a girl insinuates that the father in the story, was the mother's pimp. It is clear that Sister Ursula never realized this, and she never returns to class after that. The story ends with the professor's last encounter with Sister Ursula, when he goes to visit her at the convent. Sister Ursula asks if he thinks it is true, that her father was the pimp, and he says yes.
         This story is extremely beautifully written and really moving. Richard Russo tells the story in sections, that make you want to constantly find out what happens next. There's kind of two parts to the story; it's a story within a story. The entire time you want to know what's happening in Sister Ursula's written story, but then the ending is so powerful with what happens in the workshop. There isn't a lot of symbolism until the very end. At the end of the story, the convent that Sister Ursula lived in as a child burns down, as Sister Ursula often prayed it would. The last line in the story is "'Ah but the flames,' she said, her old eyes bright with a young woman's fire. 'They reached almost to heaven.'" This part is clearly symbolic and really beautifully written. It's an intense ending, kind of leaving you with a lot to think about afterwards. I'm interested to read more of Richard Russo's stories to see if their told in the same way, in segments with multiple stories within a story, and if the endings always leave you with a lot to think about. I think the story was really well written and I didn't want to put it down the entire time I was reading it. I would definitely recommend it.