House of Prayer #2

 

The title of this book struck me first, and the fact that this was a memoir set in the South pulled me in further. But the opening line was so intriguing that I had to check this book out even though I am already two books deep into a reading list I started last week. When I closed the cover yesterday after reading just about nonstop, I felt like I had just come to the end of a roller coaster ride and yet the book was still zinging around in my head.

It is written a bit differently than many memoirs I have read, entirely in the second person. But the story is what whisks you away from the start. There are also quotes throughout the book that are like hidden gems in the grass waiting to be found. This book will take you on a journey. It is part magical mystery tour, part train-wreck, part heartbreaking, and part hysterical.

It is disconcerting, jarring, gritty, and extremely real. It is like reading through a life in one long sentence. I really enjoyed this book. Several times I had to remind myself that I was not reading a fiction novel, but that this was the story of someones actual life.

This book is proof that truth can indeed be stranger than fiction at times.