Sunday, September 28, 2014

Rapture Practice: A True Story About Growing Up Gay in an Evangelical Family by Aaron Hartzler

Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler
First of all, this book is about Aaron's life growing up in an evangelical family - it is not about his being gay. I think that the part about being gay - which the author is - was added to the title in order to sell books. However, the book is mainly about the author's childhood and teen years in a repressive (which for Evangelicals would be considered normal) Evangelical family. Aaron was not allowed to watch tv or drink or listen to popular music or go to movies or do anything that might not make Jesus happy. It sounds like, in many ways, his family was very loving and there were many positive aspects to his childhood although his father was a bit overboard in his disciplining techniques. The story is well told and very interesting. I liked it a lot and would have given it a 5 star rating, but I really feel that using the word gay in the title is misleading. That part of Aaron's life was barely, almost not even touched on and is not important enough to the book to warrant including it in the title. The author does say that he plans to write another book about his coming out and that book should certainly include the word gay in the title, but this book is not about that at all. 

1 comment:

  1. Always amazes me when the titles or the front covers of books don't reflect what the book is about. Aaron's story sounds interesting.

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