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From Publishers Weekly
Five years after her bestselling Traveling Mercies, Lamott sends us 24 fresh dispatches from the frontier of her life and her Christian faith. To hear her tell it, neither the state of the country nor the state of her nerves has improved, to say the least. "On my forty-ninth birthday, I decided that all of life is hopeless, and I would eat myself to death. These are dessert days." Thankfully, her gift for conveying the workings of grace to left-wing, high-strung, beleaguered people like herself is still intact, as is her ability to convey the essence of Christian faith, which she finds not in dogma but in our ability to open our hearts in the midst of our confusion and hopelessness. Most of these pieces were published in other versions on Salon.com, and they cover subjects as disparate as the Bush administration; the death of Lamott's dog, her mother and a friend; life with a teenager and with her 50-year-old thighs--yet each shows how our hearts and lives can go "from parched to overflow in the blink of an eye." What is the secret? Lamott makes us laugh at the impossibility of it all; then she assures us that the most profound act we can accomplish on Earth is coming out of the isolation of our minds and giving to one another. Faith is not about how we feel, she shows; it is about how we live. "Don't worry! Don't be so anxious. In dark times, give off light. Care for the least of God's people!" Naturally, some pieces are stronger than others--her wonderful style can come across as a bit mannered, the wrapup a bit forced. But this is quibbling about a book that is better than brilliant. This is that rare kind of book that is like a having a smart, dear, crazy (in the best sense) friend walk next to us in sunlight and in the dark night of the soul.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Lamott, a novelist and columnist for Salon, has continued to write the sort of pithy spiritual essays that made her first collection, Traveling Mercies (1999), a best-seller. She proves to be just as funny and candid in her second collection, and just as skilled in transforming the chaos of life into lessons in forgiveness, compassion, and faith. After surviving her wilderness years and finding salvation in a progressive Oakland church, Lamott developed a fluently humanistic approach to prayer and right action, discoveries that shape her compelling reflections on everything from age to the solace of long walks to the traumas and reconciliations that take place in her hormonally charged household as her son, Sam, enters adolescence and she confronts menopause. A skilled storyteller with an antic sense of humor and a refreshing lack of piety, Lamott also writes about how "depressed and furious" she is over the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. As she participates in peace demonstrations, teaches Sunday school, and tries hard to feel love even for those she deplores, Lamott avers that life is all about "Plan B," that is, remaining flexible and tolerant and open to holiness wherever it beckons. A Presbyterian in dreadlocks who wears a red cotton cord blessed by the Dalai Lama and a Virgin Mary medallion, Lamott brings invaluable humor, imagination, and magnanimity to the conversation about faith. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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On my forty-ninth birthday, I decided that all of life was hopeless, and I would eat myself to death. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
On my forty-ninth birthday, I decided that all of life was hopeless, and I would eat myself to death. Read the first page
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3.3 out of 5 stars (162 customer reviews)
248 of 276 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lamott still charms her choir, Mar 9 2005
By C. L. Ferle - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Hardcover)
Anne Lamott is not for the faint-hearted. A bookseller and I agreed last week that Lamott is an acquired taste and more enjoyable if you've read a lot of theology and still find your heart is broken. Lamott reminds us that sanitized piety should not be confused with real faith; that Jesus Himself had radical ideas and didn't sit around worrying about whether our kids are watching PG movies.Lamott's personal relationship with Jesus is one she's forged on her own, against all odds, reminding us that faith doesn't always come in an apple-pie/right-wing/Miss-America package. She is a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-work Christian -- a Christian who knows that it isn't enough to sit around quoting the Bible to be a good human being. Admitting her broken-ness and allowing us to laugh with her, we open our hearts to our own humanity. What a relief.
190 of 214 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lamott at her best--and that's very, very good, Mar 8 2005
By Brenda Jo Mengeling - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Hardcover)
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith contains a series of essays by Lamott from her salon.com column that she wrote during the beginning of the Iraq War. As a left wing Christian, Lamott understandably has trouble with the war and George W. Bush. As if that weren't enough, she is also turning 50 and her son is becoming a teenager. Lamott writes of all these things with great candor and humor. She is breathtakingly honest, but not in a way that makes me cringe or think "too much information." She also writes of friends and loved ones with great affection and compassion that manages to avoid sentimentality. Lamott has the ability to be very funny and very wise at the same time, which is always a pleasure. As a person who more and more searches for straight forward honesty, I find Anne Lamott a welcome breath of fresh air. I highly recommend this book.
46 of 51 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not nearly as good as her others..., Jun 19 2005
By Kate - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Hardcover)
Anne Lamott has written some wonderful texts, namely 'Operating Instructions; a Journal of My Son's First Year'. However, she has really fallen short of the mark with this collection of essays on religion, American presidency and her family.Essentially, the greatest flaw of the work is its mind-numbing repetition. It unfailingly reinterates the same points and covers the same material in each and every essay or article.
Whilst I strongly agree with her endless tirade on George W. Bush and the state of American leadership, it does become slightly dull when repeated in every chapter. Similarly, I realise that she is angry at her mother and the behaviour of her son, but there is only so many times I can read about it. The work comes off as self-indulgent and Lamott herself is less likable in this work than her others.
Despite this, the text is beautifully written and does have a few topical highlights. These are generally the stories she shares about the unflinching beauty of others, such as 'Joice To The World' and 'One Hand Clapping'.
It is for this reason I give the work three stars, although it undoubtedly left a sour and negative taste in my mouth.
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