#FridayReads: Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography by Richard Rodriguez

An award–winning writer delivers a major reckoning with religion, place, and sexuality in the aftermath of 9/11


Hailed in The Washington Post as “one of the most eloquent and probing public intellectuals in America,” Richard Rodriguez now considers religious violence worldwide, growing public atheism in the West, and his own mortality.


Rodriguez’s stylish new memoir—the first book in a decade from the Pulitzer Prize finalist—Darling, moves from Jerusalem to Silicon Valley, from Moses to Liberace, from Lance Armstrong to Mother Teresa. Rodriguez is a homosexual who writes with love of the religions of the desert that exclude him. 


He is a passionate, unorthodox Christian who is always mindful of his relationship to Judaism and Islam because of a shared belief in the God who revealed himself within an ecology of emptiness. And at the center of this book is a consideration of women—their importance to Rodriguez’s spiritual formation and their centrality to the future of the desert religions.


Only a mind as elastic and refined as Rodriguez’s could bind these threads together into this wonderfully complex tapestry. Richard Rodriguez is a journalist, essayist, and author whose books include Days of Obligation, Brown, and Hunger of Memory. He is a contributor to Harper’s Magazine, Mother Jones, the Los Angeles Times, and Time. He lives in San Francisco.

Spread the love

More Articles for You

Ghosts of the Palisades: Threads between memories, places and time

Somewhere tucked away, high on the Palisades, on lovely, dead end street, in the ether of the internet and Google …

Spread the love

Eight Goodbyes: Love, Loss, and the Six Years That Changed Everything

The first to die that year, the year before COVID-19 changed everything, was my aunt, Ruth or “Chin” as we …

Spread the love

How DNA, Haplogroups, and Genetic Markers Reveal Taíno Heritage

The Genetic Echoes of the Taíno People The Taíno people, the first known inhabitants of the Caribbean, have long been …

Spread the love

Unearthing the Invisible in Ben Brisbois’ Banana Capital: Unpeeling the Layers of Capitalism and Racism

The banana. Simple, ubiquitous, and unassuming. Yet, as Ben Brisbois reveals in his forthcoming Banana Capital, it’s anything but ordinary. …

Spread the love

Ditching The Algorithm: Why I Joined Bluesky (And You Should Too)

For years, social media has been both a megaphone and an equalizer, a place where anyone can share art, advocate …

Spread the love

Latina/o Bloggers, Content Creators, Influencers: This Is Your Year

The Latina/o Bloggers Group is back and ready to uplift you. Join the community to tap into resources, connect with like-minded creators, and be part of something bigger than just a platform. Let’s rewrite the digital narrative together.

Spread the love