Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu

June 30, 2003
Thompson offers a stellar memoir many baby boomers can relate to: a career-oriented woman finds spiritual grace as she faces the squeeze of the "sandwich generation," simultaneously caring for children and an aging parent. Early on, Thompson offers a flashback that is a perfect metaphor for her spiritual journey: One evening her slightly drunk husband demanded that she put her sleeping baby in the crib, accusing her of "spoiling" the child. Thompson's familiar response was to bend to his will, but her child was comfortable in her lap and she was content embracing her baby. She mustered up the nerve to calmly say, "No." When the earth didn't swallow her and her husband didn't attack her, she realized that she possessed an inner strength that was ignited by the tenderness of love—an epiphany that continued to inform and guide her spiritual journey. Eventually Thompson ran away from her abusive husband, but not from her motherly or daughterly duties. She now finds herself caring for her aging mother, once a feisty Katharine Hepburn–style attorney, now a deteriorating woman with Alzheimer's. In one scene Thompson exquisitely writes about an initiation many daughters dread—the first time bathing an incontinent mother. Thompson's writing is rendered with care and polish, and includes outstanding scene work (she is an established novelist) and mature spiritual ponderings. Readers may find themselves somewhat disoriented by the brief chapters, which follow emotional and spiritual threads rather than chronological order. They should persevere—the sum of these parts is a deeply satisfying story.

August 1, 2003
Thompson, author of " Bones "(1991), this time turns her talent and insight to nonfiction in a personal examination of a transformative time in her life. After nearly 10 years as a single mother of two children, turning 50, she meets a new love who introduces her to an ancient spiritual tradition rooted in West Africa. Of Scandinavian descent, raised in Oregon, Thompson was nonetheless a longtime seeker of alternative religions, open to different expressions of spirituality. Her introduction to Santeria comes at a time of great personal challenge as she integrates a new husband and stepchild into a life becoming increasingly crowded by family obligations, primarily her mother's onset of Alzheimer's. As her mother's mental state declines, Thompson confronts old family heartaches--the chronic alcoholism of her father, a distinguished judge; the emotional distance of her mother, a pioneer in the legal profession in the 1950s; and assorted dysfunctions in her extended family. Thompson finds solid grounding in " orishas," or deities, which helps her move beyond difficulties and trauma to a joyousness that imbues her life and relationships.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)