An unforgettable memoir about growing up Southern, grappling with faith,
and confronting a childhood colored by religion, Bible Belt culture, and
a mother who minces words better than a food processor
A child stumbles upon a vintage photograph and glimpses salvation. A
young girl vanishes in a famous cavern when she runs away from her tour
group. A hijacked plane circles overhead, its passengers' lives in
jeopardy. A mystical stranger, a refugee from the Holocaust, seals off
her secrets behind an elusive smile. From simple blessings to historical
tragedies to random twists of fate, "This Boy's Faith "plumbs the
uncanny mysteries and surprising revelations at the heart of a Southern
Baptist childhood.
Hamilton Cain came to Jesus on a trampoline, or as his devout parents
described it, "He just jumped and bounced his way to the Lord." Growing
up in Tennessee in the 1970s and '80s, he set himself on the path to
becoming the best Baptist boy he could be. The veil between the concrete
and the magical shimmered all around him, nourishing his soul. Religion
was a map to help him navigate his life, to steer away from the reefs of
temptation. Yet as he grew older, Hamilton began to notice fractures and
cracks in a world that had once promised sanctuary and transcendence,
perils threatening to shatter the protective shell of family and
community. Like an escape artist, he cut himself free from his
evangelical milieu, and eventually gravitated north, to cosmopolitan New
York.
Twenty years later, the smooth flow of Hamilton's life reversed itself
yet again when his first child was born with a grave genetic disease.
Thrown into a chasm of confusion and despair, he found the primal voices
of his original culture reaching out to him. He picked up that faded,
half-forgotten script to see what values, if any, could steady him in
the here and now. The result is a story of growing up Baptist, and then
growing up.
Haunting, evocative, ""and gorgeously written, Hamilton Cain's debut
will resonate with fans of poignant personal memoir, readers interested
in faith and spirituality, and anyone who has known what it's like to
engage the complexities and contradictions of one's past.
"From the Hardcover edition."
