Jesus Land, Julia Scheeres (3.5)
This is the memoir of a girl growing up in rural Indiana.
She has religious parents who have 6 children, two of which are adopted African
American boys. The book is really a story of the love she has for her brother,
David, and the obstacles they faced as a biracial family in an intolerant area
of the country. Unfortunately the obstacles start with her hypocritical
parents, who punished the boys more severally (i.e whippings and bone
breakings) than their white children. This book really breaks your heart. It’s
a little heavy handed with how awful the religious people in the book behave,
but she points out in questions at the end that her two older sisters are very
good examples of deeply religious people who follow the ‘gentle-Jesus love-one
another philosophy and don’t ram their beliefs down people’s throats.’ Ms.
Scheeres did a very good job illustrating her unique relationship with David
and why she considers him such a special person. Given it’s a memoir, we have
only her point of view, but I found myself wondering how her parents could be
so obviously unfeeling and horrible.
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