The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Paul Elie
The Life You Save May Be Your Own is a spiritual biography of four well known Catholic American writers who were active in the mid-twentieth century. This could make for a book whose target audience is rather narrow, but Elie’s fluid writing style reveals universal themes of the modern experience: uncertainty, disillusionment, and an unwillingness to fit into standard societal parameters.
Three out of four of the authors chronicled were actually converts to Catholicism (only Flannery O’Connor was born into the faith.), and the book provides a brief look at how the Catholic church took root in the U.S.–as the church of the poor, the outsider. This is a great shift in perspective to someone who grew up in the New Orleans area, where the Church is as much a part of everyday life as the mid-afternoon summer shower. Although religion is central to the book, it is not required that the reader have any interest in either Catholicism or Christianity to enjoy it. The glimpse into the creative lives of some of the greatest writers of the last century is fascinating, and it seems that Elie has portrayed their inner workings just as well as their public lives.
–Beth West (Interim Public Services Librarian)
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