Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Hardcover)

by Anne Lamott (Author) "On my forty-ninth birthday, I decided that all of life was hopeless, and I would eat myself to death..." (more)
Key Phrases: red cord, San Quentin, George Bush, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Few people can write about faith, parenting, and relationships as can the talented, irreverent Anne Lamott. With characteristic black humor, ("Everyone has been having a hard time with life this year; not with all of it, just the waking hours") she updates us on the ongoing mayhem of her life since Traveling Mercies, and continues to unfold her spiritual journey.

Plan B finds Lamott wrestling with mid-life hormones and weight gain while parenting Sam, now a teenager with his own set of raging hormones. Her observations cover everything from starting a Sunday school to grief over the death of her beloved dog, Sadie; lamenting the war to bitterness over her relationship with her now-departed mother.

As she tugs and pokes out the knots in a slender gold chain necklace, it becomes a metaphor for letting go and learning to forgive. "…any willingness to let go inevitably comes from pain; and the desire to change changes you, and jiggles the spirit, gets to it somehow, to the deepest, hardest, most ruined parts." It’s her willingness to show us the knotted-up, "ruined parts" of her life that make this collection of sometimes uneven essays so compelling.

"Everything feels crazy," writes Lamott, adding, "But on small patches of earth all over, I can see just as much messy mercy and grace as ever…." Lamott’s essays will serve as reminders to readers of the patches of messy mercy and grace in a chaotic world.--Cindy Crosby

From Publishers Weekly
Five years after her bestselling Traveling Mercies, Lamott sends us 24 fresh dispatches from the frontier of her life and her Christian faith. To hear her tell it, neither the state of the country nor the state of her nerves has improved, to say the least. "On my forty-ninth birthday, I decided that all of life is hopeless, and I would eat myself to death. These are dessert days." Thankfully, her gift for conveying the workings of grace to left-wing, high-strung, beleaguered people like herself is still intact, as is her ability to convey the essence of Christian faith, which she finds not in dogma but in our ability to open our hearts in the midst of our confusion and hopelessness. Most of these pieces were published in other versions on Salon.com, and they cover subjects as disparate as the Bush administration; the death of Lamott's dog, her mother and a friend; life with a teenager and with her 50-year-old thighs--yet each shows how our hearts and lives can go "from parched to overflow in the blink of an eye." What is the secret? Lamott makes us laugh at the impossibility of it all; then she assures us that the most profound act we can accomplish on Earth is coming out of the isolation of our minds and giving to one another. Faith is not about how we feel, she shows; it is about how we live. "Don't worry! Don't be so anxious. In dark times, give off light. Care for the least of God's people!" Naturally, some pieces are stronger than others--her wonderful style can come across as a bit mannered, the wrapup a bit forced. But this is quibbling about a book that is better than brilliant. This is that rare kind of book that is like a having a smart, dear, crazy (in the best sense) friend walk next to us in sunlight and in the dark night of the soul.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; First Edition edition (March 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573222992
• ISBN-13: 978-1573222990
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,017 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

233 of 261 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lamott still charms her choir, March 9, 2005

By	C. L. Ferle (Midwest Reader and Writer) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anne Lamott is not for the faint-hearted. A bookseller and I agreed last week that Lamott is an acquired taste and more enjoyable if you've read a lot of theology and still find your heart is broken. Lamott reminds us that sanitized piety should not be confused with real faith; that Jesus Himself had radical ideas and didn't sit around worrying about whether our kids are watching PG movies.

Lamott's personal relationship with Jesus is one she's forged on her own, against all odds, reminding us that faith doesn't always come in an apple-pie/right-wing/Miss-America package. She is a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-work Christian -- a Christian who knows that it isn't enough to sit around quoting the Bible to be a good human being. Admitting her broken-ness and allowing us to laugh with her, we open our hearts to our own humanity. What a relief.

182 of 206 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lamott at her best--and that's very, very good, March 8, 2005

By	Brenda Jo Mengeling (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith contains a series of essays by Lamott from her salon.com column that she wrote during the beginning of the Iraq War. As a left wing Christian, Lamott understandably has trouble with the war and George W. Bush. As if that weren't enough, she is also turning 50 and her son is becoming a teenager. Lamott writes of all these things with great candor and humor. She is breathtakingly honest, but not in a way that makes me cringe or think "too much information." She also writes of friends and loved ones with great affection and compassion that manages to avoid sentimentality. Lamott has the ability to be very funny and very wise at the same time, which is always a pleasure. As a person who more and more searches for straight forward honesty, I find Anne Lamott a welcome breath of fresh air. I highly recommend this book.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very honestly written, but harsh tone defeats the message , June 13, 2005

By	Suzanne Amara (MA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I first encountered Anne Lamott when I read Operating Instructions, her wonderful book about her first year with her son Sam. I have never read a more honest account of motherhood's beginnings, or one with more love shining through. I've tried since then to find another book by her to love, without success.

I agreed with almost all Lamott's views in this book---which are mostly political, despite this being subtitled a book about faith. So my mixed feelings about this book are not because of differing political views. Rather, I felt that the tone here was mostly harsh. That's honest---it's nice to read that faith doesn't turn us all into happy clones. But I guess when I read a book about faith, I would like to have some feeling of grace or of being uplifted or at least of happiness. After reading this book, I felt totally depressed about the state of the world.

I also felt often that Lamott was making fun of people she didn't agree with. Especially when I read about her cruise, and her discomfort with all the flag adorned people, it seemed she didn't really try to follow the basic Golden Rule. She seemed to have little regard for those she met, and it seemed as if she was on her own personal cruise---which is fine, but again, not really too uplifting.

It was great to hear more about Sam, at least from my point of view. From HIS point of view, I would guess that he might not want to have it in print that he could be very mean to other kids, that he got drunk a few times, that he doesn't like to go to church...all somewhat normal teenage things, but I always wonder if it's really a parent's place to write about their teenager. There were a few times that she said she wasn't allowed to say more about him, but that didn't always seem to apply.

The writing is skilled here, and the honestly refreshing---especially the section about starting a Sunday School and race. But I don't really know what the reason for being of this book is---I don't feel like I learned more about Lamott's faith, or was given insight into my own, or even just plain enjoyed the reading. I will be honest about this, as Lamott unfailingly is!