Book Review- God's callgirl

Catholic are finding themselves in a very unenviable position, punching bag, and that too after decades of world domination. Right from the writers, movie makers, humanitarians, liberals, gay rights everybody a re more than happy to have a go at it. The recipe for the season is the harrowing tales of nuns who called quits because they no longer could stand it.

It wouldnt be widely off the mark to say that the women doesn’t enjoy an enviable position in the church. They are expected to pay up the penance for the sin Ms. Eve did centuries ago. They were only supposed to cook, clean and give birth. Still we don’t see much dissent through out- goes on to prove that women accepted the position with devotion.

When it came to nuns, the establishment went a step ahead. Sisterhood was an exclusive community stoically protected from the outside influences. They had their own machinery to control, defy and survive. Nuns had tto practice more renunciation, obedience and poverty compared to their male counterparts. They had less chance to climb up the hierarchy or earn. So the nuns had no life outside the monastery and may have had to seek help for any emergency expenses. Church found their services extremely useful in the educational instituitions. The repressed emotions manifested in varying degrees as cruelty and perversions. But these aberations, visible in a few , got onto become celebrated by the media and gave many a good opportunity to come up with autobiographies.

Carla Van Ray’s book ‘God’s Call girl’ is one such work. Very juicy, graphic, questioning and in the end meanders to boredom. Carla was born in a poor dutch family who migrated to Australia. Van Ray had a very strong blind faith in the church and its teachings. She grew up in a pious atmosphere very close to the church. She is very brave enough to portray her dysfunctional family and her average performance in academics.

She grew up admiring and worshiping her Dad. But while in childhood she was subjected to sexual molestation from her dad. Later the shattered image of her dad influenced her view on men and the way she chose them.

Being an average student from a very ordinary background, convent came a natural choice for her. She had no problems in getting admitted and later the demons in her came out to the fore as years went by.

Vatican went ahead with reformations post WW-II. She argues that she had self realization after the liberalisation and so quit. It sounded a bit shaky for me. As mentioned earlier, she is brave enough to paint her psychological weaknesses. The sudden freedom, a liberalized world and childhood nightmares affects her post-convent life as she switches between men and later opts for prostitution. The profession is portrayed very honourably, spiced with oriental theories until some 100 pages into the end when the vase shatters.

Don’t go for the book hoping for an anti-catholic read. The shaky theories will confuse you nevertheless. But if you want a spicy read, the book sure offers you some.