cover image The Best Spiritual Writing 1999

The Best Spiritual Writing 1999

Zaleski. HarperOne, $16 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-06-251805-7

Zaleski (a senior editor of Parabola who teaches religion at Smith College) follows up his popular Best Spiritual Writing 1998 with this edifying, well-chosen collection of essays and poems. These are diverse in form and subject but have a common function, as Zaleski states in his preface, to ""tell us something about truth, beauty, and goodness... about how to live the good life."" Anita Mathias's ""The Holy Ground of Kalighat"" depicts glimpse of the sanctity of life in the face of death in Mother Teresa's Calcutta, and Annie Dillard explores the miracle of life through newborn eyes first alert to the world in ""Acts of God."" (""How many centuries would you have to live before this... ceased to astound you?"" she asks.) Family relationships are explored in such diverse works as Walt McDonald's touching love poem, ""The Waltz We Were Born For,"" and Mary Gordon's painful attempt to come to grips with her mother's senility (""Still Life""), while Tracy Cochran, in ""My True Home Is Brooklyn,"" offers a witty portrayal of her experience with her young daughter at a Zen Buddhist retreat. Thomas Moore's ""On Memory and Numbers"" describes the turn of the millennium as a ""special gift of time"" in conceptual, abstract terms whereas Douglas Burton-Christie investigates time more concretely through a friend's journey to death. Although most choices in this anthology are excellent, one in particular stands out: Tom Junod's ""Can you Say...`Hero'?"" brings children's icon Mr. Rogers to life. One hilarious incident involves the cardigan-clad Rogers boarding the subway at Penn Station and being spotted by viewers (""Holy s--t! exclaims one young fan. ""It's Mr. F---ing Rogers!""). (Nov.)