Suburban Gospel - Softcover

Beaver, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938235193 ISBN 13: 9781938235191

Publisher: Hub City Press, 2016

Synopsis

When the deacons at Mark Beaver’s Bible Belt church cue up an evangelical horror flick aimed at dramatizing Hell, he figures he'd better get right with God, and soon. Convinced he could die at age seven and spend eternity roasting on a spit in the fiery furnace of Hades, he promptly gets Saved.  But once adolescence hits, the Straight and Narrow becomes a tight squeeze.
But Suburban Gospel offers more than a look inside Bible Belt suburbia, circa Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority―it’s a tale of faith and flesh. Beaver invites us into a world filled with Daisy Duke fantasies and Prince posters, Nerf Hoops and Atari joysticks, raggedy Camaros and the neon light of strip malls. As much about the adolescent heart as the evangelical mind, the story explores similar emotional terrain as coming-of-age classics like Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life and Mary Karr's Cherry. Suburban Gospel is a tale of growing up Baptist, all right―but also of just growing up.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark Beaver’s prose has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including North American Review, Gulf Coast, Ninth Letter, Southeast Review, storySouth, Tampa Review, Third Coast, Louisville Review, Crazyhorse, Fugue, and elsewhere. In addition, his work has been shortlisted for the Best American Essays series. A graduate of the MFA program at UNC-Greensboro, he lives with his wife and daughters in his native Atlanta. Suburban Gospel is his first book.

Review:

“Beaver=’s voice is engrossing; his deadpan self-satire is as sharp as his observations about his community.”
--Publishers Weekly
“Beaver is good company, and his self-deprecating ,occasionally hyperbolic style is agreeable and serves his material well.”

--Kirkus Reviews
“A backsliding evangelical Christian shares stories of a warped youth spent shedding religion for adolescent shenanigans in the 1980s. Never preachy or self-righteous, Beaver praises the exhilaration of independence while keeping faith always within reach.”

--Booklist
“You need not be Bible Belt Southern, first generation suburbanite, or male to appreciate Mark Beaver’s terrific memoir of growing up all of the above in and around 1980s Atlanta. You really don’t need compassion or empathy, because Beaver, portraying the life he did not choose, brings so much of both to his story that you’re bound to reap the leftovers.”

--Michael Parker, author of All I Have in This World
“In Suburban Gospel, Mark Beaver proves to be a kind of down-home David Sedaris. This isn’t your great-grandfather’s Southern memoir; instead of red clay and moonshine, Beaver offers Bubble Yum and break dancing, suburban malls and 80s sports cars, Baskin-Robbins and Prince. In the midst of all the fun, Beaver trains his sights on two familiar Bible Belt subjects—family and religion—with intelligence, humor, and warmth. An entertaining and absorbing read.”

--Keith Lee Morris, author of Travelers Rest
“Part comic strip character Ziggy, part Fast Times at Ridgemont High (and Junior High, and Elementary) Mark Beaver’s Suburban Gospel details the missteps and close-calls of that relentless and necessary Era of Adolescence. For anyone embarrassed about his or her own rites of passage, Suburban Gospel could serve as a self-deprecating primer. Funny, and honest, and clear-sighted. Between the lines, Beaver attests that we’re all in this weird life together.”

--George Singleton, author of Calloustown
“What’s refreshing about this coming-of-age memoir set in the New South is Mark Beaver’s voice: at once self-sure and puzzled, funny and humble, clear-eyed and confused about how growing up works. Suburban Gospel pulls no punches about what it means to be a bewildered kid growing up in the 1980s, trying to map the conjunction of sex, church, social standing and girls, all with a razor-sharp wit and a tender heart too. Mark Beaver is a terrific writer, Suburban Gospel a terrific book.“ --Brett Lott, author of Jewel

About this edition

• Publisher: Hub City Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1938235193
• ISBN 13: 9781938235191
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264