A review by pturnbull
God Says No by James Hannaham

4.0

This is the story of a gay man who was raised within the African American Christian evangelical tradition. The book is divided into three sections that correspond to radically different periods of Gary Gray's life. The first section is the most difficult to relate to. This is when Gary is deeply closeted and his personality is not appealing, because he is living a lie. In the second section, Gary explores a fuller, richer, more honest personality, though he is not comfortable with it, and it is still not entirely honest, but that is when I began to truly enjoy the novel. There are remarkably complex characters here, no stereotypes, no caricatures, nor villains, even when Gary enters into a homosexual recovery program. We meet a multitude of characters who struggle to reconcile their identity with society;their differing responses and varying degrees of success are all believable. The ending is also well done and satisfying. This book was a finalist for the Lambda Award. I recommend it highly.