Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul

A fascination with what she calls the ""journey"" of the 16th-century Spanish saint sustains Medwick's disappointing biography of Teresa of Avila. The saint was both a profound searcher of the self who succumbed to rapturous interludes and a harried organization freak who struggled to bring about her vision of cloistered community while buffeted by illness and accusations. Medwick, a former editor for Vogue and Vanity Fair, rightly characterizes Teresa as ""a daughter of the church,"" but her laudatory effort to situate her subject in the religious culture of contemporary Spain falls short of its objective. Medwick's Teresa is domesticated and ahistorical, disconnected from the world in which she lived. Medwick eschews analysis for summary, resulting in a rather superficial portrait of the saint. Far too often, also, it is unclear whose voice we are hearing, Medwick's or Teresa's. Unfortunately, the ""journey"" that Medwick recounts here is far less complex and penetrating than Teresa's actual one, as revealed by her life and writings. (Dec.)