Rating: 
Summary: Soul Searching
Review: Imagine finding yourself coming face to face with a mysterious stranger standing in your living room! Dressed in a blue raincoat and wearing white Nikes, she bears a remarkable resemblance to pictures you may have seen of the Virgin Mary. Could this just be the Catholic upbringing coming to haunt you or is she real? Diane Schoemperlene delves into the mystery that is the Virgin Mary over the last few thousand years by making her real to the reader. Just like you or I she needs a place to rest her weary self and recover from the many demands made upon her. Mary becomes a part of the author's life for one week bringing the mystery that is her life into the present day. I found the history in this book of great interest and I can honestly say it has left me wondering. Are the
sightings real or a product of imagination? I leave you to draw your own conclusions
Rating: 
Summary: Wrong Title for This Book
Review: It should have been called "My Boring Life Story With a Visit From Mary". I am not even half way through this book, and I already find myself skimming through pages, because what I was thinking (from the title) that this book was about, was an account (fiction or non-fiction didn't matter) about a woman's encounter with the Mother of Jesus Christ. But what I am finding out so far, is an autobiographical sketch of an author (hers?) and her writing routines, angst, etc., as well as a history of Mary (based on the author's research of numerous books), some of the saints, as well as the author's experience of her education from wherever she went to school. I was not interested in the author's educational background (which went on for too many pages, and so I found myself skipping through some of the chapters) and was waiting to find at least more pages about her encounter with Mary. This book would have been better written as a short story. It has become a "novel" by the mere fact that six chapters are titled "History", and other chapters speak of a mundane visit from, what most people would say is the "woman of all women" visiting a mundane character. Perhaps I need to finish the book. But after reading some of the reviews, I could not find the greatness of this book. I had no problem putting the book down, nor did I have a desire or need to get back to it to see what happens. Can anyone tell me what's so great about this book?
Rating: 
Summary: Great start, but...
Review: it surely did not hold up. I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. The author's use of humor and and her descriptive ability really pulled me in. But not long into the book it got quite historical and factual, which I found interesting at first, but too repetetive with the frequent references to the Mary sightings. For me, that is what caused the book to lose its appeal. Occassionally I am interested in reading about Mary visitations, miracles, etc., but it wasn't what I picked up this book for, which was purely pleasure reading and escapism.
Rating:
Summary: Almost turned me into an atheist
Review: Proof positive that an interesting idea can make a mundane, tedious book. The real miracle here? That I finished it....
Rating:
Summary: Sounded like a good idea; history chapters kill it
Review: The premise of the book is such a creative idea, but the long chapters on the history of the Virgin Mary did not belong in a novel. Also, the author's Mary was for the most part boring and uninteresting: She failed to exude holilness or a transcendent quality, or anything awe-inspiring or supernatural. Schoemperlen's Mary was kind of like a nice, yet terribly uninteresting aunt that you only tangentially know, coming to visit. You hope to get to know her better, but end up feeling like there is nothing much to get to know, and you're simply relieved when she leaves (and the book is over).
Rating:
Summary: Sounded like a good idea; history chapters kill it
Review: The premise of the book is such a creative idea, but the long chapters on the history of the Virgin Mary did not belong in a novel. Also, the author's Mary was for the most part boring and uninteresting: She failed to exude holilness or a transcendent quality, or anything awe-inspiring or supernatural. Schoemperlen's Mary was kind of like a nice, yet terribly uninteresting aunt that you only tangentially know, coming to visit. You hope to get to know her better, but end up feeling like there is nothing much to get to know, and you're simply relieved when she leaves (and the book is over).
Rating: 
Summary: Simplicity
Review: This book is an example of a simple tale told simply--but one that has great impact. Schoemperlen portrays the Virgin Mary as an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life in a way that is extraordinary. She tells the story without embellishment or any miraculous events, yet makes the point that such is the stuff of saints. It is a book that can be life-changing; one need not be of heroic proportions to be a hero.
Rating:
Summary: She found me!
Review: This book took me by surprise. I found a stack of them on the floor in Oliver's Bookstore while visiting Nelson, B.C. I think Mary made sure I bought it. Being a sort-of Catholic, the title grabbed my attention. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. The storyline made me laugh out loud. The history, or lack of history, of Mary was very interesting. I thought it dragged towards the end, but it all came together. I have thought about this book many times since I read it. I shared it with my mother & she loved it, too. I am sending it to a family member, who happens to be a Catholic priest. I won't be surprised if Mary wants him to read it - he can be a stuffed shirt sometimes.
Rating: 
Summary: Thought-provoking, lots of history
Review: This book was not what I expected, but that does not mean I was disappointed. The novel had a lot of history, which I enjoyed learning. It goes into great detail on many of the appearances and miracles of Mary in history.
The narrator does a lot of theorizing and questioning, why does God not protect us from evils (floods, tornadoes, violence etc.?) And in this book, we don't really get the answers, but some of the narrators thoughts are thoughts that I myself have had or depict simple scenes that at one time or another, I am sure people have "prayed" for. In one chapter, there is a scene where the narrator buys a lotto ticket, and Mary says to her that she would not be able to help her out in that area, but "there are angels who take care of that". And then the narrator talks about angels she has read about, Angels of fruit, angels of aspirations, etc. The narrator tells the reader that "she has yet to find an angel of lotteries". So there is some wit in the book that I took pleasure in.
I would classify this book as a literary read, intelligent, and fulfiling. I enjoyed reading about Mary's many miracles and the narrator's questions of faith, irony, prayers and history. I think that what I missed from this book was that the narrator did not ask Mary any deep questions. But I am sure that if Mary were in my house, I would probably not ask them either! For example, the narrator did not ask Mary this question: why does God permit evil on the Earth? If he were all good, then why do we suffer injustices and misery? Mostly what the narrator gets from Mary are detailed stories about her miracles and visitations/appearances throughout the ages. So, I was looking for a natural curiousity from the narrator to ask the obvious questions of Mary that we all would want to ask. Still, an interesting story, worth a 4/5.
Rating:
Summary: Lost and found, truth and fiction, fact and history
Review: This is simply one of the most original and most creative pieces of work I've read in a very long time. I have read reviews that call it plotless and without climax, but I beg to differ. You can debate what a 'plot' is...this book is trying to do many things as once, and I'd say it succeeds in all of its goals. It is an overriding narrative about a visitation; it is a collections of narratives about other visitations (I only found one very minor historical inaccuracy, and Schoemperlen, unlike Timothy Findley in _Pilgrim_, gets Teresa of Avila dead on); in the end it is an examination of our definitions of fact and fiction, and which brings us more 'truth', and what it means to write ourselves a narrative of our lives. And, of course, what Mary means to us. What is most compelling about this work, aside from the amazing linkages between history and physics and fiction and love and scientific method, are the details. I have never seen a book so full of details, minor and major, from the colour of the walls in each bedroom to the recipe for barley zucchini casserole to the beads of water on Mary's white nikes.They're wonderful details; her narrative comes in the details. This book is charming, funny, startlingly thoughtful and even, at one point at least, overwhelmingly profound (she got me to cry over my chinese food in a mall food court.) It isn't a standard novel, and at times you won't feel sure that what you're reading is fiction at all (is the narrator really just the author? Is she telling us about her own life? Is this a history book? Is it some form of non-fiction?) But I think it's that variety and that richness that gives this book it's character. I would definitely recommend it, and I've already lent out my copy, and have had requests from others to be next on the list.
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