Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott
Review by By Pat Weeks
Anne Lamott
One of my favorite writers is Anne Lamott. Her writing is so honest, searching, funny, and inspirational. She herself says about her writing:
I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness—and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine.
Her books are exactly what she describes. Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life is a classic. (Several years ago there was a documentary on her called, Bird by Bird.) At first she wrote fiction (that was semi-autobiographical). Her personal life was a disaster, almost destroyed by drug abuse and alcoholism.
Thirteen years ago, I first lurched — very hung over — into a little church in one of the poorest communities in California. Without this church, I do not think I would have survived the last few years of my drinking. But even so, I had written about the people there only in passing. I did, however, speak about the church whenever I could, sheepishly shoehorning in a story or two. But it wasn’t really until my fifth book [Operating Instructions], that I came out of the closet as a real believer…. I started to realize that there was a great hunger and thirst for regular, cynical, ragbag people to talk about God…”
She subsequently began writing about her chaotic life and the role that spirituality played in making sense of this messy world. I loved her books such as Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, Traveling Mercies, and Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. Her ruthless honesty and wry humor are evident in everything she writes. She is not hung up on what you name your higher power or how you picture it. She made me laugh out loud when she said that if you like, she will lend you her Jesus, “a sweet brown-eyed Jew who will want you to get glasses of water for everyone, and then come to the beach for some nice fish.”
She has now written a small book on prayer entitled, Help, Thanks, Wow. She says she has come to believe that there is something to be said about keeping prayer simple. And she has written chapters on these three prayers: help, thanks, and wow –three words that contain the essence of the prayers she needs in maneuvering through life. The book describes these three simple prayers — asking for assistance from a higher power, expressing gratitude, and feeling awe — that help to deal with the hardships and challenges of daily life.
In the book’s prelude, she assures readers she’s not even remotely interested in trying to tell them who or what God is; she’s simply asking them to consider that there’s a Divine Being willing to run the show. How is one to get that process going? Prayer. The three sections of the book aren’t solely about each one-word prayer; they’re more a running conversation about their collective influence in her life. This small book is refreshing, simple, and meaningful and gives the reader a real-life, honest, and direct approach to prayer.