Traveling Mercies : Some Thoughts on Faith

Alright, so I've finally finished a book that I liked and can give a good review. So thus starts blog #2--on a good note. Because that's how all blogs should start. Otherwise you run the risk of entering the emo blogosphere. And that's not a place I want to be.

I have to admit that I cheated a little bit. I've read Anne Lamott before. I read Bird by Bird a number of years ago at the suggestion of ... well, I can't exactly remember who suggested it. Possibly my high school English teacher. It's a book about writing. As soon as Lamott talked about the little voice in her head that constantly told her she was no good and would never be any good, so she should just stop now before she wasted her time and embarrassed herself, I was hooked. I have the same voice in my head.

So I knew when I picked up the book that I would probably enjoy it. Lamott is funny. Laugh out loud, sarcastic funny. I think I startled the cat multiple times last night as I finished up Traveling Mercies while curled up in bed. She is so blatantly honest and crazy that you can't help but love her in spite of, or perhaps because of, all of her self-proclaimed shortcomings--she is probably the world's worst mother, she says, as well as (on a more serious note) a recovering alcoholic and drug addict.

And, despite her mightiest efforts to the contrary, she is a Christian. A part-Jewish, -Buddhist, -southern Baptist, -Catholic Christian, but a Christian nonetheless. And her faith is what saves her over and over again, as parents and friends die, unexpected pregnancy arrives, and she single-handedly raises a young son, sobers up, and alternately fails and prospers in the writing world. (Although to be honest she has succeeded in that scary place more than most could ever hope to, publishing seven novels and five nonfiction books.)

Knowing that this book was about faith and God made me a little nervous. Knowing Lamott and her style already, I wasn't sure how God and sarcasm would work together. But I figured it couldn't hurt my own faith at this point, and maybe--just maybe--it would help. And I think it did help, a little. It showed me that it's okay to work out a faith that works for you, even if it isn't by-the-book Protestant or Catholic, or even necessarily completely Christian. And that is reassuring.

And anyway, it was refreshing to read good, solid, flowing prose that actually had a point and arrived there fluidly, without a lot of unnecessary hemming and hawing in between. I usually avoid nonfiction. But Anne Lamott presents one very big exception.