Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott
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Book Reviews of Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Book Review: Raw, Real and Religious?
Summary: 3 Stars
As a word of warning, this book is full of crass and offensive language and situations. You will not find someone pretending that everything is okay, but freely admitting the painful details of her life. Lamott has suffered through many trials in her past including early and frequent promiscuity and abortion, heavy drug use, financial problems, alcoholism, bulimia, and suicidal thoughts. Yet, because of this `hold nothing back' mentality, the book is very real, funny and sometimes insightful. We see a woman grasping for faith and hope in the midst of a crazy life full of heartache.
This book may help those who feel they are unacceptable to the church because of things they have done. Lamott reminds us that God's grace is for all people in all circumstances. It pushes us past the misunderstandings of Christians as people who have everything together. Here, we find a very non-typical `Christian' woman, who may help reach others with the Good News that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. I would recommend this book to friends and others who have been turned off by traditional Christianity, hoping that it may provide a door for them to reconsider what this Jesus stuff is all about.
Finally, the book serves as call for all of us in the church to live out the Gospel message through lives of love and service. Lammott says, "when I was at the end of my rope, the people at St. Andrew tied a knot in it for me and helped me hold on. The church had become my home" (100). I pray that her experience may describe all of our churches as we reach out and welcome in all types of people, so that they may know their true home in the unconditional love of Christ.
Book Review: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Summary: 5 Stars
These are the last three sentences of the book, "Traveling Mercies" by Anne Lemott. And they sum up this collection of stories beautifully. This is a book about faith and a book about gratitude. It is intelligent, thought provoking, funny and highly readable. Anne Lemott, Annie--as it appears her friends call her--lets us into her world and shares a very personal and poignant path of a unique and awkward girl taking off her "glasses of puberty" and coming of age. She lays everything bare, from her feelings about her bushy hair and alien eyes, her drug and alcohol additions, to her love for her father and dealing not only with his death, but also with the death of her best friend. We enter the world of a single mother, a struggling and ultimately successful writer, and all her feelings of self-doubt. She seems to have a third eye when it comes to seeing those around her, and through her observations and writing, we too can appreciate people and situations to a greater degree.
Writes Lamott of a sick woman from her church in a story named Ashes: "It must have been too annoying for everyone to be trying to manipulate her into being a better sport than she was capable of being. I always thought that was heroic of her, that it spoke of such integrity to refuse to pretend that you're doing well just to help other people deal with the fact that sometimes we face an impossible loss."
The underlying theme throughout each brutally honest passage is the message of her faith in God and how she came to discover this faith. She LEARNS to pray and uses prayer to get her over the large and the small humps. One can't help but come to love this child of God, and everyone in her life.
Book Review: Hmmmmm
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a retelling (and often a very emotional one) of one person's struggle through life and with faith. It is not geared towards those analytically-orientated who like to read things that are organized and linear. This book doesn't just teach, but it draws the reader into the real, often ugly world of a real person. This is certainly not fashioned propaganda trying to convince others to join the ranks of Christianity. Lamott is for those, spiritual or not, seeking to enrich their thoughts and engage their own concepts of faith and ideas of what it means to live. One can definitely say without a doubt that she is, at least, always honest. Many may think uncomfortably so. She is shown at times to be both judgmental and irresponsible; and even though she eventually gets her act together (for the most part) she doesn't hesitate to be honest about where's she been and what's she's done.
For those who have come to associate the concept of Christianity with being judgemental, intolerant, holier-than-thou, strict home-lives, etc. this is an absolute MUST READ. It shows to perfection just what it is that can make imperfect people (meaning every single Christian on the face of the planet) Christian. All some of us would have to do is change the choices, circumstances and steps to grace and the story could be our own. What I think Lamott tells us in the this book is that anyone looking for the presence of God in their lives but can't seem to get past the icky, boring or dirty details of real life is looking in the wrong places. That the divine relationship people seek can be found exactly in those dirty places that people always try to get out of.
Book Review: Honestly, a Good Book
Summary: 3 Stars
Ann Lamott puts us in a classic conundrum because of her bold-faced honesty. Do we embrace her Christianity or dismiss her vulgararity? Travelling mercies is filled with her customary wit, humility, and frenetic disorganization that quite honestly characterizes most Christians were they honest as Ann is. Her willingness to admit her failings and weaknesses is something to admire and applaud. Her transparency is recommended in every believer.
What I find troubling with Ann is that she seems to revel in all of her problems. She is proud of her vulgarity and her affinity for things she knows disappoint the God she loves. I'm a firm believer in grace, but should we willingly abuse the test God's mercies? He wants us to come as we are, but not stay that way. That's why he's given us His Word to point to a better way. That's not to say any of us have arrived, because we haven't. We're all feet of clay.
Believers, especially new ones, might get the false impression that sin is okay and that it's okay to stay spiritually immature. They might also get the impression that anyone who earnestly tries to honor His God is altogether pious, legalistic, arrogant, and boastful. Many Christians are, but far more are not and would people like Ann open an honest dialogue, they would discover fallen people like themselves on a journey toward Christ-likeness.
Travelling Mercies is intelligent, well-written, and refreshingly to the point. I can't however, in good conscience, give it a complete thumbs up, because of some of its content. But, I do pray that God blesses the irreverant Ann Lamott.
Book Review: Wonderful, eccentric, journey of faith
Summary: 5 Stars
In "Travelling Mercies", Anne Lamott chronicles her journey of faith. From drug addiction, to alcoholism: through the deaths of her father and best friend, and the birth of her son, Ms. Lamott traces her spiritual journey in a series of moving, funny, and deeply personal anecdotes. One warning: this book is probably not for those seeking a traditionally-minded, conservative Christian memoir, as it is definitely not either traditional or conservative! For those whose faith is less structured, this book is an incredibly funny, searingly personal and deeply moving account of one woman's transformation through faith. Ms. Lamott possesses the rare gift of translating her faith into day-to-day experiences and sharing her innermost, most difficult or stressful thoughts in a very funny, realistic, human way.
Other readers have mentioned the story of the woman in bicycle shorts (Ms. Lamott's "Enemy Lite."), which is truly hilarious. Other highlights included the"celebration" of Ash Wednesday, and her encounter with another Christian whose faith seemed to be quite a different order from her own. Ms. Lamott is also wonderful when she writes about children: whether about her own son or her friends' children.
This would make a wonderful gift for those who are "teetering on the edge" of Christianity, wondering, can this faith, this tradition possibly ever mean anything to me? Through these stories, Anne Lamott illustrates the miracle that is her faith, and leaves the door open for anyone who wants to follow. A wonderful, inspiring and very funny book.