Our Lady of the Lost and Found (updated)

What would you do if Mary — as in the Blessed Virgin Mary — just showed up at your house and asked to stay for a week?

That’s the premise behind Diane Schoemperlen’s 2001 novel Our Lady of the Lost and Found.  It was recommended to me and the title was enough to intrigue me.

I wasn’t sure how it would be as a novel, to be honest.  I mean, I’ve read enough about Mary in the last year as I’ve been researching her various titles to be a little…wary.  I wondered if the author was Catholic.  I wondered if it took liberties I would find offensive.  I wondered if the time I spent reading it would turn out to have been better spent with another book.

Why do I waste all this time wondering and worrying?  The book was simply .  In fact, I enjoyed Schoemperlen’s writing so much I’m going to check out her other books.

Throughout the book, offsetting the fictional story about Mary’s visit to the narrator, we get a glimpse of Mary through history.  Much of it I recognized and could appreciate.  Instead of the dry history, Schoemperlen turned it into a tapestry painting a picture of who Mary really is.  Rather that rely on history as dry facts, guaranteed happenings, she explores the stories and even intersperses Mary’s own comments throughout the telling.

I’m not doing it justice as I try to explain it here.  Really, this book is wonderful.  Though I found it through my lovely local library, it has made my list of books I must buy.  It’s part reference and wholly wonderful.

And, because I enjoyed it enough to go searching for more about the author and the book, here are some things worth sharing with you:

• Featured as book of month on CatholicMom.com in 2001
• Canadian Encyclopedia info about Diane Schoemperlen
• Reading guide from Penguin
• Review in National Catholic Register
• Review at Lofted Nest
• This just in: Review at This, That and the Other Thing