Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.Įveryone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). Though fans may be dismayed at the brevity of the book, there’s more here than meets the eye. And those commodities go a long way, she writes, in terms of making a Divine connection that brings a measure of hope and peace. “Help” is a complete prayer, writes Lamott, and uttering it creates space for solutions that humans have neither thought of nor could pull off on their own. In what at first may seem like a jumbled mashup of stories and reflections, Lamott manages to deftly convey the idea that in trying to control things, we’ve largely lost our ability to see the good and the miraculous in everyday life. The three sections of the book aren’t solely about each one-word prayer they’re more a running conversation about their collective influence in her life. More specifically, Lamott touts the spiritual power in powerlessness, gratitude and wonder. How is one to get that process going? Prayer. Though in her previous books the author has been forthright about her Christianity, here she begins with a prelude that assures readers she’s not even remotely interested in trying to tell them who or what God is she’s simply asking them to consider that there’s a Divine Being willing to run the show. A refreshingly simple approach to spiritual practice in a pint-sized reflection on prayer.Īs the title of her book implies, Lamott ( Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son, 2012, etc.) has taken an enormously complex and often debated topic and boiled it down to three basic elements that transcend doctrine or creed.

Help Thanks Wow by Anne Lamott