“La Femme Nadia”

Nadia Bolz-Weber, author of New York times best seller Pastrix: the Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, has recently enriched our school with her spunky and raw words as a part of LR’s visiting writers series. I was not able to attend her talks but in our creative writing class we read an excerpt from Pastrix and I drew many connections to what we were reading in Janet Burroway’s Imaginative Writing concerning memoir and story. Boltz-Weber’s memories of sobering up had to have been difficult to write about, but her words were moving.

Margery, a leather-faced woman with a New Jersey accent, was talking about prayer or some other nonsense when suddenly a sound like a pan falling on a tile floor came up from the kitchen below us. I jerked out of my seat like I was avoiding shrapnel, but no one else reacted. Without skipping half a beat, Margery turned to me, with a long slim cigarette in her hand ans said, “Honey, that’ll pass.” She took a drag and went on, “So anyways, prayer is…”

With directness of language, Nadia Boltz-Webber communicated a pivotal moment in her life in a relatable as well as raw way. Using piercing imagery, “avoiding shrapnel”, the anxiety of the moment becomes our own anxiety. The reader hangs on the edge of her seat waiting to know the cause of commotion.  The use of direct quote engages the reader and placates us. This outburst is normal in the process of sobering up. There is resolution. Boltz-Webber artfully crafted her memoir in a form of brutal honesty; we rode the roller coaster of detox with her for a moment. If that is not skillful writing, I don’t know what is.