Why this book:  Suggested by a good friend. I listened to it on audible.

Summary in 4 sentences. Setting is 12th century England where a young teenage girl related to the Queen is not legitimate, born after her mother is raped, and also not considered attractive enough for a politically advantageous marriage  – consequently she is exiled to a poor and struggling abbey in Northern England.  The story is of her life, as she matures into adulthood and her spiritual growth in that very austere setting of the poor abbey, where she eventually rises to  become the Abess of the Abbey and develops it into one of the wealthiest and most highly renowned Abbeys in England. It is a book about a women leading women nuns in the primitive world of medieval England, with few advantages except their wits and their sense of community. It is also about spiritual growth and resourcefulness for women leaders in the face of adversity.

My Impressions: This is very different from my normal reading fare – in that in Matrix, men are only peripherally mentioned and play little role in the book, except as foils to the ambitions of the lead character.  Also the setting was new to me, as I was unfamiliar with much of the terminology that describes life in a convent in the middle ages.   The English accent of the reader took me to England, though in fact, at that time and place, educated people spoke Latin and/or French and the uneducated spoke a form of English that would be unrecognizable to us today (think Chaucer).  The title Matrix refers to the late Middle English word for “womb” which comes from the Latin root “matri..” meaning mother. 

The protagonist Marie is loosely modeled after what little is known of  Marie de France, a remarkable female poet who lived in the same period.  The character of Eleanor of Aquitaine, once Queen of France AND Queen of England, and imprisoned for 16 yrs by her husband then King Henry of England and mother of Richard the Lion hearted,  is a much better known historical figure and her character in the book fits with what is known of her,  (Katherine Hepburn plays her in the movie “Lion in Winter”)

Matrix the book starts out pretty bleak – the main character Marie felt abandoned and banished against her will to an impoverished abbey several days travel from anything she knew. When she arrived at the abbey, she she faced many challenged in adapting and was miserable for the first year or so, dealing with the poverty, rigid discipline, and privations.   But as the story progresses, Marie adapts to the physical discomfort, becomes stronger, assumes more responsibility and grows into her role as sub-prioress.  She brings her strength of will and intelligence to bear in improving the circumstance in the Abbey. 

Indeed much of what I found most interesting was how these women lived together,  cooperated, squabbled, were resourceful and clever and survived without men in a hostile world, while devoted to poverty and chastity and each other  After many years, Marie was eventually selected to become the Abess to lead the abbey, and continued to  help them to thrive, in part in spite of her many challenges,  in part because of them.  They lived  apart from but in cooperation with the secular world in a nearby village.  The abbey included oblates (young people sent there by their parents to be educated), novice nuns, nuns and nuns of various positions and responsibilities within the hierarchy of the abbey, such as the cook, the gardeners, the veterinarian, and some who had specific practical skill in bookkeeping, construction and maintenance.

Marie is the central figure of the book and her character, her growth and ambition – both worldly and speiritually – are the main themes of Matrix.  Initially she is angry at being exiled to what she regarded as an impoverished stinking mud hole of an abbey.  Then she decided to make it better, and became engaged in projects to improve her own life and the lives of the other nuns there.  Her intelligence and ambition in this regard earned her more responsibility and more avenues for her ambition to excel and lead, and to not be a victim.  After she became abbess of the abbey she was clearly the strongest figure in person and in position in the abbey, and eventually very prominent in the region, as her ambiton and initiatves earned the abbey more and more wealth, resources and respect.  Under her leadership the once hungry and even emaciated nuns became among the best fed people in the region.

Marie claimed to get her wisdom and power from messages given to her in her visions and messages from the Virgin Mary. These visions inspired projects which enhanced the wealth, power, and reputation of the abbey, but were also controversial within the community of nuns as well as within the Catholic Diocese. Her initiatives were unorthodox and some considered even heretical, and were resisted by many within the abbey, but she always prevailed.

Groff’s novel also addresses the sexuality of the nuns including Marie, who found outlets for their physical desires through regular erotic experiences with each other, considering natural and not sinful, but a gift of God, as it was not fornicating.  Sex between men and women appeared to be regarded as a necessary evil necessary to bear children in the secular world,  but sinful and an abomination outside of marriage. In fact I almost got the impression that for Maria and the nuns in the Abbey, men in general were considered to be among the primary sources of sin and temptation, and except for their necessity for child bearing, not  particularly useful or appreciated.

At the end of her life Marie realizes the limitations of her power, and that all of her earthly achievements and all that she had built would change and eventually crumble, and there was nothing she can do about it.  She reaches a point of acceptance and resignation.  The nuns in the abbey were awed and intimidated by her, and divided as to whether she had been a saint or a witch.  The prioress who succeeds her was also intimidated by Marie and as abbess, would be more conservative and obedient to the male-dominated church hierarchy, and intended to put the abbey back on a more traditional path.

Marie’s strong will, power and achievements will appeal to 21st century Western readers who have become comfortable with female leadership and power, and their resistance to the limitations of male-dominated hierarchies. 

Did I enjoy Matrix?  I found  the set, setting and characters interesting and provocative, and Marie in particular, impressive and in fact, inspiring.  Matrix provides a fascinating look at the culture inside of a 12th century Abbey, a world of all women.  And Marie is a fascinating character – a strong, wise, compassionate and courageous woman, with a deft political sense, and a dash of rebellious bubris.