VOWS
"That such a remarkable story would unfurl around a writer as skillful as Peter Manseau is nothing less than miraculous. VOWS embodies what Henry James looked for in fiction: it is both fascinating and sublime. That it happens to be a memoir is a wonder. I will read it many times in the years to come and I will never forget it."
—Haven Kimmel, author of A GIRL NAMED ZIPPY

"This is a strange and marvelous story, told with unerring grace. In the Manseau family, the call to religious service is like the call of the ancient Sirens. And yet they survive. Peter Manseau’s writing is keen-eyed, lyrical, muscular, and more, and while VOWS is a story about big ideas – religion, devotion, sacrifice – it is above all a love letter to his own family. Like the best love letters, it as honest as it is tender."
—Stephen J. Dubner, author of TURBULENT SOULS, coauthor of FREAKONOMICS

"Peter Manseau's spectacular memoir, at once darkly comic and serious as a crucifixion, ranks itself instantly as one of the great reflections upon the life of faith and American Catholicism. A superbly written page-turner and a contemporary historical document for the ages. I can think of five ecclesiasts—Catholic and non-Catholic, practicing and lapsed—that I will buy it for immediately."
—Wilton Barnhardt, author of GOSPEL

"What seems remarkable to me about so many American Catholics in the 21st century is their longing to love the church that doesn't necessarily wish to love them back. Lives change, histories get complicated, even or especially for 'cradle Catholics.' And yet this palpable longing to be connected, to be welcomed home. That tension is at the center of Peter Manseau's heartfelt memoir -- his father an estranged priest, his mother a former nun, both parents deeply faithed. It is the son telling what he can tell, without bitterness, with much love."
—Paul Hendrickson, author of SEMINARY: A Search and the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award-winning SONS OF MISSISSIPPI

"Readers seeking detached biography will not find it in this wry and deeply affectionate tribute. Engrossing, seductively well-written, occasionally polemical, Manseau chronicles a son's attempt to make peace with the mysteries of faith and family."
—Publishers Weekly

"Elegant, sonorous, powerful."
—Kirkus Reviews

“This is a love story about a family, about a way of being in the world, and, ultimately, about the nature of institutionalized faith. The fact that it is also full of facts, keen catenations, and almost surgical analyses does not matter nearly so much, however, as does the sheer beauty and cordial grace with which Manseau delivers these summa bona to us as his readers.”
—Phyllis Tickle, compiler of THE DIVINE HOURS

“Manseau has a novelist’s gift and tells his tale with haunting eloquence…[A] captivating story of two courageous people, with remarkable insight into a world that is slowly passing away.”
—Paul Lakeland, Commonweal

“[VOWS] forms a history of how the priesthood evolved and how people navigate the boundaries between religious tradition and modern life. In the process, Manseau paints a picture of liberal—and devoutly religious—Catholics facing up to the church's authority."
—Terry Gross, “Fresh Air,” NPR

"There are moments in VOWS...where the prose is so achingly beautiful that the reader must stop for a moment...If you've ever graced a pew or wondered about the people who do, VOWS goes a long way towards explaining faith."
—Hartford Courant