Book Review: Almost Everything

Anne Lamott's newest book is called Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, but it felt like it might have been titled Almost Everything I've Ever Said Before. Sadly, not a lot of new material. If you've read Lamott's other non-fiction books, much of this is simply a reiteration of old ideas. Her famous "bird by bird" story appears again, and even though it does my heart a world of good (indeed, I sing that mantra to myself when my writing feels stale and uninspiring or the task before me seems well beyond my writing abilities), I still had hoped to glean new fodder.

While the prose is beautiful, so much of it feels wishy-washy or too nebulous to pin down. For example, here's a paragraph that is supposed to inspire hope:

"To pay close attention to and mostly accept your life, inside and out and around your body, is to be halfway home. An old woman in twelve-step recovery once told me that while there is an elaborate prayer in one of the steps, of turning one's life and all results over to the care of God, as each person understands God, she and some of the old-timers secretly pray upon waking, 'Whatever,' and pray before falling asleep, 'Oh, well.'"

The God I believe in is neither pluralistic nor a figment of every individual's personal interpretations or nicknames (she treats the holy God so casually, calling him "Ed," "Little Tree," "Old Hewlett Packard," or "Mr. Muffin"). She even calls her own faith a "consignment-store faith." In attempting to bring hope, she declares that there is no fixing this messed up world:

"There were moments when I understood that there was nothing much I was going to understand or figure out.... There is no fixing this setup here. It seems broken and ruined at times, but it isn't: it's simply the nature of human life."

Her message of hope: we are in this together and our love will conquer evil. It felt very much like a self-centered gospel as opposed to a Christ-centered gospel. She calls herself a Christian, yet treats God like He is dependent upon her views, her explanations, her names, her dictates. God is on her terms, not His. If there are things wrong in the world (alcoholism, political turmoil, wrongs against people, etc.) it is the result of human nature not sin and the solution is love and acceptance not salvation through Christ's atoning act on the cross.

While her views on religion and Christianity are loosey-goosey, in terms of political perspective, Lamott is fully convinced her personal beliefs are the right ones and anyone whose opinion differs is simply in the wrong. At one point, she boldly asserts that her views are most certainly God's views as well.

In the final analysis, I guess I just don't buy her assessment. She declares "Love is why we have hope." I believe in this sin-fractured despairing world, Christ is why we have hope. A holy God cannot tolerate sin, yet in His love (not ours) He provided the solution by sending His perfect son to die in our place, bridging the gap between a holy God and sinful mankind. As the old hymn declares, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness." My sinful nature has proven time and again that my own efforts to love fall severely short of what is demanded. It is only His love that brings hope to a fallen world.