Walking a Literary Labryinth

Nancy Malones thoughtful and poignant novel asks us to consider how our identity and our capacity to connect to others is shaped by the literature we read.. Who of us doesnt have a list of books that changed our life? Reflecting on her own reading life Nancy Malone examines the influence of reading in how we define ourselves. Throughout she likens the experience of reading to walking a labyrinth itself a metaphor for our spiritual journey through life. The paths within the labyrinth are not straight but winding and in the end it is not the small circle in the center that defines the self but the whole grand design of the labyrinthevery experience every person we meet and every book we readthat makes us who we are.. Malone draws from diverse sources both spiritual and secularVirginia Woolf Saint Augustine E. E. Cummings Paul Tillich Nadine Gordimer George Herbert Sue Grafton Henry James George Eliot James Joyce Patrick OBrien E. M. Forster Franz Kafka Elie Wiesel Margaret Atwood and Tom Wolfe to name a few. Her thoughtful and beautifully articulated examination of influential books takes in a broad range of subjects including childhood reading; books as sacred objects; reading and social responsibility; dangerous reading which challenges us to examine our prejudices and beliefs; poetry; and erotic literature. And Malone has compiled a recommended reading list to inspire readers to seek out the unfamiliar or return to old favorites.. In Walking a Literary Labyrinth Malone invites all us readers of every religious tradition or none to consider the influence of reading in our own liveshow and why particular books stay with us how they shape us and how they enlarge our humanity.