A Sense of Wonder: The World’s Best Writers on the Sacred, the Profane, and the Ordinary

While the spiritual may be hard to describe “except with such ephemeral gossamer murk as epiphany or awakening or shiver of the heart,” notes editor Doyle, this essay collection demonstrates how effectively good writers can capture the wonder within human existence, with little or no murk whatsoever. In a Utah elevator, David James Duncan encounters a “dharma field” of brightly dressed little girls; Barry Lopez is helped by the Blessed Mother while trying to free trapped sea lions; Patrick Madden celebrates the laughter of children; Roberta Conner explores native peoples’ perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Recurring topics include the beauty of (and human threats to) nature; tragedy (including the Holocaust and 9/11); fatherhood; and grace encountered in everyday responsibilities, such as caring for a disabled child or driving a school bus for teens with bleak futures. Reflections on critical issues (Martin Flanagan on torture) are mingled with more poetic explorations (Mary Oliver on interconnectedness). A few writers of color are included. All essays are drawn from Portland magazine (a quarterly publication of Oregon’s Catholic-run University of Portland), which Doyle edits in addition to writing fiction, nonfiction, and essays. With his keen eye for excellent spiritual writing, explicitly religious or not, Doyle offers an array of choices that may, in his words, “open the most stunning doors.” (Sept.)