"Temptation" by Mary Anne Mohanraj (mohanraj@ella.mills.edu). The story begins with Sister Maria asleep in her convent, tormented by erotic dreams. Although the dreams are extremely sensual, they are not pleasant to the young woman, who has taken a vow to forgo sexual pleasure She confesses her sins to Father Jose, who requires her (among other things) to contemplate her sins, to do penance by wearing a hair shirt, and eventually to throw herself at the mercy of Mother Superior.

The story is far too complex to summarize in detail. It's a mixture of a James Joyce novel and a Fellini film: the reader knows it's supposed to make sense but can't quite figure out how. But that's good! Sister Maria is a former prostitute who has abandoned the old ways but still remembers them and has not quite figured out why some of the old things were wrong. Her priest-confessor is in cahoots with the Mother Superior, who seems to be running a coven of fiends who.... Actually, it's a lot like having Mother Angelica from EWTN in Stefano's role in "Days of Our Lives."

In a strange way, this story reminded me of "The Sound of Music." For example, there's a song in that movie about "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" In the movie Maria solves her dilemma by leaving the convent to marry Captain von Trap and to raise his eight children. Maybe you don't see the parallelism, but I'm sure W.C. Fields would. Just make some minor changes, like replacing the children with a satanic incubus who plunges a knife into Maria's naked body, and you have the present story.

I have already descended to levity, but the rest of this "review" is even more difficult to write. I mean, Mary Anne Mohanraj is one of my favorite writers; and she has written a serious, somber story that merges human sexuality with religious themes. It would be "almost blasphemous" to end this review with a joke. Ah, what the hell! Her story is "almost blasphemous" already!

Two lovers interested in spiritualism and reincarnation vowed that if either died, the remaining one would try to contact the partner in the Great Beyond exactly 30 days after that person died. As fate would have it, a few weeks later the young man died in a car wreck. True to her word, his sweetheart tried to contact him in the spirit world exactly 30 days later.

At the seance, the surviving lover called out, "John, dear John; this is Martha. Do you hear me?"

A ghostly voice answered her, "Yes Martha, this is John; I can hear you."

Martha tearfully asked, "Oh John, what is it like where you are?"

"It's beautiful. There are azure skies, a soft breeze, sunshine most of the time."

"Well what do you do all day?" asked Martha.

"Well, Martha, we get up before sunrise and eat a good breakfast, and then there's nothing but sex until noon. After lunch, we nap until two and then have more sex until about five. After dinner we go at it again, until we fall asleep about 11 pm."

Martha was somewhat taken aback: "Is that what heaven really is like?"

"Heaven? I'm not in heaven, Martha."

Martha was shocked. Filled with apprehension, she asked, "Well then where are you?"

"I'm a jack rabbit in Arizona."

See! I can do surrealism too. And that brings me to the end of this review. This is an excellent story.