Traveling Mercies

The irreverent author Anne Lamott (Operating Instructions, Crooked Little Heart) is an unlikely born-again Christian, and these reflections on faith range from the touching to the vaguely embarrassing. Even the novelist-essayist's dearest fans may cringe at her description of her darkest alcoholic hour, a week after an abortion, during which she found Jesus ''hunkered down'' in the corner of her bedroom. But what gives this volume feet of clay is Lamott's narcissistic meditations on her body -- from the troubling ''triangles of fat'' on her thighs to the metaphysical meaning of her dreadlocks. Much of Lamott's writing is delightful, but Traveling Mercies contains earthly intimacies that aren't just spiritually inconsequential, they're pedestrian. C+