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Devotion: A Memoir Kindle Edition

by Dani Shapiro (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 572 ratings
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“Devotion’s biggest triumph is its voice: funny and unpretentious, concrete and earthy—appealing to skeptics and believers alike. This is a gripping, beautiful story.” —Jennifer Egan, author of The Keep

“I was immensely moved by this elegant book.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

Dani Shapiro, the acclaimed author of the novel Black and White and the bestselling memoir Slow Motion, is back with Devotion: a searching and timeless new memoir that examines the fundamental questions that wake women in the middle of the night, and grapples with the ways faith, prayer, and devotion affect everyday life. Devotion is sure to appeal to all those dealing with the trials and tribulations of what Carl Jung called “the afternoon of life.”

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  1. Print length
    260 pages
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    English
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  4. Publisher
    HarperCollins e-books
  5. Publication date
    January 8, 2010
  6. File size
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Shapiro's newest memoir, a mid-life exploration of spirituality begins with her son's difficult questions-about God, mortality and the afterlife-and Shapiro's realization that her answers are lacking, long-avoided in favor of everyday concerns. Determined to find a more satisfying set of answers, author Shapiro (Slow Motion) seeks out the help of a yogi, a Buddhist and a rabbi, and comes away with, if not the answers to life and what comes after, an insightful and penetrating memoir that readers will instantly identify with. Shapiro's ambivalent relationship with her family, her Jewish heritage and her secularity are as universal as they are personal, and she exposes familiar but hard-to-discuss doubts to real effect: she's neither showboating nor seeking pat answers, but using honest self-reflection to provoke herself and her readers into taking stock of their own spiritual inventory. Absorbing, intimate, direct and profound, Shapiro's memoir is a satisfying journey that will touch fans and win her plenty of new ones.

From Booklist

Approaching her mid-forties, novelist Shapiro (Black and White, 2007) finds her life dominated by a seemingly unending list of to-do’s and a constant feeling of anxiety over which she has no control. Much of her unease comes from the effort to make sense of certain events in her past—including her father’s death and a frightening health condition that affected her infant son—along with struggling to understand the turmoil that defined her relationship with her mother. While her childhood had been infused with religious tradition, Shapiro doesn’t consider herself a believer or a nonbeliever. Yet, she is pulled to understand and deepen her own personal sense of faith as a means to calm the deep-rooted uncertainty and chaos of everyday life. In doing so, she seeks out a variety of different experiences and practices, such as yoga and silent meditation retreats, along with visits to the local synagogue and her Orthodox Jewish relatives. Shapiro’s journey is a deeply reflective one, and her struggles are as complex as they are insightful, philosophical, and universally human. --Leah Strauss

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00338QEZ6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Reprint edition (January 8, 2010)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 8, 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1553 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 260 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 572 ratings

About the author

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Dani Shapiro

Dani Shapiro

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Dani Shapiro is the best-selling author of the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Her short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of The New York Times, and many other publications. Dani has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, The New School and Wesleyan University. She is co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut with her family. Dani's latest book, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love will be published by Knopf in January, 2019.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
572 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

B. Blanton
5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Book!
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2010
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Devotion by Dani Shapiro captured my attention on the first page and still hasn't let go. In the memoir, the author seeks to understand her Jewish spiritual roots when her orthodox childhood religious teaching doesn't match with life as she is living it. At the same time, issues with her Mother and father rest uneasily with her, especially with her Mother, who has often been a difficult figure in her life.

One of the amazing things about this book is it doesn't matter what your religious roots are. It is as easy to identify with her seeking if you come from a Christian background (as I do), as from Jewish one. In addition, if you grew up with a very difficult Mother, you will be an instantly empathetic reader. If you have also had a child at risk for a bad health outcome, you will crawl in the pages and come out with hope that your own answers to your deepest questions are possible.

That's the good news. The more difficult news is answers to seeking spiritual grail don't come on a wing and a prayer. It takes sweat, tears, teaching, ritual, reading, being open to answers as they appear in your life, and talking it out with people you trust, according to this book (and my experience too). A big order but then, these are huge inquiries.
7 people found this helpful
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Beaulipp
4.0 out of 5 stars Long day's journey into mid-afternoon
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2010
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In her new book, "Devotion," Dani Shapiro references Carl Jung's belief that middle-age, beginning roughly at around forty years old, is the "afternoon of life." Since I've heard so often recently that fifty is the new forty, I'm going to amend that idea to say it is the "mid-afternoon of life." We seem to be living a lot longer these days. Could that be one of the explanations for the proliferation of memoirs we've seen published recently? Do people have more time to contemplate the earlier part of their lives, and more years ahead of them to consider what they want to accomplish and then leave behind? Perhaps life no longer goes by as quickly as we once thought. Perhaps there is more time to consider the sum total of our experiences here on planet Earth.

