I Know This Much Is True
question
Anti-Religion in I Know This Much Is True?
Suzanne
Oct 07, 2011 07:12AM
My best friend loves this book to death. She's read it four times. Recently I read the first two chapters at NY Times First Chapters dot com. (Yes, they provided the first 46 pages, which in the paperback version is more than one chapter.) Anyway, I loved it. I felt a bit uneasy at my sense that Lamb was yoking religious faith with victimhood, but resolved that his relationship with his mother was but a sidebar in the 800 pages to come.
So I borrowed my friend's copy and straight away in chapter three I'm getting much stronger clues that religion is for the delusional. This is a big turnoff for me, since I practice tolerance as a way of life. I asked my friend about an anti-religion theme and she professed not to have noticed it at all.
I'd appreciate readers' analysis of this issue: is I Know This Much Is True anti-religion?
So I borrowed my friend's copy and straight away in chapter three I'm getting much stronger clues that religion is for the delusional. This is a big turnoff for me, since I practice tolerance as a way of life. I asked my friend about an anti-religion theme and she professed not to have noticed it at all.
I'd appreciate readers' analysis of this issue: is I Know This Much Is True anti-religion?
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deleted member
Oct 10, 2011 05:05PM
0 votes
It's not explicitly anti-religion, but it's certainly not pro-religion. It's a fairly long and complex text that cannot be simplified to simply "pro" or "anti" religion.
While I appreciate someone's tao of tolerance, shouldn't a way of life of tolerance include viewpoints opposite to one's own? Shouldn't one therefore have to tolerate someone else's intolerance?
While I appreciate someone's tao of tolerance, shouldn't a way of life of tolerance include viewpoints opposite to one's own? Shouldn't one therefore have to tolerate someone else's intolerance?
I Agree with Suzanne, the whole concept of religion never really crossed my mind so much as moralitity itself- his struggle with the demon in himself rather than the demon of the world. I found that rather exciting, getting into the character that is so down and stuck in a yet and seeing what one is still capable of. I LOVED the book, one of my favs of all time!!
Superstition is so intertwined with religion, more evident amongst the older generations of undereducated Europeans. Having Sicilian ancestry, religious hypocrisy is an essential aspect of character, as is chauvinism, sexism, abuse and omertà.
There is nothing anti religious about this book. In fact I think that it is actually pro religion in a way, or at least pro spirituality. It is all about finding grace in one way or another.
I think it depends on your sensitivity to the issue and how you read & interpret a story.
If you're very sensitive to a person who is not a fan of religion, then parts of this book may rub you the wrong way; but viewing it from only a religious stance is far too narrow a prism in my opinion.
If you're very sensitive to a person who is not a fan of religion, then parts of this book may rub you the wrong way; but viewing it from only a religious stance is far too narrow a prism in my opinion.
it has anti religious over tones but it is from a first person narrator so obviously the narrator has opinions.
i don't recall anything overtly damning of religion but do recall it being apparant that the narrator was not religious
given the title - I KNOW This Much Is True - the book is very much about finding your own certainty in the chaos of the every day. i loved the book, but it does go to some odd places
i don't recall anything overtly damning of religion but do recall it being apparant that the narrator was not religious
given the title - I KNOW This Much Is True - the book is very much about finding your own certainty in the chaos of the every day. i loved the book, but it does go to some odd places
I also read this book a while ago and I don't recall that it was anti-religion.
I do think that the narrator was trying to weed through the things that he had been taught in order to find his own place in the world.
I do think that the narrator was trying to weed through the things that he had been taught in order to find his own place in the world.
This is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. I just wish he would write more. It has been a while since I read the book but I never saw anything anti-religious about it.
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