Review of Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, by Sara Miles

Food is at the heart of this memoir - preparing, eating, sharing food. This is not unusual for those accustomed to the Christian practice of Eucharist, or Holy Communion. However, this book is an intriguing slant on the practice of communion, offering a deeper understanding of a ritual that is so ordinary today, so commonplace that its weight and spiritual significance can be lost in the shuffle up to the altar for thin wafers. The story of Sara Miles' unlikely conversion, coupled with this reflection on the spiritual significance of communion was an engaging read.

In the early days of her spiritual conversion, she carried her faith around like a dirty secret, guiltily sneaking off to church, with no idea of how to admit this secret to her friends. This is exactly where her writing is appealing to a reader who feels connected to Christian spirituality, but who dislikes some of the cultural overlay. She understands what it's like to dislike Christianity, and Christians. Miles speaks honestly and openly about the parts of her that don't fit conventional notions of Christianity,. It is refreshing to read that her conversion was not a personality transplant or a cultural divorce, separation from real life in San Francisco. Conversion did not efface her colorful personality and background into bland niceness.

I heard echoes of the bad old days, of public dialogue based on crass generalizations of red states and blue. When religion in the US was reduced to trite stereotypes of coastal liberals and the heartland faithful. Reduced to a bumper sticker, Miles is as blue as it gets. For that reason, she is an unlikely convert. She does fit the stereotype of the 'godless' West-coast progressive sort.