Category: religion
- All Shook UpThe Testament of Ann Lee a film by Mona Fastvold. With Amanda Seyfried, Lewis Pullman. ** “Why did she make that movie?” my wife asked as we walked out of the theater. Ordinarily I would think that an irrelevant question. You don’t choose the story, as writers will tell you, the story chooses you. But in this ...Read more
- UnforgettableThe French Lieutenant’s Woman a novel by John Fowles. Little, Brown and Company. 467 pp. ***** The French Lieutenant’s Woman was one of the favorite novels of my friend Levi, who had read it multiple times. In fact, I believe he gave me the copy I have, for my birthday or for Christmas; like most book ...Read more
- Science as ReligionI Am a Part of Infinity: The Spiritual Journey of Albert Einstein by Kieran Fox. Basic Books. 322 pp. $30.00 **** The basic premise of this book is that Albert Einstein’s life’s work stemmed from an essentially religious feeling of awe and wonder at the workings of the universe. Kiernan Fox cites an early moment when ...Read more
- Don’t Miss This OneA Gathering of Old Men a novel by Ernest J. Gaines. From Gaines: Four Novels. Library of America. pp. 405-583. ***** Though I almost didn’t read it—I’d been disappointed by In My Father’s House, which I found oddly inert—A Gathering Of Old Men might be Ernest J. Gaines’ best novel. It is certainly the most suspenseful; ...Read more
- Making a ManA Lesson Before Dying a novel by Ernest J. Gaines. From Gaines: Four Novels. Library of America. pp. 585-800. ***** I could make various aesthetic quibbles about A Lesson Before Dying; some minor things drove me crazy as I read, and I wished I could have edited the book (I imagine Gaines suffered from the problem ...Read more
- He Hit the Wall and It DisappearedPeter S. 1945-2025 I met Peter some years ago, before the pandemic, when we both volunteered at Catholic Charities. I can’t remember how we struck up a conversation, but we had many things in common, including an interest in writing, and decided to get together. He lived in Marshall, a small town about thirty minutes from ...Read more
- The Man HimselfMiracles and Wonders: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels. Doubleday. 320 pp. $30.00. ***** Mark Twain tells a story about a typesetter from the days of hot type, when things were a lot more difficult than they are now. The young man was setting a sermon in type, and after the first appearance of ...Read more
- Two Loose CannonsZen Mind, Jewish Mind: Koan, Midrash, and the Living Word by Rami Shapiro. Monkfish. 160 pp. $17.09. ***** Autobiography of a Zen Monk by Taisen Deshimaru. Hohm Press. 212 pp. $21.95. **** Rabbi Rami Shapiro is a national treasure. We just don’t know it yet. In a career spanning over thirty years, he has written books on ...Read more
- Dogen for the MassesThe Zen Master’s Dance: A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe by Jundo Cohen. Wisdom Publications. 200 pp. I’ve heard the name Jundo Cohen in Zen circles for years, and associated him with his teacher, Gudo Nishijima. Some time ago, I read a book that the two of them co-authored, A ...Read more
- Unfinished LivesLincoln in the Bardo a novel by George Saunders. Random House. 343 pp. ***** I haven’t been a fan of George Saunders’ short stories. I read Tenth of December with admiration but without much pleasure. The stories seemed clever and aesthetically interesting, but I couldn’t get into them as narratives. I’m more a John O’Hara guy. ...Read more
- Losing ItBetween the Temples a film by Nathan Silver. With Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Robert Smigel, Caroline Aaron, Madeleine Weinstein. Streaming on Netflix. **** Between the Temples has a homegrown, home-movieish feeling that I associate with movies from the sixties and seventies (the golden age of cinema as far as I’m concerned). From the opening shot, where ...Read more
- Perennial WisdomOpen Secrets: The Letters of Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael by Rami M. Shapiro. Monkfish. 128 pp. $13.36 ***** Rabbi Rami Shapiro is one of the great reconcilers of spiritual traditions in the world today. In books like Judaism Without Tribalism, Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent, and Minyan: Ten Principles for Living a Life of Integrity, ...Read more
- Drag Queen to Bodhisattva Street Zen: The Life & Works of Issan Dorsey by David Schneider. Shambhala. 246 pp. ***** I resisted reading this book for a long time. Back in the early nineties, when my wife was in divinity school and we began meditating, she worked one summer at an AIDS hospice in Boston and continued to work with ...Read more
- The Future of American ZenZen in America: Five Teachers and the Search for an American Buddhism by Helen Tworkov. Kodansha International. 271 pp. **** Lotus Girl: My Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America by Helen Tworkov. St. Martin’s Essentials. 336 pp. $19.71 **** Helen Tworkov is such a good writer that one can wish she hadn’t spent all those ...Read more
- Trump’s FistThat Ubiquitous Gesture You would think that a bullet whistling by your head so closely that it nicked your ear might be a wake-up call, the kind of thing that could turn you around permanently, as if to say, Whoa, I dodged a bullet that time (so to speak). Maybe I might want to reassess. Ramp ...Read more
- Yes You Can Go Home AgainThe Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. Penguin Books. 460 pp. **** The Monsters of Templeton is Lauren Groff’s tribute to her hometown, Cooperstown, New York. Apparently it was founded by the father of James Fenimore Cooper, it’s most famous citizen (but not, at this point, its finest novelist; Groff has far surpassed him), and includes ...Read more
- You Need to be WritingCrowded by Beauty: The Life and Zen of Poet Philip Whalen by David Schneider. University of California Press. 352 pp. $23.92. ***** Goods Short Stories by David Schneider. Cuke Press 168 pp. $13.00 **** Philip Whalen was what used to be called a Man of Letters, back in the days when there were such people. In fact, ...Read more
- The Nothing of GodShe was scorned, kicked around, physically abused, sexually abused, told that she doesn’t count, that she barely even exists. Somehow it is these very things that give her the resources to undertake this adventure.Read more
- Embodied MysticThis author deeply understands mystical spirituality, true religion, in a way that few people do.Read more
- What Is Sex?Lauren Groff seems to be gently suggesting that sex is a human energy that doesn’t necessarily interfere with a religious life. They can co-exist. They should co-exist.Read more
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All Shook UpWhat's in a Song? IIWriting for his LifeWhat’s in a Song?Mixed Feelings
View Other Essays by Topic
aging (127)American literature (226)art (123)Buddhism (171)Christianity (132)creative process (262)death and dying (144)meditation (125)movies (167)music (42)race (110)religion (196)sex (187)spirituality (174)the art of narrative (266)Uncategorized (21)world literature (23)