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snugglekittyThis was the fourth book for my queer reading group. It's hard to believe that there are only two books left - Fun Home, which I have already read once but will re-read before the group meets, and Angels in America. I am undecided as to whether I should read the play first or watch the movie first with that. Has anyone done both, and if so, do you have any recommendations?
Craig has always wanted to find his birth mother. Now that he is an adult with a partner he loves (Jacobus called Job) and a career that fulfills him (performing and writing) he has time to search. Five years of struggle finally bear fruit, and he finds not just his birth mother, but a whole family that he never knew. But the culture clash when the urban queen meets the Seventh-Day Adventist straight folks may not leave anyone standing.
Fumbling Towards Divinity was somewhere in the middle of the books we've read so far in terms of my enjoyment. The book was readable, but the narrator was so annoying. So! Annoying! Here's a short quote from a letter to his birth sisters:
"I seek only to share with you the gift of insight as it has been given to me. Share it, I must, in order to keep it. If I do not share it, it will drive me mad.
Some of what has been revealed to me concerns what might be considered the subconscious, so I will certainly understand your initial rejection of much of what is written here.
But please return to it later, if you can. We much walk through grueling places, for we won't really know ourselves until we face the ugliness of it all..
I will understand it if you feel I am arrogant, condescending, or self-righteous; I am fluent in the languages of Judeo-Christianity, high art, academia..
My life is a metaphor for Christ's. Christ's life is a metaphor for mine..
It might help you to see that I am not perfect, do not pretend to be, and do not think that I am morally better than you just because I have clearer vision." p 271-272
Hoo, boy. So nice to see a guy sitting in judgement on women that he just met, telling them he knows what they need and they shoudln't resent him just because he sees things more clearly than they do. This kind of exemplifies the narrator's self-centeredness, unfortunately. He seems to think that other people exist primarily to set up his fabulous monologues. In his book, he always gives himself the last word. I wonder what those around him feel about the events described here. I bet they'd tell it differently. Maybe they'd tell it better. Two stars.
Craig has always wanted to find his birth mother. Now that he is an adult with a partner he loves (Jacobus called Job) and a career that fulfills him (performing and writing) he has time to search. Five years of struggle finally bear fruit, and he finds not just his birth mother, but a whole family that he never knew. But the culture clash when the urban queen meets the Seventh-Day Adventist straight folks may not leave anyone standing.
Fumbling Towards Divinity was somewhere in the middle of the books we've read so far in terms of my enjoyment. The book was readable, but the narrator was so annoying. So! Annoying! Here's a short quote from a letter to his birth sisters:
"I seek only to share with you the gift of insight as it has been given to me. Share it, I must, in order to keep it. If I do not share it, it will drive me mad.
Some of what has been revealed to me concerns what might be considered the subconscious, so I will certainly understand your initial rejection of much of what is written here.
But please return to it later, if you can. We much walk through grueling places, for we won't really know ourselves until we face the ugliness of it all..
I will understand it if you feel I am arrogant, condescending, or self-righteous; I am fluent in the languages of Judeo-Christianity, high art, academia..
My life is a metaphor for Christ's. Christ's life is a metaphor for mine..
It might help you to see that I am not perfect, do not pretend to be, and do not think that I am morally better than you just because I have clearer vision." p 271-272
Hoo, boy. So nice to see a guy sitting in judgement on women that he just met, telling them he knows what they need and they shoudln't resent him just because he sees things more clearly than they do. This kind of exemplifies the narrator's self-centeredness, unfortunately. He seems to think that other people exist primarily to set up his fabulous monologues. In his book, he always gives himself the last word. I wonder what those around him feel about the events described here. I bet they'd tell it differently. Maybe they'd tell it better. Two stars.