Anne talks about her childhood at length. She is the child of atheists but likes it when she has the opportunity to attend church. She says she pretended church was foolish to please her father who was raised by missionaries in Tokyo and despised Christianity. Her mother sometimes attends midnight mass but Anne's opportunities to attend church are largely limited to when she goes with a Catholic friend or her grandparents.
Traveling Mercies is actually a series of essays about Anne's life. The first is the longest and gives the reader a look at her childhood and her early years roughly to the point when she gives up the alcohol and drugs. Thereafter, there are a series of essays, each offering a brief look at some particular aspect of Anne's life.
The essays cover a range.....
