The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany - Hardcover

Grumbach, Doris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0783803907 ISBN 13: 9780783803906

Publisher: G K Hall & Co, 1999

Synopsis

The author describes the epiphany she experienced at age twenty-seven and her efforts to regain the experience through church and prayer

About this title

Review

As a 27-year-old, the poet Doris Grumbach had a fleeting yet undeniable experience of God's presence. In order to recapture that experience, she began a frustrating few decades of churchgoing, and eventually she abandoned formal prayer--only to begin an equally frustrating search for God in private. The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany is a slim memoir of her ongoing search. Grumbach is most interesting when she reflects on the writers and thinkers--from Meister Eckhart to Kathleen Norris--who have shaped her understanding of the risks and rewards of solitary prayer. And although her unyielding integrity has trapped her in a loneliness that sometimes sounds terrifying, Grumbach's stringent refusal to be glib about God will serve as an inspiring corrective example for many. --Michael Joseph Gross

About the Author

Doris Grumbach has been a literary editor of The New Republic, a nonfiction columnist for The New York Times Book Review, and a book reviewer for National Public Radio.

About this edition

• Publisher: G K Hall & Co
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0783803907
• ISBN 13: 9780783803906
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 187