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quitecontrarymary's review
5.0
I am a big fan of Lenz’s newsletter so it was a joy to experience her writing in long form. Her interweaving of the personal and political is, as always, magical.
jhstutzman's review against another edition
5.0
This book lives at a weird intersection of (raw, fresh, bleeding) memoir and sociological examination, as though everything in the book had been planned out and then the author’s life happened, and she just wrote it all in together, and quickly published it. I don’t think I’m too far off in that description. Things like this don’t usually come from a university press, or if they do, they have scholarly reviews of literature in autoethnographic methods. Some things are repetitive, the editing was not very careful, but the effect of the flaws in the book was to create the sense of dislocation and chaos that the book describes.
I’m not Christian, not a woman, and while I’ve spent almost my whole life in the states the author writes about, almost all of that time has also been in the urban areas that are not the focus of her attention. My wife is a pastor though, from those rural areas, we live in one now, and I study religion, so I have other ways into the book. I recognized the people she interviewed, I know them as my neighbors. This book isn’t going to save a church, a denomination, or a rural town. This book is a picture of why those things need saving from themselves though and how their insidery-ness damages the increasing number of outsiders they push away.
I’m not Christian, not a woman, and while I’ve spent almost my whole life in the states the author writes about, almost all of that time has also been in the urban areas that are not the focus of her attention. My wife is a pastor though, from those rural areas, we live in one now, and I study religion, so I have other ways into the book. I recognized the people she interviewed, I know them as my neighbors. This book isn’t going to save a church, a denomination, or a rural town. This book is a picture of why those things need saving from themselves though and how their insidery-ness damages the increasing number of outsiders they push away.
je55ilo's review against another edition
reflective
4.0
I did not grow up religious -- my parents are ex-Catholics, derisive of Christianity and generally agnostic -- so listening to Lyz grapple with her evangelical roots was the most fascinating part of the book for me. I appreciate her analysis of midwestern Trump voters, although it only brushed against the white supremacist patriarchal roots of it (still, not an apologia by any means). As with her newest book, Lyz has such a riveting authorial voice! I really enjoyed the audiobook.
allisonh59's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
emily_mcclanathan's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
practicallymagic's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.75
A really informative and insightful book and look into what is actually happening in the Midwest by a midwesterner. Lyz gave a voice to those of us who are on the fringe whether involuntarily or by choice and illustrated the compromises people make daily to survive. It’s a great read.