Barnes & Noble has started doing this book of the month thing, which really is books, and this was one of the first month's picks. We are asked to try and sell these, or at least introduce them to customers. I picked this one up because the sign said he rode his bike 14,000 miles and I thought I would be hard pressed to ride around the block and not break a bone and so I was intrigued and impressed. I picked up the book and opened it to a random page to read and see if it was something I could get excited about talking up.
The page I opened to, with no context as to when this conversation happened in the scope of the adventure Jed went on, was a conversation he had with his mother because of a Facebook post he wrote about his thoughts on starting a bible study group for gay folks. My heart broke immediately over his mother's reaction. I knew nothing else about her or him, but as the mom of a 14 year old gay young man I felt something in me shift. And at the same time I noticed how beautifully he wrote. Over the next few days I sold quite a few copies of the book and opened it again and again to different parts to read, partly so I could have things to tell people to hook them, but mainly because I was HOOKED and I wanted more. When I was almost done with Heart of Flames I bought myself a copy and with only a short time in-between to read Call of the Wild I bumped this to the top of my TBR pile. And I have no regret other than the journey is over and my time with Jedidiah has ended.
His journey is one of trying to find the answers he thinks he needs but what he really discovers is more questions. He is searching for how to be a good son and good Christian the way his mother has always told him he should be and also be true to himself as a gay man. He has kept himself in check romantically because of this push/pull. He wonders about his father and his mother and their divorce and what that did or didn't do to him. What he learns, or at least what I took away from this, is that he learned it is ok to question, it is ok to grow and learn and change, and that loving his mother and his god and falling in love with a man someday aren't mutually exclusive.
He writes so openly and beautifully. He isn't afraid to admit the faults he learns them, he faces his own preconceived ideas even when at times they show him his own hypocrisy and pushes back on himself when he stumbles onto them. And he learns that he is and probably will always be a work in progress.
I want to go on and on about this book. I want to keep it close yet I want to share it far and wide. So in the spirit of the journey it is about I am sending this book on an adventure and mailing it to one of my best friends.
(Finished February 23, 2020)
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