
Lessons and Carols
A Meditation on Recovery
John West(Author)
William B Eerdmans Publishing Co
Published on 2. May 2023
Book
Hardback
207 pages
978-0-8028-8249-3 (ISBN)
Description
"Maybe redemption is not a place you find, but a system of mapmaking. Sketch a land. Pencil in dragons. Imagine it real, resplendent, and broken under a waxing moon.Lessons and Carols is a genre-bending memoir that explores the aftershocks of alcoholism and mental illness through a fresh look at the powers of poetry, ritual, and community. As a new parent, West grapples with his own fragmented recovery and grief for the friends he lost to addiction, asking if anyone can really change, or if we are always bound to repeat the past. Echoing the form of a traditional Anglican Christmas service of stories and songs, West's lyrical prose invites readers into an unorthodox rendition of the liturgy called Lessons and Carols. Each December, a faithful circle of irreligious friends assembles to eat and sing and re-imagine an old story about love made flesh. In that gathering's glow, resentments turn to quiet wonder at the ways a better world can appear.Both tender and bracing, West's poetic meditation of the possibilities of change will resonate deeply with anyone who has tired of their own destructive loops. In this stirring account of recovery, redemption remains elusive-and also a promise as tangible as a newborn.Hardscrabble winter, gray and lonely, requires Christmas. Or, rather, in its depths, I require Christmas: words no longer cold, chrome, and barren, but alive, golden, cradled in my arms"--
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Grand Rapids
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8028-8249-3 (9780802882493)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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Other editions
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E-Book
05/2023
Eerdmans
€26.49
Available for download
Person
John West is a writer and technologist. He reports the news with code at the Wall Street Journal, where his work has won multiple awards, including two Pulitzer prizes. He is the author of Lessons and Carols: A Meditation on Recovery and The Internet Will Die, and So Will You: On Learning to Live in Our Digital Age.