Chasing Grace: Reflections of a Catholic Girl, Grown Up [Paperback]

Martha Manning (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 1997

From the author of the "absolutely absorbing" (USA Today) memoir Undercurrents comes an unforgettable portrait of childhood, family and community. The eldest child of a devout Irish-American Catholic family, Martha Manning weaves her story around the seven holy sacraments: baptism, penance, communion, confirmation, holy orders, marriage and last rites. She recalls her childhood pratfalls, adolescent yearnings and entrance into motherhood with wisdom, wit and remarkable honesty. At once poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, Chasing Grace is a wholly original tale of family and friends, happy times and difficult ones -- and thepainful, joyous journey from childhood to adulthood.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Martha Manning's previous memoir, Undercurrents, reveals her struggle with suicidal depression and her slow recovery, ending with the spiritual peace she found during her time in a monastery. Its sequel, Chasing Grace, is divided into sections based on the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church: baptism, penance, Eucharist, confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, and last rites. Using this structure she relates episodes from her Catholic girlhood, her adult search for spirituality, and her own work as a therapist. Throughout, a sense of humor enlivens her account of a life spent in search of grace.

From Publishers Weekly

Manning, who had a critical success with Undercurrents, fares less well here, perhaps because her book veers between the modes of Mary McCarthy's Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood and Erma Bombeck's domestic epistles. Bombeck's shoes pinch this derivative author, as witness the episode of burying her daughter's dead goldfish. Keara, who has more sense of non-occasion than her mom, smartly dismisses the ceremony as "really gross." Child psychologist Manning's "bad-mother mistakes" take a toll on the reader, if not on her only child, who receives her mother's cloying "last will and testament" in these pages. But when Manning recreates her own childhood as the eldest of six offspring of Catholic parents, readers, especially those whose youth spanned the pre- and Vatican II eras, will feel a glow as she recalls the drill: for example, earned "indulgences" (known among Manning's Long Island classmates as "Purgatory Parole") and high school sex education taught by celibates. God, remembers Manning, was like Santa Clause, "essentially benign but waiting for you to screw up." Each section of the memoir is titled with a sacrament, with Barbie dolls turning up under Holy Orders?a confusion of the McCarthy-Bombeck protocols that plague the book. $50,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1st edition (August 5, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062513125
• ISBN-13: 978-0062513120
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,118,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pay no attention to the Kirkus review of this book, April 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Chasing Grace: Reflections of a Catholic Girl, Grown Up (Paperback)

The review by Kirkus Reviews of Chasing Grace shows a completemisunderstanding of the book. The reviewer states: "Her textseems like the record of a pleasurable, meandering conversation exchanging anecdotes about their childhood than a measured, reflective study." Maybe that's because it was a conversation about childhood, not a study of the Catholic Church. I was wary of this book. I thought that it might be a "I survived Catholicism" Catholic-bashing type book. I was pleasantly surprised. This book is about a woman's journey from childhood to adulthood. It is centered by experiences with her religion. That makes perfect sense because the seven sacraments are rites of passage for Catholics. To be sure she did have some horror stories to tell about her experiences in the Pre-Vatican II church, but she seems to have learned that The Church is populated by people - and people fail. Those wretched nuns she described did fail the church and maybe the church failed them. But, as anyone who knows anything about the Catholic Church, the Church has made such progress. Manning seems to recognize that. Or at least forgive the Church for it's transgressions. She sees past the human failings of the Church and sees the grace within. END

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life as Sacrament, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chasing Grace: Reflections of a Catholic Girl, Grown Up (Paperback)

Martha Manning not only writes a delightfully charming and hilarious account of her Catholic girlhood, she also, and more importantly, connects adult life experiences with acramental spirituality. Relating real life experiences in the context of each of the 7 Sacraments celebrated in the Catholic Church, she gives a tangible reality to spirituality and explores life as a place where one encounters the living presence of God. It is obvious that for Ms. Manning, all of life is sacred and sacraments are to be lived - not just as ritual moments, but as the very fabric of everyday experience. This is a gem.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughing out Loud, July 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chasing Grace: Reflections of a Catholic Girl, Grown Up (Paperback)

This book is insightful, well written, very real and all of those other adjectives which are used to describe Amazon's 5-star books. I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys coming of age type books; it is a must read for any product of parochial education in the 1960s.

One warning, though- it is unbelievably funny, and I found myself in stitches throughout the whole thing. Great for me, not so great for those seated around me on the Miami to LA flight. Rereads yield the same result. Write more, Martha!