Dusk Night Dawn
On Revival and Courage
by Anne Lamott
Riverhead Books, 2021. 208 pages.
Review written March 30, 2021, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review
It’s impossible not to love Anne Lamott. This is because she tells us all her failings, instead of trying to impress us with how wonderful she is. It’s so easy to relate to those failings! Plus, she makes us laugh by looking at things in an unexpected way.
And now she’s married! So now we get her thoughts about this man she’s married and about living with a partner and about being real with each other.
If you’ve read Anne Lamott, you’ll understand it’s more of her funny, insightful, quirky goodness. Without fail, her chapters leave me smiling, though I can’t always pull out a paragraph for quotes, because it takes the whole story to fully appreciate it.
But here’s a nice paragraph I did pull out:
Trust me on this: We are loved out of all sense of proportion. Yikes and hallelujah. Love reveals the beauty of sketchy people like us to ourselves. Love holds up the sacred mirror. Love builds rickety greenhouses for our wilder seeds to grow. Love can be reckless (Jesus is good at this), or meek as my dog, or carry a briefcase. Love is the old man in the park teaching little kids to play the violin: much time spent tuning, the children hearing their way into the key he is playing. My parents heard the key as success, security, moving expeditiously, and living as expected. But love lumbers like an elephant, it naps on top of your chest like a cat. It gooses you, snickers, smooths your hair. Love is being with a person wherever they are, however they are acting. Ugh. (A lot of things seem to come more easily to God.)
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/dusk_night_dawn.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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