Writing Straight with Crooked Lines

  "Reading Writing Straight With Crooked Lines has enticed me to engage in my own archeological sifting. It has me looking at my myriad wrong turns and interrogating more closely the friendships and relationships that formed me as a person. It was as though Forest was inviting me, through offering his stories, to ponder what I see and what I fail to see. In that sense, Forest’s memoir took me beyond the realm of history and biography, into the realm of authentic spirituality."--Paul Pynkoski Secretary, International Thomas Merton Society Jim Forest has spent a lifetime in the cause of peace and reconciliation. In this memoir he traces his story through his intimate encounters with some of the great peacemakers of our time, including Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, Henri Nouwen, and Thich Nhat Hanh. The son of ardent Communists, his remarkable journey led to his enlistment in the Navy, and then his discharge as a conscientious objector following his conversion to Catholic