Fighting the Noonday Devil - and Other Essays Personal and Theological

“Whether defending Jack Kerouac, describing work on a drilling rig, or narrating his reception into the Roman Catholic Church, Rusty Reno brings a writer’s eye and a theologian’s heart to the essayist’s labors. Many rewards await the reader of this book.”
— Alan Jacobs
author of Wayfaring and The Narnian

“R. R. Reno’s essays are intellectually stimulating, and some even possess cinematic possibilities. I find their Augustinian ethos deeply appealing in their consistent combination of wisdom and eloquence.”
— David K. Naugle
author of Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness

“In this smart and sparkling collection R. R. Reno applies his consummate literary skills to subjects as diverse as acedia, mountain climbing, religious conversion, Jack Kerouac, and interfaith marriage, uniting them under a single glorious banner, that of reclaiming the essential function of culture, the cultivation of the soul. A bravura performance.”
— Philip Zaleski
coauthor of Prayer: A History

“Fighting the Noonday Devil is the work of a ‘pious intellect’ in all the best senses of the term. . . . Reno reads his life in parables in a way that provokes us to see our own lives anew. In him we find a voice and style in the best tradition of Newman — incisive, affecting, wise, inviting. I was captivated by this book.”

— James K. A. Smith
author of The Devil Reads Derrida — and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts