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The Force of Spirit
Scott Russell Sanders reveals how the pressure of the sacred breaks through the surfaces of ordinary life-a life devoted to grown-up children and aging parents, the craft of writing, and the natural world. Whether writing to his daughter and his son as each prepares to get married, or describing an encounter with a red-tailed hawk in whose form he glimpses his dead father, or praising the disciplines of writing and carpentry and teaching, Sanders registers, in finely tuned prose, the force of spirit.
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2000
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About the author
Scott Russell Sanders
72 books128 followersScott Russell Sanders is the award-winning author of A Private History of Awe, Hunting for Hope, A Conservationist Manifesto, Dancing in Dreamtime, and two dozen other books of fiction, personal narrative, and essays. His father came from a family of cotton farmers in Mississippi, his mother from an immigrant doctor’s family in Chicago. He spent his early childhood in Tennessee and his school years in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Cambridge, England.
In his writing he is concerned with our place in nature, the practice of community, and the search for a spiritual path. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington, in the hardwood hill country of southern Indiana. You can visit Scott at www.scottrussellsanders.com.
In August 2020, Counterpoint Press will publish his new collection of essays, The Way of Imagination, a reflection on healing and renewal in a time of climate disruption. He is currently at work on a collection of short stories inspired by photographs.
In his writing he is concerned with our place in nature, the practice of community, and the search for a spiritual path. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington, in the hardwood hill country of southern Indiana. You can visit Scott at www.scottrussellsanders.com.
In August 2020, Counterpoint Press will publish his new collection of essays, The Way of Imagination, a reflection on healing and renewal in a time of climate disruption. He is currently at work on a collection of short stories inspired by photographs.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 12, 2020
A wonderful set of essays. I’m drawn to Sanders writing which expounds on the interrelationships of real life and our spirit. Sanders writes, “...as our scientific models have come to agree more and more exactly with the behavior of nature, so might our moral vision be developing slowly, haltingly, toward congruence with an order that is really there, independent of us, in the grain of things.” He draws upon his own life with appreciation for it’s interconnectivity of action with meaning encouraging us to do the same. This is an easy read to relish in segments or sit for a meal of one essay after another in contemplation and delight.
September 24, 2023
The Force of Spirit is a collection of essays that cover various topics: essay writing, ecology, wood/woodwork, cabin construction, his relationship with his dad and children, nonfiction analysis, religion, and other topics. Each essay is distinct, and they vary in length. This was my first time reading a collection of essays - some of them were hit-or-miss for me, but I enjoyed reading his thoughts and perspective on his experiences. The author would also go on tangents, so even if the overall topic wasn't to my taste, I could still find some enjoyment in each essay.
December 6, 2014
There is much to like about this spare collection of essays, most of which contain a plain-spoken spiritual mysticism I could relate to. Sanders is a keen observer of nature--both human and otherwise. He plumbs the depths of his soul, searching for connections to these natures and finding it here and there in the wind generated by the wings of birds, in the crevices between mitered pieces of wood, in the silence people allow to fall between them like sincere and sublime pauses in a hectic world.
The title essay, first in the book, is easily the most powerful one in the collection. Focused on Sanders' dying father-in-law, it reveals the humanity we find within the will to live and the desire to die with dignity. I also appreciated Sanders' unique spins on religion, particularly in "Amos and James" and in "Silence." And the strong connection he feels to the outdoors in several other essays is moving and heartfelt.
Ultimately, though, this is a scatter-shot collection. Two of the essays are letters the author wrote for his son and daughter on the advent of their respective marriages. While these were published in the Indiana Alumni Magazine, and are certainly keenly felt pieces, they nevertheless seem too personal and precious to be of much interest to average readers. Two other essays center on the topic of writing. To someone who writes every day, these essays feel overly complicated, analytic, even didactic.
Then, Sanders occasionally misses opportunities to go deep. "Hawk Rising" begins with a reference to feeling the spirit of his deceased father in the body of the hawk. This is a fascinating premise (and mirrors an experience I felt after my own father's death), but Sanders quickly veers away from doing any real digging into what this connection might mean. Instead, he contents himself with describing the hawk in all of its glorious detail, avoiding the murky places I really wanted the essay to explore.
Overall, there was little connective tissue to the book. The relationship between the essays is tenuous at best. It seemed more of a random compendium of recently published material than it did a collection of linked ideas and experiences meant to build upon itself. The essays rarely illuminate each other, and the book suffers because of it.
The title essay, first in the book, is easily the most powerful one in the collection. Focused on Sanders' dying father-in-law, it reveals the humanity we find within the will to live and the desire to die with dignity. I also appreciated Sanders' unique spins on religion, particularly in "Amos and James" and in "Silence." And the strong connection he feels to the outdoors in several other essays is moving and heartfelt.
Ultimately, though, this is a scatter-shot collection. Two of the essays are letters the author wrote for his son and daughter on the advent of their respective marriages. While these were published in the Indiana Alumni Magazine, and are certainly keenly felt pieces, they nevertheless seem too personal and precious to be of much interest to average readers. Two other essays center on the topic of writing. To someone who writes every day, these essays feel overly complicated, analytic, even didactic.
Then, Sanders occasionally misses opportunities to go deep. "Hawk Rising" begins with a reference to feeling the spirit of his deceased father in the body of the hawk. This is a fascinating premise (and mirrors an experience I felt after my own father's death), but Sanders quickly veers away from doing any real digging into what this connection might mean. Instead, he contents himself with describing the hawk in all of its glorious detail, avoiding the murky places I really wanted the essay to explore.
Overall, there was little connective tissue to the book. The relationship between the essays is tenuous at best. It seemed more of a random compendium of recently published material than it did a collection of linked ideas and experiences meant to build upon itself. The essays rarely illuminate each other, and the book suffers because of it.
June 17, 2016
A collection of very well crafted personal essays that go beneath the surface of life to a deep consideration of family relationships, who we are and how we became/become who are are, our relationship to nature and its creatures, to home and place. Thoughtful and thought-provoking, spiritual but not religious.
July 6, 2012
Absolutely one of my favorite books of non-fiction. Sanders' smooth, spare prose and magical use of metaphor made me truly see the kind of person he is, and see the things he celebrates, worries about, or that simply keep him alert.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews