What to Wear to See the Pope - by Christine Lehner (Paperback)

About the Book

A conflicted Catholic and amateur linguist's passion for saints and semantics threaten to overwhelm her children and her ostensibly tolerant Unitarian husband in this portrait of fragile family connections and crises of the soul.

Book Synopsis

This moving and funny portrait of quandaries of faith and fragile family connections brings to life a high-strung matriarch's many obsessions, from proper pope-viewing attire to Saint Theresa's eyebrows.

A conflicted Catholic and amateur linguist, Ursula Codwell has a passion for saints and semantics that is surpassed only by the affection she feels for her husband, her children, and her precious bulldog. Raised in what she refers to as the "fraught and schizoid tradition of Belgian Catholicism," Ursula suffers from neuroses that threaten to overwhelm her children and her ostensibly tolerant Unitarian husband. Her indecisiveness and attention to detail lead her to become fixated on matters such as reclaiming her surgically removed tissue from the lab or deciding what to wear to see the pope when he visits her hometown in New York's Hudson Valley.

In ten interconnected stories--all narrated by Ursula--What to Wear to See the Pope tells the highly entertaining story of a strained but loving family.

From the Back Cover

"A delightful romp through one woman's life . . . Anyone who loves to look up words in a dictionary, play games at the dinner table, and find humor in even the darker corners of life should read this book."--The Charlotte Observer
A conflicted Catholic and amateur linguist, Ursula Codwell has a passion for saints and semantics that is surpassed only by the affection she feels for her husband, her children, and her precious bulldog. Her indecisiveness and attention to detail lead her to become fixated on matters such as reclaiming her surgically removed tissue from the lab or deciding what to wear to see the pope when he visits her hometown in New York's Hudson Valley. In ten interconnected stories--all narrated by Ursula--What to Wear to See the Pope tells the highly entertaining story of a strained but loving family.
"Lehner gives Ursula an original voice, captivating, convincing . . . as she veers from tangent to tangent, from saints to salads, from hell to a hell-bent destructive kitchen knife."--The Boston Globe
"Thoroughly enjoyable . . . A full portrait of an intelligent woman . . . who goes through some trying situations (much more serious than dressing for the pope) and always emerges with her spirit intact."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Christine Lehner's stories have been published in North American Review, Image, and Southwest Review. She lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR WHAT TO WEAR TO SEE THE POPE

"Lehner gives Ursula an original voice, captivating, convincing . . . as she veers from tangent to tangent, from saints to salads, from hell to a hell-bent destructive kitchen knife."-THE BOSTON GLOBE

"Perhaps the most haunting, idiosyncratic, gleefully subversive, and satisfying story collection I've read since Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales."- RICHARD RUSSO, author of EMPIRE FALLS
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