Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Even with her irreverence—or maybe precisely because of it—Anne Lamott naturally writes about religion. Her followers have been waiting for her to publish the book that would explain how she arrived to the kind, giving, and thankful religion that she often mentioned in her two previous nonfiction works, Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird. For her readers, the individuals in Anne Lamott's actual life are like to cherished characters in a beloved series: She is well-known to her son Sam, her friend Pammy, and the several witty and intelligent people that attend her church. And Lamott handles new acquaintances with the same honesty, wisdom, and love in Traveling Mercies, which is a joyful return to their lives.

One of the things that makes Lamott appealing to both believers and nonbelievers is that her religion doesn't revolve around simple solutions. In defiance of all odds, she eventually began to believe in God and, even more amazingly, in herself. According to her, "My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers." In Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott describes in vivid detail how she learned to shine the light of religion on the most difficult aspects of everyday life, revealing unexpected pockets of meaning and hope. The book is at once gritty, intimate, compassionate, insightful, and extremely hilarious.