Miz Lil is only one of the characters in Walter Wangerin, Jr.’s biography, but she’s certainly the most memorable. She appears rubbing her abdomen, explaining how grief is a stone that you can never give birth to—you just live with it.

Miz Lil the book (not the person) is a series of autobiographical vignettes alternating between pictures of the author as a little boy and as an inner city pastor. The themes are profound: death, grace, fear, wisdom, anger, and the desire to fit in. Wangerin, Jr. recounts his life with honesty and remarkable lyricism.

The writing in Miz Lil is superb. Wangerin, Jr. is a master of the craft. This came home to me when preparing to write this brief reflection on the book. Consider the passages that serve as an inclusio to the whole:

A wandering cleric was my father. Wherever he went I went there too, as rootless as he was in this world. (xi)

”He always came back, Pastor. I think about that. Maybe late, but never troubled,” she murmurs, rocking and riding her memory home. (192)

In the end, Miz Lil reminds us that no matter how far we wander in life, we’re inextricably connected to everything that led us to where we are. Memory is a rocking chair to ride home.

Wangerin, Jr., Walter. Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace. 1988. Harper San Francisco, 1994.