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From Amazon
For most writers, the greatest challenge of spiritual writing is to keep it grounded in concrete language. The temptation is to wander off into the clouds of ethereal epiphanies, only to lose readers with woo-woo thinking and sacred-laced clichés. Thankfully, Anne Lamott (Operating Instructions, Crooked Little Heart) knows better. In this collection of essays, Lamott offers her trademark wit and irreverence in describing her reluctant journey into faith. Every epiphany is framed in plainspoken (and, yes, occasionally crassly spoken) real-life, honest-to-God experiences. For example, after having an abortion, Lamott felt the presence of Christ sitting in her bedroom:
This experience spooked me badly, but I thought it was just an apparition born of fear and self-loathing and booze and loss of blood. But then everywhere I went I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk and then it stays forever.Whether she's writing about airplane turbulence, bulimia, her "feta cheese thighs," or consulting God over how to parent her son, Lamott keeps her spirituality firmly planted in solid scenes and believable metaphors. As a result, this is a richly satisfying armchair-travel experience, highlighting the tender mercies of Lamott's life that nudged her into Christian faith. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
A key moment in the step-by-step spiritual awakening of the author came to her as a freshman in college when an impassioned professor taught her Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. Raised by her bohemian California family to believe only in "books and music and nature," Lamott (Bird by Bird; Operating Instructions) was enthralled by the Danish philosopher's rendition of the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham, Lamott learned, so trusted in God's love that he was willing to follow the order to sacrifice his own son. This story pierced Lamott and she "crossed over. I don't know how else to put it or how and why I actively made, if not exactly a leap of faith, a lurch of faith.... I left class believing?accepting?that there was a God." Nonetheless, it would take the heartbreak of her father's death and more than a dozen years of escalating drug and alcohol addiction to bring Lamott to fully embrace Christianity. In a short autobiography and 24 vignettes that appeared in earlier versions in the online magazine Salon, Lamott blends raw emotional honesty with self-mocking goofiness to show how the faith she has cultivated at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in the poor community of Marin City, Calif., translates into her everyday life and friendships, especially into her relationship with her young son, Sam. Although Lamott's clever style sometimes feels too calculated, the best bits here memorably convey the peace that can descend when a sensitive, modern woman accepts the love of God with her own brand of fear and trembling. First serial to Mirabella; author tour. Agent, Chuck Verrill.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A conversion like no other.,
By
This review is from: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (Paperback)
Since the time of my own conversion experience - at age 38 - I have had a special place in my heart for others with similar experiences and Lamott's is one of the most beautifully described conversions I have ever read. A week after an abortion she finds herself one night, drunk and losing lots of blood. She's terrified and when the bleeding finally stops she turns off the light and tries to go to sleep only to become aware of someone in the room with her - first assuming it was her [dead] father. She turns on the light to find, of course, no one in the room. "But after a while in the dark again, I knew beyond any doubt it was Jesus. ... And I was appalled. I thought about my life and my brillant hilarious progressive friends. I thought about what everyone would think of me if I became a Christian, and it seemed an utterly impossible thing that simply could not be allowed to happen. I turned to the wall and said out loud, 'I would rather die.' I felt him sitting there on his haunches in the corner of my sleeping loft, watching me with patience and love, and I squinched my eyes shut, but that didn't help because that's not what I was seeing him with."Thanks be to God.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Little substance, lots of self-indulgence,
By A Customer
This review is from: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (Paperback)
No, I'm not an English lit professor, just a reader who enjoys a good book. I was curious about Ms. Lamott since there always seems to be controversy surrounding her and her work. Well, I'm not a member of the Christian Right, nor am I a Republican, and I am well read and I can say this book was a disappointment. If you order steak, pay for steak, and are given hamburger, you're ticked. I was ripped off and I want a refund. Ms. Lamott should take a rest.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This one lives on my bedside table,
By
This review is from: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (Paperback)
Super, super, super.I can't say it any better than many of the other reviews I've read of this book, so I'm just going to second all the five star reviews in this collection. Anne Lamott did me the supreme honor of offering to write a cover blurb for my own book, so I owe her big time. But even if she'd not done me, a first time author, this supreme honor, I would kiss her toes and paint them with sparkle glitter green polish for having written this nitty-gritty, HONEST, shining and quirky book about her own journey to faith. I have to share my favorite line (paraphrasing, cuz I can't find it right this minute...): I'm not going to tell you what I really thought of that woman in her Lycra bicycle shorts, because if I did, it'd make Jesus drink gin straight out of the cat's dish. You've gotta love her. I just wish she lived next door.
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