Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hi, I’m Kim. I’m a woman, early 40s, spiritual but churchless, and a somewhat-intelligent Christian with a soft spot for crystals and “woo.” My cat just died, I can’t get pregnant and I’m wondering what in the heck the point of my existence even is!
In other words, I am this book’s target audience. The only thing missing is the “to Kim” in the dedication. Therefore, I’m not the best person to objectively review this book. It’s like when I read Eat, Pray, Love right after my divorce. Or anything else Elizabeth Gilbert writes. Slam dunk.
I didn’t have any books coming up any time soon from the library, so I begrudgingly bought this for my Nook. It’s writer Anne Lamott’s reflections on her journey into and out of and into faith. Over the next two days I laughed on the sofa, cried on the train, and even used my Nook’s futzy UI to highlight and save certain passages forever. Such as:
“Grief, as I read somewhere once, is a lazy Susan. One day it is heavy and underwater, and the next day it spins and stops at loud and rageful, and the next day at wounded keening, and the next day numbness, silence.”
and
“Maybe it leaves me needing to consider how wealthy I am in the knowledge that the girl of my past is still in me while a marvelous dreadlocked crone is in the future — and that I hold both of these females inside.”
Needless to say I’m ridiculously happy I bought this book.
If you’re a LOLRELIGION goober, Zombie Jesus tee-shirt wearer, or a Religous person who is disdainful of free spirits this isn’t going to be the book for you. But if you think you’d enjoy warm, witty stories of a woman who is constantly flailing toward faith, give it a shot.
