Grace (Eventually)

Grace [Eventually]: Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
What I liked: Anne Lamott is not afraid to make fun of herself. Her humor and sense of self always draw me into her experiences and stories. Sometimes her antics border on manic, but that's part of what has drawn me into writing.

What I didn't like: The essays were slightly less enlightening than those in 'Plan B', some stories wandered and then... just ended. There was no conclusion, no "aha!" moment.

Final Thoughts: Anne's journey through sobriety, single-parenthood and finding her own path in this mad mad world continue to enchant me. Her words, at times, can be so plebian and yet powerfully moving.

Pub. Date: July 2007

Synopsis: The world, community, the family, the human heart: tese are the beautiful and complicated arenas in which our lives unfold. Wherever you look, there's trouble and wonder, pain and beauty, restoration and darkness - sometimes all at once.

Yet amid the confusion, if you look carefully, in nature or in the kitchen, in ordinariness or in mystery, beyond the emotional muck we all slog through, you'll find it eventually: a path, some light to see by, moments of insight, courage, or buoyancy. In other words, grace.

Anne Lamott knows and lives by this belief, most of the time. In Grace (Eventually), her brilliant new collection, she recounts the missteps, detours, and roadblocks in her walk of faith.

It's been an erratic journey, and some days go better than others. "I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra kinds of things," she writes. "Also, that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace's arrival. But no, it's clog and slog and scootch, on the floor, in the silence, in the dark."

In Grace (Eventually), Lamott describes how she copes. The challenges seem alternately inconsequential and insurmountable - the anger engendered by an obstinate carpet salesman or president; the engulfing envy at a friend's professional success; the bewilderment at discovering that a child has grown up or that a friend wants to die on his own terms - and they are also universal.

Wise and irreverent, poignant and funny, Grace (Eventually) is a primer in faith, as we come to discover what it means to be fully human and alive.

Recommended Reading:
Plan B by Anne Lamott
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott