Faith, Interrupted

February 15, 2010
One man's slow drift away from the faith of his father.

Looking back on his younger years, biographer Lax (Conversations with Woody Allen, 2007, etc.) provides an intriguing coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Vietnam era. The son of an Episcopal priest, religion played an important role in much of the author's life, but it is not always at the center of this autobiography. Lax begins with his childhood as the son of two models of Christian piety. Through his parents the author learned about integrity and loving his neighbor, and it was because of their good example that he accepted the Christian faith without question. He entered Hobart College in 1962 and things began to change:"The Book of Common Prayer, where I had been content to find my answers, was suddenly a slim volume indeed." After Hobart, Lax was faced with the formidable quandary of his day, Vietnam and the draft. He struggled with the decision of whether or not to declare himself a conscientious objector, and whether his growing pacifist beliefs were indeed genuine or self-serving. To avoid both the draft and the conscientious-objector question for a time, he enrolled in the Peace Corps. Assigned to the Truk Islands in Micronesia, Lax spent two years on a tiny island of 185 inhabitants. This tale alone provides a fascinating core for the book, but Lax also juxtaposes his experiences with those of a close friend who enrolled as an Army officer in Vietnam. His friend returned from an intense and horrifying war experience and entered seminary, while Lax came back from the Peace Corps and eventually applied for conscientious-objector status. As his friend became a priest and then a bishop, Lax's faith slowly receded, and the book comes to a melancholy end with the death of his parents.

A well-written autobiography, artfully folding in another's story, and alternate course, along with the author's own.

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January 15, 2010
Spiritual memoirs rarely command the same interest to others as they do for their authors, but Lax's ability as a writer, as evidenced by his studies of Woody Allen, among other writings, makes his memoir an exception. Lax's story is that of a devout Episcopalian whose sense of faith led him to oppose the Vietnam War; that faith, which had bolstered him through many struggles, faded to an abiding sense of uncertainty. Lax realizes, at last, that the very qualities that might make God worth finding also make God hard to findand hard to believe in unquestioningly. VERDICT Lax's journey, told with a fine sense of narrative shape, is a kind of paradigm of the spiritual struggles of the first wave of the Baby Boom and will speak eloquently to that generation.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2010
Lax, best-selling biographer of Woody Allen and Humphrey Bogart, grew up the son of devoutly religious parents. His father was an Episcopal priest, and Lax grew up swaddled in the comfort of faith, rites, and rituals as well as the underlying beliefs. But when faced with the Vietnam draft, Lax was confronted with a struggle between belief and expediency, and he went to Micronesia for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Meanwhile, Skip, his best friend from college and late-night debater on all things religious, was drafted into the army and eventually sent to Vietnam. Through correspondence with his father and Skip, Lax struggled with a decision about becoming a priest, how to advance his conscientious objector status, and guilt that his friend was on the front line and he was safe. Lax parallels his efforts to come to peace with his faith and the war and Skips efforts to stay alive and make peace with killing and conscience. Ultimately, Skip became a military chaplain, and Lax drifted away from the faith. A deeply moving account of one mans spiritual journey.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)