{"id":3321,"date":"2010-11-10T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/?p=3321"},"modified":"2018-12-29T10:01:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-29T14:01:58","slug":"book-review-the-book-of-calamities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/3321\/book-review-the-book-of-calamities\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review:  <i>The Book of Calamities<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was excited to read Peter Trachtenberg&#8217;s new book, &#8220;<em>The Book of Calamities: 5 Questions about Suffering and Its Meaning<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Book-of-Calamities-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-3323\" title=\"Book of Calamities cover\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Book-of-Calamities-cover-183x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"170\" height=\"279\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>From the subtitle, I was expecting an organized presentation of questions, followed by specific answers. When the book\u00a0turned out\u00a0not to be set up this way,\u00a0I was initially frustrated. However, as I read more, my frustration soon turned into appreciation for what this book <em>does<\/em> offer. Trachtenberg is an explorer. He uses long stories to meander through different aspects of suffering, investigating and commenting on\u00a0side paths and dead-ends. Rather than providing specific answers, he raises questions and provides ways we\u00a0might consider\u00a0the issues related to different types of suffering.\u00a0I came to appreciate his storytelling more and more.\u00a0Accompanying\u00a0this author on a journey was more interesting than reading pat, dry answers.<\/p>\n<p>Trachtenberg explores issues\u00a0such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>visible vs invisible disease<\/li>\n<li>how religion in general copes with suffering vs how\u00a0an individual gains support from his own spirituality<\/li>\n<li>individual pain vs a community tragedy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He looks at vast community challenges such as the genocides in Africa and the\u00a0flooding of New Orleans, as well as more personal stories of individuals, such as\u00a0twins living their lives with a disabling,\u00a0terminal illness. In reality, there are no definite answers to the puzzle of pain and suffering. However, Trachtenberg&#8217;s work\u00a0makes an excellent guide and companion in our ongoing contemplation of these central life questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was excited to read Peter Trachtenberg&#8217;s new book, &#8220;The Book of Calamities: 5 Questions about Suffering and Its Meaning.&#8221; From the subtitle, I was expecting an organized presentation of questions, followed by specific answers. When the book\u00a0turned out\u00a0not to be set up this way,\u00a0I was initially frustrated. However, as I read more, my frustration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3321"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7996,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions\/7996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}