Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling

In the beginning of her book on healing, the writer compares herself to a “snake oil salesman”—an image she will spend the rest of the volume exploring. “I am a snake oil seller, and I am selling a movement along with a product,” writes Stevens (Find Your Way Home), the author of numerous Bible studies and an Episcopal chaplain at Vanderbilt University. A blend of memoir, social commentary, Bible study and storytelling, the volume includes essays on the many ways in which healing, particularly through oil anointing, can occur; healing methods include laughter, the use of fragrance, and anointing at the time of death. Through it all Stevens, an abuse survivor, tells the story of how she came to found Magdalene, a group of residential communities for women escaping prostitution, addiction, and trafficking, and Thistle Farms, an enterprise employing Magdalene graduates that sells all-natural beauty and bath products. Chapters begin with aromatic and healing oil recipes so that readers can try them at home. Though her artless voice sometimes seems rambling, Stevens’s sincerity and can-do attitude shine forth on every page. (Mar.)