About this title: Karen Armstrong spent seven years in a convent (which she described in a previous memoir) and, when she left, was at a loss as to what to do with her life. In THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, she writes about her difficulties, as she first picked up a couple of advanced degrees, then taught in a private school, a job she eventually lost--after which she became severely depressed. Before she was finally diagnosed as an epileptic, she went through years of therapy, anorexia, and suicide attempts. Finally, she found her métier as a writer on religious subjects and watched her life turn around.
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Description: Good. 2004-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780385721271ISBN:0385721277
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean and unmarked with light edge and cover wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 305 p. Audience: General/trade. Ships from US-NE. Support Independent Booksellers! Omahabooks offers same or next day shipping-satisfaction guaranteed. APO, International may require additional postage-contact seller. read more
Description: Very Good+ No Jacket Issued. This is a soft cover trade paperback Spiritual Journey book. The condition is Very Good+. reprint edition. "In her own mind she was a complete failure: as a nun, as an acadenic, and as a normal woman capable of intimacy..." from the back cover. This book has a very clean & bright cover with a nice smooth spine. There is just a touch of edge wear. The pages are tight, bright and unmarked. No names. Good Solid Book! 306 pages. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780385721271ISBN:0385721277
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 305 p. Audience: General/trade. Very light shelf/egdewear. Clean, unmarked, uncreased, tight binding, nice copy. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780375413186ISBN:0375413189
Description: Very Good-Used in Very Good jacket. / 0375413189. Clean unmarked book. Dj has minor shelf wear. Ships with confirming email. 100% money back guarantee. read more
Edition: First Anchor Books Edition
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books, New York
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780385721271ISBN:0385721277
Description: Very Good. Autobiography. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Karen Armstron begins this spell-binding story of her spiritual journey with her departure on 1969 from the Roman Catholic convent she had entered seven years before. This book is in very good condition with just a little bit of wear along the edges. read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780375413186ISBN:0375413189
Description: Very Good+/Very Good+ 0375413189 Nice clean unmarked hardcover in like dustjacket, states third printing, regular trade edition, tight and square and appears to be unread. read more
"This is a memoir of exiting the regimented life of the convent into the secular world where Karen Armstrong felt a misfit. It is an unusual spiritual autobiography because Karen loses her conventional faith and journeys into the darkness of the unknown including her epilepsy, her failed academic career, her search for meaningful work, and her ongoing quest of self-understanding.
She is an excellent writer, but her pace is slow, precise, and her language dense. I was tempted to give up at times, but the last 40 pages of the book were worth all the effort."
"The Spiral Staircase is the story of one woman's spiritual journey. She begins shortly after leaving a convent (though reflects heavily on her convent years, especially early in the book), follows her complete dismissal of religion, and ends with her developing an abstract, intellectual view of God that incorporates her learnings of all the major world religions. In this case, I don't consider saying this to be a spoiler, as the journey is the most important part.
This is one of those books that needs to be talked about. In fact, if I hadn't been reading it for my book club, I probably would have given it only 3 stars, but I am looking forward to discussing many of the themes and ideas presented here.
The rest of this review does contain spoilers.
Most notably, the book tries to show God and religion not as a doctrine of beliefs, but rather as an act. In the author's view, this act is one of compassion and empathy. In her back story, she seems to spend a lot of time lamenting the fact that as a nun, she never found that transcendent experience she was looking for. By the end, she seems to have found something, though not exactly what she had been looking for.
Despite the fact that she began as a Catholic, I found little in this that need be considered Catholic-specific. As a former Catholic myself, though, I did find some of the things she had to say about the second Vatican council and the changes it brought to the church rather interesting, and also worth discussing.
Aside from religion, I also found this book to be an interesting discussion of the view and treatment of mental disorders. This could be due to my background in psychology, but I simply couldn't believe she was being treated by such an inept therapist who did not rule out physical ailments (ie epilepsy) before delving into years of useless therapy. The convent simply refused to credit her fainting spells and it also refused to help a friend of hers when she developed anorexia. This, the author suggested, was a sign of how backward the church was but I thought it was rather more a reflection of the view of mental disorders in general at the time. I wish I could say we've come very far since then, but I think that mental disorders are still viewed as weaknesses and that we have a long way to go on that journey. Possibly not as long as we have to go on our faith journey.
It did take me a while to get into this one. A lot of it is self-reflection and even a bit repetitive. Most of the "action" in this book takes place inside the author's head. This isn't a light book or one to get into without a serious desire to philosophize about God and religion. I would recommend this to people who are interested in deeper thinking about God, especially if there are people in your life with whom you can discuss it."
"This book was recommended to me by a fellow book worm with excellent taste in books. That said, I wasn't sure what to expect from it. I was horrified by Karen Armstong's experiences as a postulant in a convent. I frequently found myself wondering if nuns I knew in Catholic schooling felt as subjugated as Armstong did. I was horrified by the convent's unwillingness to accept actual physical or mental conditions as the reason for Armstrong and her friend's confusing ailments. The beginning of the book focuses entirely on the convent chapter of Armstrong's life. I admit that I am hardly sure what to make of that portion, and am still processing it in my mind.
The second portion of the book focuses on her path to healing, which includes an actual diagnosis of her ailment, as well as her own coming to terms with faith, both Catholic and non-Catholic. Her conculsions about faith and religion were so thought provoking that I intend to read more of her works. I'd recommend this for Catholics and non-Catholics alike."
"This book that taught me to appreciate poety and become more in touch with my higher power. I stumbled upon this book for no good reason at a time when I was hurting and looking for answers to some of my deepest questions about life. Karen takes the title of the book from the poem, Ash-Wednesday by T.S. Eliot, which was Eliot's version of Wordsworth. "Ode: Initations of Immortality". On page 139 she sums upher quest and journey, "It was from this poem that I had taken my mantra, with its serene joy." My favorite book of all time."
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