Do Not Go Gentle: My Search for Miracles in a Cynical Time

Rating:
Summary: family and spirit
Review: Hood's prose is haunting and lyrical. Readers are easily swept up into her story -- a story of searching for meaning in the modern world. Through an exploration of family, Hood discovers the real meaning of faith. At the heart of it all, faith is about love. While some of the trappings are caught up in the traditionally religious, faith is a matter of the heart. Ann Hood finds her faith when she returns to her roots. Her message is uplifting and gentle; her love true and strong.

Rating:
Summary: family and spirit
Review: Hood's prose is haunting and lyrical. Readers are easily swept up into her story -- a story of searching for meaning in the modern world. Through an exploration of family, Hood discovers the real meaning of faith. At the heart of it all, faith is about love. While some of the trappings are caught up in the traditionally religious, faith is a matter of the heart. Ann Hood finds her faith when she returns to her roots. Her message is uplifting and gentle; her love true and strong.

Rating:
Summary: Too personal
Review: I had a hard time extrapolating the author's experiences into a useful context. She is a talented writer, and her prose is easy to follow. But her accounts are a bit too personal, and at times i felt almost like i was reading her diary. I was most disappointed at the end, when her search for explanations to her father's death takes her around Europe. For one thing, how could she pretend to find answers for faith? What really killed me was the episode with the contact lens: "If you believe it is there, you will find it". I couldn't help but think about Kevin Costner: "If you build it, they will come".

Rating:
Summary: Too personal
Review: I had a hard time extrapolating the author's experiences into a useful context. She is a talented writer, and her prose is easy to follow. But her accounts are a bit too personal, and at times i felt almost like i was reading her diary. I was most disappointed at the end, when her search for explanations to her father's death takes her around Europe. For one thing, how could she pretend to find answers for faith? What really killed me was the episode with the contact lens: "If you believe it is there, you will find it". I couldn't help but think about Kevin Costner: "If you build it, they will come".

Rating:
Summary: The Journey of Faith
Review: I met Ann Hood one November night at Baker Books in Dartmouth, MA, when she came to give a reading of "Do Not Go Gentle". It was enjoyable. As an Italian, I could identify with Mama Rose, and her methods to ward off the effects of "mal'occhio" (evil eye) for my grandmother did the same thing, only with drops of olive oil. Nonna passed away last April, but the memory lingers. As a religious priest, I could identify with her Catholicism, and I am sure the Franciscan brothers also present had much to share with her that evening in that regard. I regret that I didn't spend some time with her. After her dialogue with the Franciscans, I just stepped up, asked her to dedicate the brand new book to me, and left. I had not read the book yet. Feeling dumb, I did not pursue a conversation. I enjoyed the work. It reads smoothly, like a river. The text is not taxing to the reader, but is easy to follow, taking the reader to many places, stories and ideas. The story is the faith journey of a woman, who is trying to square the death of her father with her faith system. Faith is more than a packaged set of beliefs. Faith is that sometimes. Dogmatic faith. Other times faith is dynamic. Ann Hood's faith journey is to answer the question about how her father's death relates to her sense of meaning. And journey she does to many places, externally and internally. It is a human journey, maybe at times a little wrapped up in a sentiment, or in magic, or superstition. Still it is a human journey. And a theological journey, if we can remember that the classical definition of theology is "fides quarens intellectum" (faith seeking understanding). I finished the book hoping that she would at some point visit her Catholicism again. I am grateful for her portrait of Italian life. I like her sense of humor. I would have liked to read more about her mother. While I am taking basic Italian classes on Federal Hill every Saturday morning until June, I hope to run into her at Tony's, or Dolce Vita or Venda Ravioli. Now I have a few questions to raise. They would go well with some bruschetta and red wine.

Rating:
Summary: The Journey of Faith
Review: I met Ann Hood one November night at Baker Books in Dartmouth, MA, when she came to give a reading of "Do Not Go Gentle". It was enjoyable. As an Italian, I could identify with Mama Rose, and her methods to ward off the effects of "mal'occhio" (evil eye) for my grandmother did the same thing, only with drops of olive oil. Nonna passed away last April, but the memory lingers. As a religious priest, I could identify with her Catholicism, and I am sure the Franciscan brothers also present had much to share with her that evening in that regard. I regret that I didn't spend some time with her. After her dialogue with the Franciscans, I just stepped up, asked her to dedicate the brand new book to me, and left. I had not read the book yet. Feeling dumb, I did not pursue a conversation. I enjoyed the work. It reads smoothly, like a river. The text is not taxing to the reader, but is easy to follow, taking the reader to many places, stories and ideas. The story is the faith journey of a woman, who is trying to square the death of her father with her faith system. Faith is more than a packaged set of beliefs. Faith is that sometimes. Dogmatic faith. Other times faith is dynamic. Ann Hood's faith journey is to answer the question about how her father's death relates to her sense of meaning. And journey she does to many places, externally and internally. It is a human journey, maybe at times a little wrapped up in a sentiment, or in magic, or superstition. Still it is a human journey. And a theological journey, if we can remember that the classical definition of theology is "fides quarens intellectum" (faith seeking understanding). I finished the book hoping that she would at some point visit her Catholicism again. I am grateful for her portrait of Italian life. I like her sense of humor. I would have liked to read more about her mother. While I am taking basic Italian classes on Federal Hill every Saturday morning until June, I hope to run into her at Tony's, or Dolce Vita or Venda Ravioli. Now I have a few questions to raise. They would go well with some bruschetta and red wine.