Certainly, Ms. Shapiro has reached a point in her life where a thorough examination of her faith in something larger than herself seems in order. She writes in a thoroughly readable and conversational tone that had me turning the pages, curious to see what was coming next, perhaps just as curious as Ms. Shapiro is to see what's coming next in her own life. Her book is a compelling narrative of her life's passages, how she's dealt with numerous crises, what she's learned from her valuable friendships, how she's dealt with family members whose life paths were far different from her own, how she's dealt with her own limitations, her fears, her anxieties, how she has sought solace in various wisdom traditions, taking the greatest comfort from the ancient esoterica that holds the most meaning for her.

I found her memoir to be an absorbing life story, rich in love, self-reflection, and a resolute determination to find an equitable path to follow through life. Nothing extraordinary happens to Ms. Shapiro, but she manages to invest her observations with a subtle and nuanced gravity that allowed me to take her reflections and expand them into some universal truths that resonated with me and could be made useful in the conduct of my own life. For that, I'm grateful to Ms. Shapiro for having shared her thoughts and feelings, and I look forward to further installments of her life story, from the present moment through what I would hope to be a very long day's journey.
14 people found this helpful
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bookkook
5.0 out of 5 stars Affirmation for the women at the smorgasboard
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2010
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Emotional intelligence (thinking of Steve Hein here, but not quoting exactly) suggests that validating someone's emotions is showing acceptance of the person, and that acceptance demonstrates respect for their perception of things. The act of validation helps you feel heard, acknowledged, understood, and accepted. My interpretation is that validation, wherever you find it, makes you feel 'normal'. You feel as if you are part of humanity rather than on the periphery, like a D list guest at a party watching the hip people. There is a significant level of warm and hearty emotional validation for readers of this book. However I think it will be better received by those readers who, like me and like this author, are mid 40 something, have successful professional and personal lives by any reasonable measure, enjoy good health for the most part, and subsequently have the time and resources to pursue thinking about existential matters. In my case the list of things that I have in common with the author extends well into minutia, so many details that I stopped noting them half way through the book. A short list is that I too am originally from the northeast, I have one son, I have a well developed yoga practice, I've read widely from a variety of disciplines in the smorgasboard approach described here, I am not a Joiner, and I have precisely the same anxiety symptoms.

Disclosure aside, I absolutely loved this book and I could not put it down. It validated me. It made me feel less crazy. The general silliness of privileged western women having extreme anxiety has been the basis for much amusement and even contempt in many books and movies. All of which is entirely understandable when viewed against the plight of women in developing countries, for example. Everyone is well aware that we are indeed quite fortunate compared to the majority of the world. And paradoxically, the realization creates even more anxiety, about who we are and should be, and what actions we should take and how. This book generously shares a path similar to that many of us have followed as we try to figure it all out. No questions are answered nor are any promised, as the author doesn't know the answers either. Rather we must continue to look for answers, and our quest is affirmed and enriched by the experiences of others on the same journey.

I initially rated this book at 4 stars in spite of the fact that I loved it, as I was certain that it would be more suitable to a specific audience, i.e 40 something women. I've since received a very kind reminder from a fellow reader nearer age 70, that the journey continues until death. We will certainly get clarity on some things, we'll lose our attachment to others, however it goes we will most likely have more questions than answers at every point. I appreciate the perspective, and added a well deserved star.
13 people found this helpful
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Alice
5.0 out of 5 stars what a wonderful way of sharing deep, inner thoughts, the ones we all have!
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2023
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I love her writing. I suffered with her and highlighted several paragraphs. It was weird as I had read Inheritance first. So my suggestion is you should start with Slow Motion and Devotion and read Inheritance after.
(I agree with Michael about the bush).
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Top reviews from other countries

A.G.H
5.0 out of 5 stars shipping is fast and i love that each book has a book mark
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2016
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I will, where possible always purchase my books from Book Depository. Always reasonably priced, descriptions are accurate, shipping is fast and i love that each book has a book mark...a very special touch...
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Bill G
4.0 out of 5 stars A welcome book
Reviewed in Canada on February 3, 2021
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Well written. Dani shares about her challenges and spiritual searches, and about insights she's picked up, without becoming preachy or claiming certainties. While her style of over 100 mini-chapters is interesting, I felt it sometimes made the book choppy and interrupted the follow-through of story lines of interest.
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