Nothing: Something to Believe in [Paperback]

Nica Lalli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2007

What is it like to grow up in a house with no religion? What kind of experiences does someone have when one is not a believer and yet comes into constant contact with religion? How can a person find out what they are when they focus primarily on what they are not? These are the questions raised in the memoir "Nothing". With humour, wit, and poignant insight, Nica Lalli recounts her mishaps and misadventures with religion from early childhood into her adult years. As a questioning child, unsure of her idea of God, then a teenager feeling like an outsider, and finally an adult mother confronted by her husband's born-again Christian family and questions from her own children, Nica vividly describes her struggle to find out what kind of "something" she really is. In the end, the author finds that "nothing" is a philosophy to be embraced rather than feared. "Nothing" is an appealing, sensitively written story that offers hope, humour, and reason to millions of similar Americans who feel alienated in an ever more religiously polarised nation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Books on atheism are red-hot this year, and Lalli’s adds something fresh to the mix: rather than being an angry apologetic, it’s an engaging personal account of non-belief. Raised in Chicago and New York to free-thinking parents who seem to have provided little supervision, Lalli had sporadic encounters with religion at her friends’ churches and synagogues as a child. A disastrous high school ski trip turned her off completely when religious students tried to convert her with manipulative tactics. In college, she fell in love with a fellow agnostic, whom she married after a brief stint of what she calls "living in sin." Although Lalli got along well with her Christian mother-in-law, her self-righteous sister-in-law and her husband were a different story, and much of the memoir’s second half explores serious family tensions. "I got the feeling that I had to respect them for their religion but they were not going to return the favor," Lalli writes. Although Lalli doesn’t come across as being quite as open-minded as she claims herself to be, she does see herself as an equal-opportunity agnostic, as skeptical about a tarot reading as she is about Christian platitudes. This memoir is well-written and often acerbically funny, an edgy quest for meaning outside the boundaries of organized religion.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—In this appealing memoir, an art educator in New York City chronicles her journey of acceptance as she came of age in a family that refused to embrace organized religious belief. When the author was seven, she decided she would like to join a Catholic friend in making her first communion. "I wanted the white dress," Lalli admits. When she asked her parents, "What are we?" she was surprised at the answer. Her once-Catholic father responded, "We are nothing." Her mother said, "My family is Jewish, but we don't practice Judaism." Thus began the girl's quest to define her secular beliefs in a society where religion often separates rather than unites people. She tried to come to terms with the friendliness of door-to-door proselytizers. She resisted efforts to convert to Christianity at a ski weekend sponsored by a church. As a teen, she tried to come to terms with the meaning of death. Her hardest task was to gain acceptance from the sister of the boyfriend she later married. When she gained the strength to believe in the correctness of her secular views, the judgments of believers no longer bothered her. The memoir ends as the author, now the mother of two, must answer the same questions she posed to her parents as a child. Whatever readers' beliefs, they will find this search for acceptance enlightening.—Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (March 14, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159102529X
• ISBN-13: 978-1591025290
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,066,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something to relate to..., April 8, 2007

By 

Meirelle (Canonsburg, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nothing: Something to Believe in (Paperback)

I picked this up on a whim one night, started reading it when I got home, and I just couldn't put it down! So many of Nica's experiences seemed like my own, and I even cried at parts. This memoir shows what it's like to be a "nothing" in America. And more importantly, it shows that we're really not all that different from everybody else. I highly recommend this, no matter if you're a "nothing" or a "something." This memoir has something everyone can relate to-- the struggle everyone goes through in life to find oneself, to define one's own beliefs.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Memoir of Nonbelief, April 7, 2007

By 

Bailey Meeker - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nothing: Something to Believe in (Paperback)

With all of the hype around books such as The God Delusion and Letter to a Christian Nation, I am sure that many people feel surrounded by the supposed "New Atheism" (a misnomer; the term only exists since we all got a bit louder). While the other two review the scientific and social reasons for atheism and religion, this book instead is a personal account of nonbelief and will leave readers of all religions feeling that they have made a new connection with nonbelievers. While the other books out today dwell on the differences between nonbelievers and believers, this book shows how similar we all are, how many experiences we share, and the reasons nonbelievers feel uncomfortable with many aspects of society. Not to mention this is an excellent read, I couldn't put it down! I would recommend this book to anyone, especially people who feel like they "don't get" nonbelievers, including those who answered in recent polls that they would not vote for an atheist or allow a child to marry one.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Read that everyone can garner something from, May 1, 2007

By 

Yvette Gibson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nothing: Something to Believe in (Paperback)

The great thing about the book is that its about an average person working through one of life's challenges - who am I and what do I believe. Lalli's telling of her journey is entertaining, witty, humourous, which makes the book highly enjoyable. I find it hard to believe that anyone wouldn't be able to find something in the book to indentify with and be inspired by.

On a related note - in response to Maria's review below of "disappointing" - Isn't the whole point that it's OK to be who you are without proselytizing to others? The way I read it, in the end she resolved the conflict she had with herself, so the characters were there to help her come to terms with who she really was.