Writer John West On Paradox, Redemption, And Playing Bach

Madison BookBeat

In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with John West about his genre-bending memoir, Lessons and Carols: A Meditation on Recovery (2023, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co.).

Lesson and Carols takes its shape from the Christian liturgical practice of the same name, often celebrated on Christmas eve. The service consists of nine short lessons that sketch the fall of humanity, the coming Messiah, the need for redemption, and hope found in the birth of Christ. Between each lesson, congregants sing Christmas carols that provide musical counterpoint to the lessons just received. And John West’s new memoir is divided accordingly: nine lessons structure a fragmentary narrative that reads equally as short meditations, prose poems, collections of quotations, and memoir on addiction and recovery, mental health, becoming a parent, the desire for redemption, the urgent need for poetry and music and ritual, and the elusiveness of language. The carols that divide the lessons are West’s translations of the Latin poet Catullus’s elegy. Driven by a desire for order and meaning, West’s narrative nevertheless lingers with doubt, depression, and loneliness. Finding meaning in the rituals we co-create in the company of others, Lessons and Carols suggests that “maybe redemption is not a place you find, but a system of mapmaking. Sketch a land. Pencil in dragons. Imagine it real, resplendent, and broken under a waxing moon.”

John West is a technologist and writer, currently reporting the news with code at the Wall Street Journal, where his work has won multiple awards and been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Previously, he worked at the MIT Media Lab and the digital publication Quartz. He holds an MFA in writing from the Bennington Writing Seminars and degrees in philosophy and music performance from Oberlin College. He lives in Boston with his partner, their daughter, and a cat. You can follow him @johnwest on Twitter.