Savory food, thoughts and photos.

A&E | Books | Fashion | Food | Life | Metro | Photos | Thoughts | Misc

02 May, 2008

No Cosmic Bellhop

Author Anne Lamott was on Stephen Colbert promoting her latest book, and reminded me how much I enjoyed her Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith a few years back.

When I got the book as a present, the title was a bit of a turn off. I wasn't exactly religious and didn't know her work at the time. But then, if I gave a book on Intelligent Design a try -- which annoyed me after a couple of chapters, but that's not the point -- surely her book can't be that bad?

Well, it actually turned out to be very good. Her unpretentious style reminded me of my favorite food writer, the late Laurie Colwin, whose books made me feel like I was reading the letters or journals of a dear old friend.

However, the conversational prose was where the similarity ended. In spite of her self-deprecating humor, I sometimes found the book -- a collection of 24 essays originally published in Salon --difficult to read, even painful.

For one thing, Lamott isn't your typical believer, or at least not what you'd imagine a Christian author to be. She's a Presbyterian who's just as into New Age and karma as she is into Jesus, a liberal, dreadlocks-wearing flower child from San Francisco who's also a single mother and recovering alcoholic. Her attempts to reconcile her faith with her heartbreak over the war in Iraq, her lingering resentment of her dead mother and the inevitable friction with her teenage son made for some uncomfortable reading.

Yet I found her brutal honesty, dry wit and strong faith oddly comforting. That I ached, laughed and got hopeful with her in spite of myself speaks to Lamott's generosity as a writer. She's the kind who opens the doors to her life wide open when she writes, and if her previous work is any indication, her new book would be no different.

Label(s): Books
Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

posted at 10:00 AM by City Muse

|

About

I'm a curious dilettante
from Los Angeles, California.

You can also find me @Twitter .

Recent Posts

  • The Rebates Are Coming
  • Beckett Does Rose
  • A Not So Wonderful Life
  • Flight of the Penguins
  • And The Oscar Goes To...
  • Desperately Seeking A Personality
  • Why I Love L.A.
  • Oscars Watch: No Country For Old Men
  • Let Me Count The Ways
  • DineLA: Tracht's
  • BLOG ARCHIVES




    Blogroll

    CITY
    LAist
    LA Observed
    Metroblogging L.A.

    FOOD
    Eater L.A.
    Slashfood
    Simply Recipes

    THOUGHTS
    Feministing
    Freakonomics
    The Dilbert Blog

    MISC
    Jason Calacanis

    Photo Gallery


    Recent Comments








    frontpage hit counter
    hits since 11-30-05
    All images ©2005 city muse.