Acedia & Me

Starred review from June 9, 2008
In this penetrating theological memoir, Norris (The Cloister Walk
) details her relationship with acedia, a slothful, soul-weary indifference long recognized by monastics. Norris is careful to distinguish acedia from its cousin, depression, noting that acedia is a failure of the will and can be dispelled by embracing faith and life, whereas depression is not a choice and often requires medical treatment. This is tricky ground, but Norris treads gingerly, reserving her acerbic crankiness for a section where she convincingly argues that despite Americans’ apparently unslothful lives, acedia is the undiagnosed neurasthenia of our busy age. Much of the book is taken up with Norris’s account of her complicated but successful marriage, which ended with her husband’s death in 2003. The energy poured into this marriage, Norris argues, was as much a defiant strike against acedia as her spiritual discipline of praying the Psalms. Filled with gorgeous prose, generous quotations from Christian thinkers across the centuries and fascinating etymological detours, this discomfiting book provides not just spiritual hope but a much-needed kick in the rear.

November 24, 2008
Norris's magnificent spiritual memoir of acedia (a complex cousin of depression) gets an uneven audio treatment. At times, Norris's straightforward and monotonous delivery doesn't do justice to the aching beauty of her prose. However, there is a powerful simplicity to having Norris relate her own story, especially since even the most dramatic sequences—such as when her husband disappeared and planned to kill himself—are rendered without the overwrought Sturm und Drang that other narrators might attempt. Her performance is generally dispassionate, her most animated moments not when she is describing her own spiritual journey but when she incisively critiques the narcissism of American culture. The final disc contains a PDF of Norris's “commonplace book” of favorite quotations on acedia, ranging from early church sages like Anthony the Great and Norris's beloved Evagrius to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ian Fleming. A Riverhead hardcover (Reviews, June 9).

September 1, 2008
Billed by the publisher as part memoir, part meditation, this latest from poet and "New York Times" best-selling author Norris ("The Cloister Walk; Amazing Grace") is primarily an etymological, historical, and literary study of acedia. The term acedia, meaning a spiritual malaise that encompasses both apathy and enervating boredom, was forgotten for centuries and was one of the eight bad thoughts known to plague ascetic monks. These eight bad thoughts were later transformed into what we now know as the seven deadly sins; acedia was compounded with sloth. Norris makes intriguing (though unfortunately all too brief) parallels between the early monks and our contemporary society, both suffering the same ailment. The book is at its most engrossing, however, when it lives up to its subtitle, as Norris discusses how acedia has affected her marriage, career, and spiritual life. Recommended for religious libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 5/1/08.]Megan Hodge, Richmond P.L., VA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2008
The lacuna in Norris published life, following the phenomenal impact of The Cloister Walk (1996) and Amazing Grace (1998), was due, she now reveals, to the death of her husband, and to acedia, a profound form of apathy. Akin to depression, acedia, or the noonday demon, was counted among the original eight bad thoughts, but the termfell out of use. Norris believes its time to reclaim it. Delving, as she loves to do, into early Christian texts, and illuminating the wisdom of the monastic tradition, Norris, a superb storyteller, careful synthesizer, and brilliant interpreter, presents the peculiar history of acedia and chronicles her own battles with this particular soul-sickness. Her personal stories are truly moving and instructive, but the most arresting and resonant aspect of this engrossing extrapolation is Norris theory of social acedia as the explanation ofour inaction in the face of so much violence and injustice. We abhor bloodshed, prejudice, and greed yet feel powerless to stop them. Norrisfascinating inquiry casts our predicament in a new light and maps a course out of thisenervating despair.Reading this strongly argued, paradigm-altering work may be the first strike against the demon it portrays.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)