Nevada Barr has built a writing career with her Anna Pigeon series of mystery novels. Her biographical notes sometimes mention her careers as an actress and park ranger. This book, published in 2003, turns to psychological and spiritual meditations. There are fragments of autobiography, without a clear narrative. She writes of her father who disliked frilly girly things and rewarded his daughters for tomboy behavior, and her mother, a pilot and female pioneer in aviation. There is a vague history of promiscuity as a woman coming of age in the '60's. There is marriage, adultery, separation, divorce, depression, therapy. There is a story of living in the South among people who discuss religious things fairly openly. There is a story of wandering into an Episcopal Church and then attending services and joining the Church.
The structure of the book, short essays with one word titles that usually evoking religious values, seems to imitate Kathleen Norris's "Amazing Grace" but her voice and insights are different. One essay is entitled "Darlin" and examines her intense reaction to a stranger who called her that a book signing. Another is called "Taking Shit" and looks at the mainstream American value about (not) taking shit with some common sense about taking shit in order to maintain your own composure and self-respect in the face of abuse, and in the name of civility and grace.
There is no blinding conversion. Her meditations are full of doubt, almost apologetic. Her spirituality seems almost incidental to a psychological approach to life. Many of her essays are about emotions and memories rather than about religion. She does not promote the values of her particular church or denomination but she promotes the values of involvement with a church and commitment to observance and involvement. She explores and defends values that she rejected as liberal atheist when she was younger.
Article comments
1 - Bryce Eddings
listed at Advance