I've had the most complicated reaction to this book than I have ever had to a book. I will write a more complete reaction on my blog when I have a chance to really put pen to paper to try to sort out my feelings. I found it inspiring and saddening, comforting and disheartening, soul connecting and, at times, depressing. I have more feathers flying from this book than I have ever had from any other. I just started the book over again for a second layer. I can't praise this book enough. It took me a few months to get through this book. It is a book to take in bites and slices. And to savor. Wiman is a poet (former editor of Poetry magazine, if anyone's interested) and writer who faces the possibility of his own death when he's diagnosed with cancer. But this isn't a cancer memoir. It's a dialogue between a human and the possibility of the existence of God. It's a movement toward God without any of the churchy lingo or Christian algorithms. It is a book of beautiful musings on faith in a God who is absent most of the time. I underlined passages on almost every page.
If you cover specific letters of the title with your fingers, you can make it say, "My Big Ass."
—sara
Hard hitting. Shattering many pat answers. Like life does.
—jmshinkle
Everyone needs to read this book. It is amazing.
—Keeston
