The Passion of Reverend Nash: A Novel

by Rachel Basch

Overview

In the vein of Gail Godwin's Evensong, a powerful novel that explores faith and sisterhood in small-town New England.

Reverend Jordanna Nash is the "dangerously tall," bicycle-riding, female minister who commands the pulpit of Hutchinson Congregational Church. She came to this Connecticut town where her sister and four nephews live in an attempt to escape the loss of her own two babies, as well as to distance herself from her faltering marriage. If Jordanna's personal life is cursed, her professional life is, seemingly, blessed—her congregation cherishes her dynamic presence in their community. But when a depressed young mother she's been counseling suddenly disappears and a member of the church youth group gets pregnant, Jordanna's faith in God and in herself is profoundly shaken.

A novel about the role of faith in contemporary life, The Passion of Reverend Nash tells the story of a wounded healer who must make sense of her own grief if she is to continue caring for her flock. As Jordanna struggles to render meaning from loss, readers of her story will be taken on an unforgettable spiritual journey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393350944
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/30/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	332
File size:	689 KB

About the Author

Rachel Basch is the author of three novels: The Listerner, The Passion of Reverend Nash, and Degrees of Love. She currently teaches in Fairfield University’s MFA Program and in Wesleyan University’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program.

Editorial Reviews

With tortured, unflinching clarity, second-novelist Basch (Degrees of Love, 1998) charts the redemptive downfall of a small-town reverend. Jordanna Nash, 43, has taken up her calling at Hutchinson Congregational Church in Connecticut, following the ousting of the adulterous former minister. Jordanna is unorthodox in many ways, from her jewelry to her "dangerously tall" stature, but not in her unshakable faith. Her sermons are mostly inspirational, and on the surface all seems well. Yet the disappearance and apparent suicide of the depressed June Nearing, whom Jordanna had been helping, sparks controversy. An opportunistic reporter, questioning the validity of spiritual counseling as an alternative to academically verified therapy, gets the town talking. Jordanna, a vivid and intelligent Job-figure, is soon tested to her limits. Her resentful sister Abby is of no real comfort (Abby's familial dialogues are the only real slowdowns in the narrative), and June's relatives have consulted with an attorney, causing rumors of a lawsuit. Meanwhile, Tara Sears, a juvenile member of the congregation and its Senior Pilgrim Fellowship, is pregnant and wants an abortion. Jordanna is constantly reminded of the deaths of her own two children, both stillborn, and she's plagued by back problems that act up during moments of extreme crisis, symbolically detailing her progressive loss of faith. Her professorial husband, Daniel, returns from an Auckland dig with his new graduate-student girlfriend in tow, wanting a divorce. God seems to have abandoned Jordanna. She seeks moral support from her longtime spiritual mentor Chip, who has a stroke at her feet. Such plagues could easily seem contrived, but Baschrarely takes the easy way out. When the church's aptly named Prudential Board, sort of God's p.r. group, decides to oust Jordanna, using her divorce as precedent, she's placed in her final compromising position. Will she run or fight? In the end, her choices have to do mainly with human empathy and sacrifice. A compelling, smart, no-holds-barred story committed equally to verisimilitude and compassion.

Kirkus Reviews