THE California-based author Annie Lamott is well known for writing “narrative non-fiction”, which might be more honestly described as “telling stories about oneself”. In an interview, Lamott explained: “I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness — and that can make me laugh.”
In ten short chapters, she dishes the dirt on shameful past events in her life, reflects on woes of her former alcoholism, grieves over her weak, ageing bladder, and tells tales of her shortcomings and peccadilloes. All is revealed with bitterly frank honesty, candied humour, and occasionally showy self-deprecation. The gushing love that she expresses for her just-got-married life ought to be unsurprising: her husband is a symbol of hope in what has evidently been a life riven with tension and struggle.
I frequently squirmed at too much information, but others may welcome her openness and appreciate her style. The cover is suspiciously pink and sparkly.
Lamott attends a Presbyterian church, and describes in some detail her experience of teaching in Sunday school. She communicates a liberated insouciance in the various ways in which she relates to God. For instance, she invites readers to giggle like teenagers at the idea of Moses’ “seeing God’s butt”. She enthuses: “We’re all God in drag,” convinced that everyone bears God’s image. “Jesus is big on people evolving.”
Maxims are scattered throughout the book like shiny confetti, such as “‘Why?’ is rarely a useful question.” Some readers may groan at their banality.
As it did to many of us, lockdown forced Lamott to discover new ways to make meaning. In her closing pages, “Covid College”, she shares a fresh pearl of everyday wisdom harvested during the pandemic: “The joy is the universe giving me incremental connections, like my perfect cup of coffee.” It feels very far from T. S. Eliot’s Prufrock in rainy England, measuring out his life with coffee spoons.
The Revd Jennie Hogan is a psychotherapist and Associate Priest at St George’s, Bloomsbury, in London.
Dusk, Night Dawn: On revival and courage
Anne Lamott
SPCK £15.99
(978-0-281-08577-4)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49