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Most contemporary readers agree that the best spiritual writing stays grounded in real-life anecdotes, simple and bold language, and a self-scrutinizing honesty that gives a narrator credibility. With only a few esoteric exceptions, every piece in this anthology edited by Philip Zaleski (senior editor of
Parabola magazine) passes this litmus test. When Michael Ventura speaks of finding the "Old One" within himself on his 52nd birthday, his practical wisdom is mesmerizing: "I've learned to leave birthdays unplanned, or almost so, to let the day unfold on its own, because a birthday is a teaching day it has something to reveal.... This is especially true of birthdays, for, as Thomas Hardy once observed, your birthday exists in relation to another day, a day that is impossible to know: we pass silently, every year, over the anniversary of our death."
In one of the most stunning essays in the collection, "Can You Say...Hero?" (originally published in Esquire), journalist Tom Junod speaks of following Fred Rogers around New York City in order to write a profile, and how "Mr. Rogers" gently found his way to Junod's most vulnerable place of spiritual doubt. Contributions from Mary Gordon, Barry Lopez, and Louise Rafkin are also superb. --Gail Hudson
From Publishers Weekly
Zaleski (a senior editor of Parabola who teaches religion at Smith College) follows up his popular Best Spiritual Writing 1998 with this edifying, well-chosen collection of essays and poems. These are diverse in form and subject but have a common function, as Zaleski states in his preface, to "tell us something about truth, beauty, and goodness... about how to live the good life." Anita Mathias's "The Holy Ground of Kalighat" depicts glimpse of the sanctity of life in the face of death in Mother Teresa's Calcutta, and Annie Dillard explores the miracle of life through newborn eyes first alert to the world in "Acts of God." ("How many centuries would you have to live before this... ceased to astound you?" she asks.) Family relationships are explored in such diverse works as Walt McDonald's touching love poem, "The Waltz We Were Born For," and Mary Gordon's painful attempt to come to grips with her mother's senility ("Still Life"), while Tracy Cochran, in "My True Home Is Brooklyn," offers a witty portrayal of her experience with her young daughter at a Zen Buddhist retreat. Thomas Moore's "On Memory and Numbers" describes the turn of the millennium as a "special gift of time" in conceptual, abstract terms whereas Douglas Burton-Christie investigates time more concretely through a friend's journey to death. Although most choices in this anthology are excellent, one in particular stands out: Tom Junod's "Can you Say...'Hero'?" brings children's icon Mr. Rogers to life. One hilarious incident involves the cardigan-clad Rogers boarding the subway at Penn Station and being spotted by viewers ("Holy s--t! exclaims one young fan. "It's Mr. F---ing Rogers!"). (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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