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Chapters (69)
  1. Cover
  2. Biographical Notes
  3. Title Page
  4. INTRODUCTION
  5. MARGERY KEMPE
  6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  7. Dedication
  8. Front
  9. PART ONE
  10. 1
  11. 2
  12. 3
  13. 4
  14. 5
  15. 6
  16. 7
  17. 8
  18. 9
  19. 10
  20. 11
  21. 12
  22. 13
  23. 14
  24. 15
  25. 16
  26. PART TWO
  27. 17
  28. 18
  29. 19
  30. 20
  31. 21
  32. 22
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. 25
  36. 26
  37. 27
  38. 28
  39. 29
  40. 30
  41. 31
  42. PART THREE
  43. 32
  44. 33
  45. 34
  46. 35
  47. 36
  48. 37
  49. 38
  50. 39
  51. 40
  52. 41
  53. 42
  54. 43
  55. 44
  56. 45
  57. 46
  58. PART FOUR
  59. 47
  60. 48
  61. 49
  62. 50
  63. 51
  64. 52
  65. 53
  66. 54
  67. 55
  68. 56
  69. MY MARGERY, MARGERY’S BOB

In chapter 41, it is as though two mystical unions have become one, as Jesus almost becomes L., as the prose moves into italics and stray phrases. In Communal Nude, Glück wrote: “I draw together the emergence of the modern self and the end of the modern self, the decaying society in which Kempe lived, the decaying society in which I live, and our respective plagues. L.’s ruling-class status equals the divinity of Jesus. . . . The two stories are like transparencies; each can be read only in terms of the other.”

Three chapters later, we read: “It was 1420; experience was crumbling.” In Glück’s world, the crumbling of experience is part of the deal, including the experience of reading. In the interview in EOAGH, he said: “The best reading is an uncertain reading. . . . We are educated to think that we should be able to know the meaning of a piece of writing, but what if the intention of the writing is to throw us into confusion, induce a state of wonder, and unravel the basic tenets of our experience?”

The rest then, for everyone involved, is a plot that cannot be given away. It is all the more precious because it has been foretold, and its telling includes cries and whispers as well as questions: “How do you find your way in empty desert when you have become that desert?”

—COLM TÓIBÍN

MARGERY KEMPE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For the most part I used B. A. Windeatt’s translation, The Book of Margery Kempe, phrases of which remain undigested in my book. I relied on Louise Collis’s Memoirs of a Medieval Woman, along with other sources, such as Three Prose Works by John Aubrey, the notebooks of the eighteenth-century naturalist Gilbert White, and miniatures from books of hours. I found the epigraph for Margery in Michael Baxandall’s Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy.

As I say in chapter thirty, I gathered observations and anecdotes about the body and dropped them into my shadowy fifteenth-century characters. I wanted to mingle the near and distant, present a jumpy, heterogeneous physical life, and assert the present, which projects in every direction. I owe a debt of gratitude to the following friends who gave me their observations in the form of notes: Steve Abbott, Honor Johnson, Sarah Schulman, Thom Gunn, Fanny Howe, Lyn Hejinian, Robin Trembley McGraw, Susan King, Bonnie Kernes, Rachel Barkley, Jane Longaway, Matias Viegener, Gina Hyams, Lisa Bernstein, Bo Huston, Frances Jaffer, Carla Harryman, Kevin Killian, Dodie Bellamy, Warren Sonbert, Elin Elisofon, Camille Roy, Bruce Boone, Michael Amnasan, and Frances Phillips.

My thanks to Ed Auerlich-Sugai and Tom Thompson for their help with angels.

I am grateful to my friends who critiqued one or more of the numberless drafts of this book: Kathleen Fraser, Bruce Boone, Carolyn Dinshaw, Edith Jenkins, Richard Schwarzenberger, Thom Gunn, Camille Roy, Carla Harryman, Bo Huston, Phyllis Taper, John Garrison, Kevin Killian, Aaron Shurin, Lydia Davis, Clara Sneed, Chris Komater, and Earl Jackson, Jr.