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| Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life | 
 enlarge | List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 38 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3141
Category: Book
Author: Kathleen Norris
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Studio: Riverhead Hardcover
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
Label: Riverhead Hardcover
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1594489963
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.5403
EAN: 9781594489969
ASIN: 1594489963
Publication Date: September 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Kathleen Norris?s masterpiece: a personal and moving memoir that resurrects the ancient term acedia, or soul-weariness, and brilliantly explores its relevancy to the modern individual and culture.
Kathleen Norris had written several much loved books, yet she couldn?t drag herself out of bed in the morning, couldn?t summon the energy for daily tasks. Even as she struggled, Norris recognized her familiar battle with acedia. She had discovered the word in an early Church text when she was in her thirties. Having endured times of deep soul-weariness since she was a teenager, she immediately recognized that this passage described her affliction: sinking into a state of being unable to care. Fascinated by this ?noonday demon,? so familiar to those in the early and medieval Church, Norris read intensively and knew she must restore this forgotten but utterly relevant and important concept to the modern world?s vernacular.
Like Norris?s bestselling The Cloister Walk, Acedia & me is part memoir and part meditation. As in her bestselling Amazing Grace, here Norris explicates and demystifies a spiritual concept, exploring acedia through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition. Unlike her earlier books, this one features a poignant narrative throughout of Norris?s and her husband?s bouts with acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Moreover, her analysis of acedia reveals its burden not just on individuals but on whole societies? and that the ?restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair that we struggle with today are the ancient demon of acedia in modern dress.?
An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norris?s own experience, Acedia & me is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
CD Version December 23, 2008
I bought the CD version so I could listen to the book during rush hour on my way to work in the Washington DC area traffic. I listened to about half of the CDs then moved on to another book. Indeed this is quite the timely topic and her scholarship and study seems first rate. Yet, early on, I got the point and there was no compelling reason for me to continue. Her suffering and depression while, worth undestanding in terms of the topic, got to be a bit much. It also got to be a bit redundant. These things along with her own reading of it caused me to cease listening.
While I still recommend the book to others, I would not recommend the CD version. The author reads it herself and would have been better served by a professional. In terms of just the sound quality of the book, her voice is tedious and soon turns to grating and small errors in the reading make listening to it disruptive. I may have finished the book had she had a professional reading it instead of herself. She got to be quite annoying to listen to after awhile.
 Not very reliable, would not give any stars if program allowed November 23, 2008
1 out of 12 found this review helpful
I still have not received my item 10 days after the latest delivery quote. I sent an email to locate my book and have yet to receive a reply.
 READ IT!!! November 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
No lengthy treatise on this book - that's already been done. Very simply - Mighty good book, which is no surprise seeing that's it Norris - and on a much-ignored and forgotten topic. Read it - it's eye opening.
Acedia and me November 19, 2008
Once again Kathleen Norris shares her life experiences and helps me see new possibilities in my own life.
Beautifully written and touching November 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Acedia may not be a word used often in secular society but most Catholics will be familiar with it. Acedia is that feeling that you simply cannot, cannot do this any more. It's boring. I'd rather do something--anything--else. It's too hard to be good every day. Being good requires a hero; not me. Acedia turns up in the spiritual life of anyone on the narrow road, and it's a deadly temptation.
Norris explores acedia, it's closely related cousin, depression, and the long history of her life and marriage in this book, and it makes for absorbing reading.
Problems in her marriage began "as we approached forty. David's habitual use of alcohol as a means of inspiration caught up with him. David...(would) drink anyone else under the table...He would then stay up half the night working...When he began to suffer from drunkenness...he panicked...he felt he would then lose his creativity" (67). He was a poet.
Norris was gradually being drawn into Catholicism, a religion David had long forsaken. A crisis ensued, a threat of suicide, and, at length, the sort of sifting that all marriages experience.
Yet another crisis occurs later on, as Norris and her husband must deal with a medical problem. She speaks of the "ravages of depression" (p 267) and "a ferocious temptation to doubt" (p 257). And yet...and yet..."I can look for the seed of hope in my despair" (p 275).
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