The bestselling author of "Care of the Soul" writes the consoling and prescriptive follow-up to his pivotal work about getting through periods of sadness, pain, loss, and ignorance and deepening ways of thinking about problems.

Reviews

In his 13th book since Care of the Soul (1992), psychotherapist and theologian Moore concentrates on the painful, emotionally taxing periods of life. He believes that these can be enriching, growth-producing events if they are perceived as opportunities to learn more about oneself. Moore pulls insights from a variety of disciplines and belief systems that one can use when dealing with illness, divorce, joblessness, or the death of a loved one. He proposes that individuals use these times to weed their lives of unnecessary clutter or to tap into their own intuitive or spiritual natures. Moore acknowledges the despair inherent in "dark nights" and treats it respectfully. He has a gift for recognizing the pain yet encouraging the reader to see the bright spots and move productively through the experience. Easy to read and sure to appeal to intelligent, open-minded readers, this book is recommended for all libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/03.] Deborah Bigelow, Leonia P.L., NJ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

There's an old saying that a devil is appealing at first but leaves you in despair, while an angel appears terrifying at first but leaves you refreshed and hopeful. This eighth book since Moore's extraordinarily successful Care of the Soul considers loss, pain, conflict, confusion, anger, excess, deviance and other disturbing feelings and behaviors not as devils to be exorcised but as angelic opportunities for deepening and altering the self. Derived from a chapter of the first book titled "The Gifts of Depression," the idea is not that suffering per se is good for the soul, but that to regard such visitations merely as suffering is to miss their point and meaning. Art and religion feature more prominently here than psychology, which Moore, a Catholic monk turned therapist, finds too mechanical and fix-it oriented to serve the soul. He adopts F. Scott Fitzgerald's phrase "the real dark night of the soul" to refer to anything from a short episode to an entire marriage and sees it as an invitation to spiritual cultivation, work that can be intellectual, creative or even physical, but which the monastically trained Moore tends to depict as quiet, solitary reflection. All this is set forth in a fluent, unflaggingly earnest style. Moore, who has an exceptional arsenal of literary and religious lore at his disposal, scatters allusions to figures as various as Madame Bovary, Gandhi, Thomas More and Glenn Gould (no Luther or Malcolm X, though) with dexterity. Short on detail, long on evocation, this book coveys the important if familiar message that spiritual growth entails darkness as well as light. While not exactly a substitute for reading Dostoyevski or Keats, this is perhaps an inducement to give them a chance. Agent, Michael Katz. Author tour. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.