Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith FROM THE PUBLISHER
Plan B offers hope through the panic and despair. With her trademark humor, wisdom, and honesty, Lamott tells us stories of daily life - shopping at the supermarket on her birthday and winning a free ham she doesn't want; skiing with a dying friend who teaches her to fall; celebrating Thanksgiving with Sam and his dad; attending protest rallies. She watches the seasons come and go, and shares with us the comfort and insights that she draws from life around her even as she continues to panic and despair - and also to struggle, as all of us must, to make the world a safer, and more loving, place to live.
FROM THE CRITICS
Lauren F. Winner - The New York Times
If one needs a corrective to the notion that all American Christians are happy with George W. Bush, one need look no farther than Anne Lamott's Plan B. A sequel of sorts to Traveling Mercies, her previous collection of assorted, quirky subtitular thoughts on faith, Plan B presents Lamott at middle age, totally despondent about the Iraq war, the administration and the future of the world. She decides not to kill herself -- overeating would be her preferred method -- only because she wants to stay alive to protest the war and the White House.
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. Author tour. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Novelist Lamott's latest is an easy read, crackling with puns, funny anecdotes, and memorable sayings coined by her minister, family, and friends. As in Traveling Mercies, this book's predecessor, the chapters comprise biographical sketches and reflections on the author's Christian faith. The sketches follow no chronological or thematic order, giving the book a slightly disjointed quality. However, the author's insights connect them and infuse them with meaning. Lamott is also more politically outspoken here than she has been previously. While she repeatedly criticizes the current Bush administration and their hawkish agenda, these commentaries do not dead-end there; instead, they swerve back to the positive ways in which she can influence the world, the political leaders, and her own community. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.-Maria Kochis, California State Univ. Lib., Sacramento Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Funny, acerbic reflections on faith and family during George W. Bush's first administration. Readers have long awaited Lamott's second book on spirituality (after Traveling Mercies, 1999), and it won't disappoint-or not too much. As before, Lamott charts her life as a deeply religious Christian and committed leftist, though she's no stereotypically pious Presbyterian. For example, she has dreadlocks and an out-of-wedlock son, her beloved Sam. She wears a red bracelet that was blessed by the Dalai Lama, and she hates Republicans, most especially George W. Bush. In the essays here, many from Salon, Lamott portrays herself as a mother heroically trying to figure out how to parent a smart-and occasionally smart-alecky-teenager. She also describes her attempts to love her aging, sagging body. And she takes readers inside her wonderfully warm church, still under the leadership of the awesome Veronica. Throughout, we read about her struggle to forgive her dead mother, and, because Lamott's trademark humor and irreverence mark practically every page, readers will howl with laughter at Lamott's inability to do anything with Mom's ashes other than leave them in her closet. But there's also the real work Lamott is doing here, the hard, slow work of forgiveness, and things can get teary. Still, the book doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. One example will suffice: Somehow Sam, whom readers first met in utero in Operating Instructions (1993), then as an enchanting grammar-schooler in Traveling, doesn't make quite as charming a character this time around. Lamott's approach to parenting an adolescent is not without wisdom, but reading about the Lamotts' battles over homework is neitherentertaining nor illuminating. Traveling Mercies set a very high standard, and to say that Plan B almost gets there is still to say that it's a wonderful read Lamott's legions of fans will no doubt lap up. Agent: Sarah Chalfant/The Wylie Agency
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