Sea Level

by Nancy Kilgore

Overview

On the seaswept coast of the Delmarva Peninsula in 1980, Brigid Peterson becomes the first woman minister in the town of Sand Hill. At a time when women's roles are shifting and they are beginning to enter the clergy, Brigid's idealism and emerging feminism begin to disrupt her parishioners'world. She befriends Mary Bradley, an artist who has fallen hopelessly in love with an elusive carpenter and is influenced by Mary's belief in the goddess. But when Brigid preaches about the female aspect of God, the church is plunged into turmoil and divides into bitter factions.

Sea Level is a story about ordinary small town life, the mystical landscape of the Delmarva Peninsula, and the passions that erupt over conflicts of belief.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013966413
Publisher:	RCWMS
Publication date:	05/11/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	277
File size:	289 KB

About the Author

Nancy Kilgore lives and writes in Vermont and is a pastoral psychotherapist. She studied writing at Columbia University and the Radcliffe Writing Seminars and has published in literary journals. SEA LEVEL is her first novel. As an ordained minister she has served as interim pastor in Congregational, Presbyterian and Unitarian churches.

Editorial Reviews

Sea Level brings to life the tensions that inevitably arise when a new minister is taken on by a congregation mired in its traditions and uncertain whether it wants leadership or obedience. The novel’s heroine, Brigid Peterson, is newly ordained and convinced she should guide her small Virginia church toward solvency and authentic openness. But she is a woman and a feminist, as well as a wife and mother, and she faces resistance from the start. Her story is a cautionary tale, which she

C. Michael Curtis

Brigid and Mary, in spite of their divergent career paths and differing lifestyles, are drawn to the easy company of each other. The dialogue between them, with Catholic-informed theology meeting Nanticoke earth goddess affinity, is rich, bringing both Brigid and Mary (and the reader) to deeper and more mature understandings of their spiritualities.

Laura Delaplain

Sea Level is a vibrant story of manners and place…in her evocative descriptions of the town of Sand Hill from the point of view of Mary Bradley, an artist who returns home from Manhattan and falls in love with a difficult, elusive man, Kilgore treads the same territory as Alice Munro. It’s quiet, indeed, but for readers who prefer the domestic to the apocalyptic, Sea Level is worth seeking.

Margot Harrison