Traveling Mercies

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Summary: Right book, right time
Review: Ann doesn't bash you over the head with the Bible. She is not out to convert you. Her writing is not judgemental. It is honest, emotional, and strong.

I connected with this book in a big, big way. While going through the MOST trying time of my life, Traveling Mercies fell into my lap. And although I had a hard time feeling sorry for the self abusive and self destructive author in the first few chapters, I grew to understand her faith and the strength she draws from it as the book progressed.

This book gave me strength to face each day. I would reread chapters and repeat lines from the book to myself because I found power in them.

God works in mysterious ways. That is why this book found me. If you need a spiritual boost, read it. And read it again. If you are looking for just another recovering-alcoholic-author-bio.....it is good for that too. But the faith stuff is where the book's power lies.

Rating:
Summary: A gifted author, but a flawed book
Review: I would very much like to write the kind of glowing review of "Traveling Mercies" that some others here have written. Anne Lamott is a very gifted writer with an eye for detail, a penchant for turning a phrase, and a sass that permeates everything she sees. She also writes about matters of faith, a faith I share (although from a different tradition) and that desperately needs more airtime in our ferociously secular culture.

But I didn't like the book, and for reasons that I had a hard time pinning down. She struggles earnestly with life's messes, trying to find grace in the mundane or the irritating or the sorrowful; she is clearly a loving and devoted mom (although c'mon: wouldn't you have let your kid go hang-gliding?); and she would probably make a fiercely devoted and rather interesting and unpredictable friend. But I kept getting the sense in reading through the vignettes in this book that I was watching a home movie, one where the camera was trained almost exclusively on a somewhat confused middle-aged baby boomer as she stumbles into and then out of the various crises in her life. But her crises are nothing we haven't all experienced, and many would have been completely avoidable with a tad more foresight and common sense. So by the end (and, truth be told, long before), my reaction was: so what? Augustine or Bonhoffer this isn't.

About midway through the book, Lamott reads a review of a lecture of hers that described her as "narcissistic", and that, I think, hits the nail pretty much on the head. It's not that one cannot find inspiration here, or humor, or compassion; the main difficulty in Traveling Mercies is that the essays are so consistently self-absorbed as to miss many of the lessons she could have learned were she able to get beyond herself even a little bit. So we have her chalking up as a minor miracle her being able to play the 'bon vivant' with a fellow air-traveler who happens to be of a religious and political persuasion at which she would normally have sneered; it never seems to occur to her, however, that were the shoe on the other foot (as in: "I actually talked to a feminist today, and even though she's spreading Satan's lies, she really wasn't all that bad!"), the essay would have read as intolerably patronizing. Elsewhere she talks about how lovingly her church accepted her unwed pregnancy, unlike what might have happened had she been in a church in the South (one of a few such gratuitous swipes at the South). But then again, perhaps not: I used to live in the South, and she might well have found there the support and acceptance she craved but mixed with the kick in the butt and the admonition to "sin no more" that she needed.

So this is a mixed bag overall. I think it's fair to say that pretty much everyone will find something to relate to in Lamott's recollections, and few are better than she is at the craft of writing. But if you're looking for wry stories of domestic crises, read Erma Bombeck instead; she's funnier. If you want a spiritual autobiography, try David Brainerd or Julian of Norwich; they're theologically meatier. If your quest is a tale of life's adversity overcome imperfectly, I'd recommend C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed. But if you want somewhat witty autobiographical essays by a neurotic left-coaster whose theology seems to have come straight out of a blender, look no further than Traveling Mercies.

Rating:
Summary: First time with Anne Lamott
Review: I agree with a lot of other reviews you may read. She has captured a sense of her journey, which she describes as leaps. Faith is certainly many of us; we try to figure -it -out as we go and as we figure out what it means to be a Christian. She describes each twist and turn in her life and is enjoyable to get inside her head to see how normal we all are as we try to figure the answers to all our questions. Very funny - some may not like the little blurts of swearing but it book that had me laughing out loud and thinking a bit about myself a lot. Enjoy.

