Night Driving


After reading Addie Zierman's first book, When We Were On Fire, I knew I'd want to read her follow up. Night Driving: A Story of Faith in the Dark is the story of a journey: Addie's physical journey on her road trip, and her spiritual journey finding her way back to faith. While I have some issues with the conclusions she draws in both her first book and this one, no one can deny that Zierman has a magical quality to her writing - once you pick up one of her books, you won't put it down until you're done. It seems like it's almost a trend lately to write edgy memoirs about how horrible it was to grow up in an Evangelical Christian home in the 80s/90s (while I'm rolling my eyes and wishing I was lucky enough to grow up in a Christian home, but I digress), but Addie does write an interesting and insightful story. The book description reads:

"In the emotionally-charged, fire-filled faith in which Addie Zierman grew up, the answer to this question was simple: Because you’ve FELT him.

Now, at age 30, she feels nothing. Just the darkness pressing in. Just the winter cold. Just a buzzing silence where God’s voice used to be.

So she loads her two small children into the minivan one February afternoon and heads south in one last-ditch effort to find the Light.

In her second memoir, Night Driving, Addie Zierman powerfully explores the gap between our sunny, faith fictions and a God who often seems hidden and silent.

Against the backdrop of rushing Interstates, strangers’ hospitality, gas station coffee, and screaming children, Addie stumbles toward a faith that makes room for doubt, disappointment, and darkness…and learns that sometimes you have to run away to find your way home."

First off, I absolutely loved the cover of this book. It's so powerful and perfect for the story. It made me want to pick it up right away. This is a short little book, and I basically read it in one sitting. I love how Addie intersperses spiritual introspection and struggles with the mundane tasks of being a wife and mom and going on a road trip. I could relate to some of what Addie expresses and feels in this book, and I felt like I was almost cheering her on by the end of the book as it drew to a close. I have to admit that I do tend to find her a bit filled with self-pity and that she tends to over exaggerate how "horrible" her circumstances are and how desperate she is to run away, but I feel like she overcomes this a bit by the end. I recommend this to anyone who has struggled with a faith crisis or enjoys reading memoirs.

I received a copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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