Why Don't You Take Him to Lourdes? — A Review

Lourdes is a thousand things at once. A thousand things hard to put into words. You risk slipping into sentimentality, hysteria, pious cliché—or else turning bitter because you don't understand, or because skepticism clouds your vision. Or you can do what Lorenzo Amurri (1971-2016) did: a wheelchair-bound writer and nonbeliever who, challenged by a stranger's suggestion that his family take him there seeking a miracle, boards the white train of Unitalsi. The result is a book that is ironic, honest, merciless, and profound all at once—one that captures the radical, delicate mystery that is Lourdes. Amurri arrives with a somewhat intellectual prejudice (hardly the monopoly of unbelievers) toward a religiosity that sounds like superstition, and leaves with the quiet, moved respect of someone who has felt the power of a place that remains a mystery. Like many believers do.