Unruly Saint: Dorothy Day's Radical Vision and Its Challenge for Our Times (Hardcover)

Staff Reviews

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone as resistant to definition as Dorothy Day. What I love about D.L. Mayfield's book is the way she refuses to downplay Day's eccentricities while also marveling at her truly remarkable integrity. Day is a principled enigma, and a refreshing character to read about in a time when we are quick to either demonize or idolize. She was a Catholic who had an abortion. She was a passivist at the expense of her organization's success. She fed every needy person but was not always around for her daughter. Mayfield's clear reverence for her subject healthily eschews glorification, opting instead for a lovingly authentic portrait that brings Dorothy Day to readers in a way that honors her exceptional human complexity.