Finding Magic: A Spiritual Memoir – The Legendary Washington Post Journalist's Quest for Faith and Meaning in the Nation's Capital

I had read Ben Bradlee's books, the earliest about his friendship with President Kennedy, *Conversations With Kennedy* and then through Watergate as editor of The Washington Post (one of my favorite news sources) and beyond in *A Good Life*. Also read *A Different Life* by Ben and Sally's son Quinn Bradlee. So I was curious to get the perspective of their loving wife and mother. About Sally Quinn I'd say, she's one of a kind; there is only one Sally Quinn; she and her book are original. She has an interesting personality and some depth that I appreciated, spiritual and emotional. She's also a gifted writer who tells the story of her life, of her evolution, convincingly. All in all, I'm happy to have read this book. It causes me to think about my own life experiences in somewhat different ways. There's something magical in *Finding Magic*, I guess you could say. That said, I would not have made the same life choices as Sally Quinn, nor viewed events through her lens or engaged in behaviors that seemed, for example, vindictive or self-indulgent to me but not to her. Nevertheless, Finding Magic has an authenticity to it and is the kind of book that expands the reader's thinking and certainly held my interest throughout.

Well written and interesting. The author details her journey from atheism to eventual belief in a higher power.

Oh Sally, Oh Sally. Such an authentic biography, but of its vexing flaws, what can I say? It's a quick and absorbing read. Filled with shocking anecdotes from a traumatic childhood lived around the world, coming up to very recent times in DC just after her great love, Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, died. She saw harrowing things as a child. How does a well-heeled child maintain conscious attention at age 6 or 7, leafing thru her dad's war photo records of Dachau, and see that this was evil and do what so many Jews did and become an atheist? Her ability to pay genuine, decisive attention to those photos at that age is exemplary. Her ability to remember the weeks and months of being stuck in a military hospital as a young girl where her mother was barred from visiting her, then transported with bleeding and dying soldiers back to the States, is also extraordinary and quite powerful explanation for her apparent atheism. Also to her is due gratitude for revealing the details of her ordeal in the back of a cab of Senator John Tower attempting to forcibly rape her when she was 24 years old (before the Harvey Weinstein allegations came out). The icons need to be broken, and she steps up to do her share. Through her ordeals and otherwise posh living, she lived an exciting and purposeful life that presented many challenges... that she described somewhat superficially. She mentioned that her friends chided her for being superficial, and this work does skim the surface in a few ways. I don't recall any stories detailing the creative or intellectual drive behind her early reporting at the Post that made a big impression, and of course she did win the job on a lark. And about her writing in the book - so boringly common - prose that was shellacked in cliches and uninteresting transitions and the frequently kitschy use of the word "magic" undercutting her major theme. It was a shock to see such simple writing in a Wapo author. Sally's traumas in her early years may explain why she seemed blindered and wrote at times like she didn't know herself: Early on she explained that she always had great self-confidence (p 24).... and a few pages later: I've had to fight off the emotion of jealousy, all my life. (Uh, Sally, you do know those two issues are *related*, don't you?). Or, near the end of the book, about rituals: "When I was younger I found them shallow, mawkish, self indulgent" Hold on, Sal, you performed HEXES on people from early on, and they certainly involve ritual and self-indulgence. Why didn't she make these linkages and go deeper to the real source of her life's journey with its core contradictions? Was she too distracted by her many occult practices - palm reading, Ouiji, hexes, tarot, astrology, and ultimately necromancy? I appreciate the survey of world religions that she undertook in her scattershot manner, a suitable path in light of her shattering life start. And she did seem to be settled by her long interlude in practicing meditation by waling the labyrinth. But I do wish she connected her early stories to her later, mature realizations. Instead the stories seemed to roll out in chronological sequence without look-backs. Her repentance from practicing hexes deserved more review as she matured to theological ponderings. In all a very good read that makes you care greatly about her as a person and her life journey, but it is distracting in its many flaws.

