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Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair
Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2023
A ripsaw of a read and not for the faint of heart. The title, taken from an Emily
Dickinson poem, suggests a dead zone, accompanied by fear, dread and, importantly
for the author, awe, and experience of God. Wiman, who has “an intimate
acquaintance with the condition of despair,” takes us on a deep journey via poetry,
prose, literary and theological reflection, and even a sermon. Along the way one
finds out that the author has been living so long with cancer and endless rounds of
chemo that it “bores him": “the hard blast of chemo in the fall” and the “four rounds
of pneumonias that followed.” Wiman was deeply scarred by growing up in a family
where he saw more violence than a child can bear. It is his marriage and the birth of
two girls, after a stillborn son (“hot from the womb but cold to kiss”), that bring
healing and joy to Wiman who describes the gift of one’s child as jolting “loose a
sadness.” I appreciated the poetry sprinkled throughout the text and especially the
use of George Herbert. No doubt Wiman’s use of Herbert was because the poet
himself was dying of tuberculosis while writing his timeless words. Doubt and an
“apophatic” God (he is only known in terms of what he is not) are common themes
but Wiman admits that “when doubt becomes the path of least resistance it
becomes the very thing that a faithful person must most resist.” This is a beautiful
book that brings a “jolt of hope” and with it a sense that Christ gazes through the
deepest darkness. Trinity Forum has recently posted an interview with Wiman
on Zero at the Bone: https://www.ttf.org/portfolios/episode-89-words-against-despair-with-christian-wiman/
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