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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Senior editor for Parabola magazine Philip Zaleski has a finely tuned sense of strong writing and strong spirit, as evidenced in the fifth installment of his highly esteemed Best Spiritual Writing series. The introduction by Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog) sets the stage for the writers to follow. He tells of stumbling upon a "spiritual bookstore" while vacationing and how he immediately recoiled from the incense, crystals, goddess posters, and bookshelves labeled "Transcendence" and "Healing." On the same street he discovered a bookstore with a cigarette-smoking clerk and familiar genres: fiction, poetry. While one store shouted spiritual slogans and quick fixes, the other invited his soul to travel the gritty mysteries of characters, dialog, landscape, and story. "And it occurred to me that the form of spirituality I trust most comes directly from the sensual mass of life itself." Indeed, the host of heavenly voices in this anthology seems to rise from the complicated "sensual mass" called life. Bestselling author Brett Lott speaks of Oprah selecting Jewel for her book club and how it set in motion a series of humiliating lessons. In "Stillbirth," Leah Konselik Lebec reckons with the death of her 28-week-old son in utero. Some essays rise from a seeker's wonderment, such as Valerie Martin's essay "Being St. Francis." There are the occasional dry spots, but they remind readers that spirituality is not an entertainment industry. Rather, it is a reverent process born out of the willingness to listen and pay close attention. Other contributors include Terry Tempest Williams, Thomas Moore, and Pattiann Rogers. --Gail Hudson
From Publishers Weekly
If, as Zaleski writes in the preface to his latest anthology, the best spiritual writing flourishes in an atmosphere of silence, then the very finest of what was produced in 2000 may still lie in obscurity. Given that, Zaleski once again has skillfully skimmed the cream from the top of last year's published spiritual prose and poetry. In this, his fourth gathering of writers, he has assembled works from the known and the lesser known. Names such as Thomas Moore (Care of the Soul) and George Weigel (Witness to Hope) are among the draws, but the writing itself is the major attraction. It is difficult to page casually through this repository of gems without finding something appealing to read. There is "The Yoga Exercise," a two-stanza verse by Floyd Skloot, whose words are as elegant and lithe as the prayer posture he describes. Likewise, Patricia Hampl's "The Sacrament of Reconciliation" artfully plaits the writer's childhood memories of Catholic confession into her rediscovery of the now-reformed ritual. Also worth noting among the 30 selections is Ben Birnbaum's "How to Pray," a masterful essay on prayer that taps the author's 1950s boyhood recollections, blending them with stories from sources as disparate as the Talmud and a Jewish children's magazine. Although not every faith tradition is represented, Zaleski is generally to be lauded for the diversity of his choices, which this year include works with Christian, Jewish, Native American and Buddhist themes. (Sept.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Senior editor for Parabola magazine Philip Zaleski has a finely tuned sense of strong writing and strong spirit, as evidenced in the fifth installment of his highly esteemed Best Spiritual Writing series. The introduction by Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog) sets the stage for the writers to follow. He tells of stumbling upon a "spiritual bookstore" while vacationing and how he immediately recoiled from the incense, crystals, goddess posters, and bookshelves labeled "Transcendence" and "Healing." On the same street he discovered a bookstore with a cigarette-smoking clerk and familiar genres: fiction, poetry. While one store shouted spiritual slogans and quick fixes, the other invited his soul to travel the gritty mysteries of characters, dialog, landscape, and story. "And it occurred to me that the form of spirituality I trust most comes directly from the sensual mass of life itself." Indeed, the host of heavenly voices in this anthology seems to rise from the complicated "sensual mass" called life. Bestselling author Brett Lott speaks of Oprah selecting Jewel for her book club and how it set in motion a series of humiliating lessons. In "Stillbirth," Leah Konselik Lebec reckons with the death of her 28-week-old son in utero. Some essays rise from a seeker's wonderment, such as Valerie Martin's essay "Being St. Francis." There are the occasional dry spots, but they remind readers that spirituality is not an entertainment industry. Rather, it is a reverent process born out of the willingness to listen and pay close attention. Other contributors include Terry Tempest Williams, Thomas Moore, and Pattiann Rogers. --Gail Hudson
From Publishers Weekly
If, as Zaleski writes in the preface to his latest anthology, the best spiritual writing flourishes in an atmosphere of silence, then the very finest of what was produced in 2000 may still lie in obscurity. Given that, Zaleski once again has skillfully skimmed the cream from the top of last year's published spiritual prose and poetry. In this, his fourth gathering of writers, he has assembled works from the known and the lesser known. Names such as Thomas Moore (Care of the Soul) and George Weigel (Witness to Hope) are among the draws, but the writing itself is the major attraction. It is difficult to page casually through this repository of gems without finding something appealing to read. There is "The Yoga Exercise," a two-stanza verse by Floyd Skloot, whose words are as elegant and lithe as the prayer posture he describes. Likewise, Patricia Hampl's "The Sacrament of Reconciliation" artfully plaits the writer's childhood memories of Catholic confession into her rediscovery of the now-reformed ritual. Also worth noting among the 30 selections is Ben Birnbaum's "How to Pray," a masterful essay on prayer that taps the author's 1950s boyhood recollections, blending them with stories from sources as disparate as the Talmud and a Jewish children's magazine. Although not every faith tradition is represented, Zaleski is generally to be lauded for the diversity of his choices, which this year include works with Christian, Jewish, Native American and Buddhist themes. (Sept.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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