This book is a big expansive memoir that is packed with travel, growth, exploration and insight. Reading it is very much like taking a long, enjoyable and surprising journey, and Quinn allows the reader deep inside her spiritual quest and personal observations. The book will appeal most to people who approach faith and religion with curiosity, wonder, a bit of magic and a host of persistent questions. Quinn begins as a young self-professed atheist after she stumbles upon photos depicting the ravages of war and then experiences life-threatening illness and isolation. Her South Carolina childhood is also steeped in southern gothic mystery and strains of black magic. This early influence has an interesting impact on her life. Later, she explores Judaism and examines Christianity. Her father’s military career takes Quinn to Japan, Greece and Germany and these places further awaken her inquisitive soul. In college, she searches for identity and meaning, as she dabbles in the occult and astrology. As she matures, Quinn pursues a journalism career and finds big love with famed Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee. While all of this occurs, Quinn’s spiritual seeking continues in the background as an ever-present hunger and inherent longing. When her son is born, Quinn embraces God and the divine. Later still, Quinn looks at Hinduism, Buddhism and meditation during a pilgrimage to various destinations of enlightenment. Quinn’s book is about tenaciously looking for answers, but more importantly, it’s about the ability to question, search and explore all the complexities and complications of life and ultimately finding what resonates for each individual. Each path is unique to each person. There is wanderlust, love, adversity, heartbreak and hope in this book. A worthwhile read.

I loved Sally Quinn's spiritual memoir - in fact I also love the term 'spiritual memoir'. I read the book over the span of two weeks, but it feels more like months because Sally shared so much of her life. I started telling someone about something she did as a young woman and I stopped and thought, was that Sally, or a book I read a while ago. She gives such thorough details that she takes the reader to her childhood, young adulthood, her mid-years and finally these years that she is deciding what to do with the rest of her life. I found her revelations about her son Quinn very moving. I can't imagine how difficult it was to parent a child with the issues he has had - and yet she found joy in his every breath. Sally's love affair with Ben was remarkable. I was swept up with their passion and mourned with her at the end. This is a wonderful read for women who have also suffered the loss of the love of their lives. Mine is still with me and I'm now going to cherish him even more, thanks to Sally. Sally's spiritual life is rich and constantly changing and growing. I admire the way she was able to open her heart to so many different religious/spiritual opportunities.

Sally Quinn led an interesting life with opportunity and love in this go-round that many of us will not know. Sometimes it felt a bit as if she was bragging, but I don't think any of it was meant that way, and I tried always to put it into the context of what she was sharing. Her life with its travels, politicians, and celebrity was really true for her. But it isn't a life without heartbreak, and this book was about her spiritual journey through her life in relationship to life's voyage. I felt it went a bit long and repetitive in the end, but overall I can relate to where she finally came to a deep appreciation for ritual in connection to finding greater meaning in her life.

The reason I read this book was because I enjoyed Sally Quinn so much when I saw her on Charlie Rose. Well, I’m sorry to say that by the time I finished reading the book, I had grown to actually dislike her, which is something that saddened me and which I simply did not expect. I found her narcissism to be breathtaking, immense. The book is almost 400 pages, mostly of her luxuriating in every nuance of her love for Ben, for her son, Ben’s illness, his death, her grieving process. I thought it would be filled with candid anecdotes about her family, all the other incredible people she had known and worked with. But that might have hurt some people’s feelings or at least ruffled a few feathers, so instead the book is mostly just navel-gazing. You would think no one else on earth but her had ever loved or lost anyone, and that nothing could interest us more than the minutia of her Sallyness. And then, when she is not basting in her own juices, she is talking about astrology, seances, and other assorted nonsense. Really brutal read. When I finally put it down, I feel like I had just beaten a nagging flu.

This kindlebook that is Finding Magic a Love Story by Sally Quinn is a kindlebook that I admit to getting via Amazon around the December 26, 2018 timeframe even with me being both rationally and intuitively aware that I’m very much outside the target audience for this kindlebook. The author Sally Quinn includes some of the following information in her kindlebook: a childhood memory involving how the author’s mother coped with the death of a family pet named Blitzkrieg and how that shaped part of her spiritual outlook, some details on the author’s life in Arlington Virginia after her father came back from Germany, a sampling of certain details on the author’s childhood in Japan, her preadolescent obsession with Alice in Wonderland, the author’s life in Greece after her and other members of her family moved there through her father’s career, info about one of the schools that the author attended in Switzerland during her childhood, a summer before she went off to college and worked in an intelligence unit called G2 and where even the food menus in the office she worked with were top secret, the author’s parents hosting a party for then Senator Barry Goldwater, an experience that the author had during her college years of watching a speaking event by a young woman named Marian Wright, a career that the author had some time working as a translator and tour guide in Germany, how she started to work for the Washington Post, and much more.

THANK YOU!