PLAN B: FURTHER THOUGHTS ON FAITH

review by

Larry Shallenberger

PLAN B: Further Thoughts on Faith

by Anne Lamott

(Riverhead Books)

Reader Appeal: Adult

Genre: Memoirs / Spirituality

Anne Lamott is back, with all of her glorious humor, angst, and wisdom. If you haven’t discovered Anne yet, she is shock therapy for those of us who learned how to be religious before we learned how to be human.

In her previous book, Traveling Mercies, Anne shared her crooked journey through alcoholism, bulimia, and broken relationships to a connection with St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and Jesus Christ. Now, in Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne shares the new challenges to her faith, namely The Bush Administration, her aging mother, menopause, the loss of friends to illness, teaching Sunday School, and raising her teen-aged son, Sam. While many of her crises in Plan B are stock milestones of middle age they are no less poignant when rendered by Anne’s pen.

Anne’s power comes from her unflinching authenticity, a scarce quality in the self-serving industry of memoir writing. Anne describes her life has it happens, without bothering to airbrush away her neurotic impulses and imperfections. Her self-depreciating humor and honesty creates a picture of spirituality reminiscent of Dostoevsky; we are all simultaneously noble and depraved. As I read Plan B, I laughed with Anne at her foibles and became more honest about my own. 

Anne Lamott, along with Fredrick Buechner, might be the best living Christian author that you can’t find at a Christian book store, likely because Anne elevates cursing to a literary art form. More significantly, this author is openly pro-choice and pro-gay rights. She also addresses God as a feminine being and some readers might balk at her rabid Bush-bashing and extreme left-wing politics. However, I’d challenge any reader to see Anne as more than the sum of her politics and ideas. Reading anything by Anne Lamott creates the opportunity to remember that God wills and works through your bad attitudes, flawed character, and humanity. Wading through Anne’s positions is worth any personal risk you might feel. Encountering her writing style is a joyous experience and you’ll bump into God’s grace as often as you will step in piles of human frailty.

FAMILYFANS RATING:  A

 --LS