Growing into grace

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New York Times best-selling author Anne Lamott is known for her candor and honesty, as well as her outspoken political beliefs and devout faith. Olsson's Books and Records, 418 7th St. NW, will be hosting a book signing and discussion at 7 p.m. tomorrow for Miss Lamott's latest reflections on spirituality, "Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith."

Wiry and witty dispatches on aging, familial relationships and falls from ski lifts, "Grace" colorfully but tenderly tackles difficult moments, such as assisting a friend's suicide, and happier ones, such as when to overcome a dancing phobia and join in for the Electric Slide.

The following are excerpts from an interview:

Question:This is your third book on faith. How did you choose these particular stories for inclusion?

Answer: They were really just the next batch that came along organically. I love being a little bit older. I really do think you grow up as you go. In "Grace," I am kind of dealing with the reality of who I am now and that I am probably not going to be too much different than this. And how I can be more graceful about handling the things I don't get.

Q: How has your faith evolved during these past 20-25 years? How does your work reflect that?

A: I didn't mean to become a Christian — my father hated Christians and especially Presbyterians. He was the son of Christian missionaries in Tokyo, and he just found them lacking a certain deep human quality. He called Presbyterians "God's frozen people." So I accidentally wandered into a mostly black Presbyterian church when I was 31, when I was still drinking. I didn't mean to go to church. I went in because I didn't have any more good ideas, which I think is where spirituality really begins.

Little by little, I started to follow Jesus, without knowing what that meant. I had been living fairly successfully with a good career, and I had lots of loving relatives and friends. But I just thought I was the most screwed-up person on earth. I thought one day the phone would ring, and I would be busted as a fraud. I would have to get a real job, and I would get kicked out of the tribe.

Jesus took me just as I was. I got sober and learned who I was. I needed to let go of this baggage that I had been carrying, this identity that I thought I needed to be a writer — suffering, narcissism and self-loathing.

Q: That's an interesting idea — the perception of a writer. How would you say your faith has impacted your view on suffering and self-loathing and that in turn has impacted your writing?