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Summary: Questions unanswered in "Traveling Mercies"
Review: Anne Lamott's thoughts on faith are an alternative to the "how to be a better Christian" alternatives we find in our Christian bookstores. Many of us feel weary of trying to become "the perfect Christian" when it is actually an impossible feat. I appreciate Ms. Lamott's honest reflections about her life and her faith.

However, I wish liberal Christians could see that they can still be political, social, and economic liberals without supporting abortion. Jeremiah 1:5 says: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sacrificed thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Psalm 139 should also be considered.

The only thing that makes a person a Christian is our faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour. (John 3:16) That is all! It is that easy. But after salvation, why do Christians choose only bits and pieces of the bible to believe as truth? If I could ask the talented Ms. Lamott one thing, that would be it. Why pick and choose?

Anne Lamott's commentary of the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac is alone worth buying the book for.

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Summary: La Hot Lamott
Review: I...have read very few religious books that I could feel comfortable giving to a friend. Nonetheless, I found this book so meaingful that I convinced our Thursday morning book club to read it. Once a week, we'd discuss one chapter. Our group has become somewhat of a therapy session without laying out $100 every thursday. Ann would probably be glad to know that her stories of brokeness, faith, doubt, depravity and salvation sustained our little group for over a half a year, wherein we shared our own brokeness, faith, etc. We are still meeting, but now we are trying to figure out the next step from Travelling Mercies. In the meantime, we're perusing the Gospel of St John. Ann Lamott challenges the notion that Christians are conservative, stuffy, prudish, and humorless. A great book for the believer and doubter alike.

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Summary: An inspiring book.
Review: I picked this book up in an airport as a present for an Episcopal friend, expecting not to be interested myself---and promptly read the whole book before the plane had landed. I've been familiar with Anne Lamott from fiction, other books of essays, and local radio programs for a while now, but only with this book did I realize that she has a strong religious identity. To be honest, I expected that to put me off---like so many, I feel plenty "spiritual" but get a little antsy when anyone else talks about their specific belief set, especially one so dogmatic as Christianity. This book, however, is more about the spiritual questions that consume us all (yes, even us non-Christians) and the joy and pain of our attempts to answer them. Anne is completely readable, funny, and (unlike many writers who tackle the topic of spirituality), NOT HOKEY. Well worth reading, and, for me, re-reading in sections pretty often.

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Summary: Bittersweet and funny
Review: What can I say? It's Annie Lamott, and it's a great book from start to finish. May she have traveling mercies, and write many more.

Rating:
Summary: Kleenex Required
Review: I loved this book. It is touching in a quiet, profound way. Almost all of the essays made me cry (I'm a complete softie of the TV-ads-make-me-cry variety.) The stories in this book are straight forward, remarkably honest and often hilarious - I'd love to meet the author. I will definitely be reading some of her other books - what better recommendation can I give?! (This book was recommended to me by sewgeeky.com, another hero of mine!)

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Summary: Finger on the Pulse
Review: A gorgeous, funny, original, insightful book that can breathe new life into anyone who feels the tiniest bit stale in their devotional practices (as well as new life into just about anyone else who might read it). Makes me realize all over again that Christianity (or any other religious path, if followed sincerely) is a living organism waiting for us to tap into its richness. Anne Lamott legitimizes my own shipwrecked prayers and validates my own unorthodox approach to God. TRAVELING MERCIES should be required reading for very priest, minister, pastor, seminarian and long-time church/synagogue-goer. It will help keep us from getting embedded in (and deadened by) habits of posture and vocabulary that are naturally generated by any religious institution or repeated personal devotional practice.

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Summary: I wish I knew her !
Review: Always a voracious reader,I can't believe I missed this one when it was first published. Ms. Lamott's aecerbic wit kept me riveted to this one. She describes her inner demons so acutely that I recognized many of them as my own. As a product of the sixties I could relate to many of her trials, starting with experimental excesses & finishing with eating disorders. Anne has lived my life & described it better than I ever could. At times I had to stop reading reading to dry my tears...resulting from both uproarious laughter & silent weeping. If I had known that she was to be a guest of Rosie O'Donnells I would have changed my schedule to see that show. I can only hope I see it in re-runs & I know that God loves her in a very special, very personal,very DIFFERENT way. It reminded me that God has a sense of humor-he made US, didn't he?