Redeemed
Posted by Danielle Bean in Reviews on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 8:52 PM
I just finished reading Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding
Before I read it, what intrigued me most about this book which chronicles one woman’s struggles with addiction and her spiritual journey toward Catholicism was that it came highly recommended to me ... by a non-Catholic.
But now that I’ve read the book, I am not at all surprised. King, a commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered, is a compelling writer and her story-telling just has that kind of universal appeal. This is a spiritual memoir, but it is not at all like the kinds of books that spring to mind when one hears that description.
Anything but sanctimonious, King’s fearlessly honest descriptions of her alcoholism, her father’s death, her diagnosis with breast cancer, her failed marriage, and her continued struggles with Catholicism made me laugh out loud, tear up, and re-examine my own priorities—often all in the same chapter.
Having recently read the best-selling, similarly-themed book Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
And that’s exactly what I loved about this book. It’s real. The author, when she is honest with herself in her search for meaning, winds up in the last place she ever expected to—in the arms of Christ, in the Catholic Church.
I haven’t missed anything and, in fact, all those untold hours, days and nights, years and years and years, when I have wandered around alone, yearning and aching, it was only for Jesus.
We all wrestle with our faith. It’s brutally, beautifully honest books like this one that help us to recognize the significance, the universality, and the value of that struggle.
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