A review by aspeed
God Says No by James Hannaham

4.0

A very well written book about an obese, extremely devout African American man in the South who is gay and doesn't want to be, so he struggles very hard to be "normal", a prospect doomed to failure. He tries marriage to a woman, a year of "free checking", an "ex-gay" ministry, but in the end, perhaps he can only accept what he truly is. His own contradictions and hypocrisies are shown in a very realistic way, and even the easy to mock ex-gay crowd are portrayed in a sympathetic (if self-loathing) light. I will admit the characters' Candide like naiveté was a little tiring at times, and I didn't always like him, but that's not a bad thing. An excellent read, and very different from the usual McSweeney's fare.