Reviews

Off the Deep End: Jerry and Becki Falwell and the Collapse of an Evangelical Dynasty by Mark Ebner, Giancarlo Granda

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cdjdhj's review against another edition

5.0

When I got this book free for my Kindle, I didn't really didn't know the details of the sordid story of Jerry and Becki Falwell and their infamous "Christian" college- Liberty University. I had seen some items on the news about the Falwells and their "pool boy" but I honestly thought it was like so many other evangelical ministers who fell from grace, like Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart. This book tells a sordid and disgusting tale of Jerry Falwell, son of the famous televangelist who helped engineer the election of Ronald Reagan and both Bushes. The junior Falwell was president of the Christian university his father founded when he and his wife seduced a 20-year-old employee of the Miami Beach resort Fontainebleau into having a three-way sexual affair with them that lasted for several years. This book is written by the "pool boy" in the story , Giancarlo Granda, and it is a no-holes-barred account of not only of what was actually sexual exploitation of a young man, but also Falwell's involvement with Michael Cohen (Donald Trump's fixer) and his king-maker status which helped propel Trump into the presidency with overwhelming Evangelical support. The book was honest, detailed, well-documented and interesting. It is a startling account of unchecked power and hubris entangled with religion and faith. I gave the book 5/5 stars and recommend it as an important cautionary tale about those who use religion to manipulate , exploit, and exert power over others.

eschroeder's review

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informative slow-paced

2.5

wasn’t particularly bad, but has a little too heavy on talking about business and equity and real estate things which didn’t interest me much. although it does go into how naive giancarlo was and how he was taken advantage of, i think i was expecting more of a personal dive into how the falwells really did groom and manipulate him and the emotional effects (and aftereffects) of their actions. it was a lot more just matter of fact and less introspective than i might have expected and what i prefer to read in memoirs of this nature.

sarahanne8382's review

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3.0

While some people love murder podcast, I love corrupt evangelicals podcasts, so I've listened to several featuring the story of the downfall of Jerry Falwell, Jr. and the toxic culture he fostered on the Liberty University campus.

One of the stories that helped unravel this whole scandal was the tale of the "pool boy" that slept with Jerry's wife, Becki on and off for over 5 years, and now we finally get to hear Giancarlo Granda's side of the story. I think one of the key pieces of this story is that because of the access the Falwell's gave Granda, it became clear that they weren't just grooming young adults for inappropriate sexual relationships, but they were also master manipulators of the Liberty community and the wider community of evangelicals who took his endorsement of Donald Trump as all the evidence they needed to put aside all of his decidedly un-evangelical behavior and elect him President.

It's a slow motion train wreck that's still unfolding and I feel terrible that I needed to know all the details and yet satisfied that I'm now confident I know whose stories to give more credence to in this whole mess. Granda and his co-author made sure to dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s, so this feels like a complete recounting of a sordid tale. There's a new documentary out on Hulu that has significant cooperation from Granda and his co-author, so if you've seen that and don't want to take the time to read a book covering similar ground, you won't miss much.

ksabol's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

pmhandley's review

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

Definitely revelatory. The organization of the book was confusing, because it's not exactly chronological, and the way it jumps around makes it difficult throughout the book to put events in order. Sometimes occurrences that happened years later are sandwiched in the middle of an otherwise chronological story without it being immediately clear that it happened at a different time period. I do hope it was freeing for Granda to tell his story and escape the abuse and control of the Falwells. The gut punch, for me, is something that goes unsaid. Describing his interaction with Becki and Jerry when he drove them home, it certainly sounds like Granda was sexually assaulted by Becki. I don't now if Granda sees it that way, and no one can tell him how to view his own experiences. But it doesn't sound like anything he consented to, and he throws out the self-blaming points any survivor of sexual assault would recognize about how he didn't stop it and he didn't say no and even views it as infidelity to his then-girlfriend. It is terrible and heartbreaking to read.

Content Warnings