Buy God Says No

God Says No

Book Hardcover More Info ISBN: 9781934781401 Catalog #: BH3029192	Usually ships in 5-10 days	$19.99 (9% off) List Price: ~~$21.99~~
Book Trade Paperback More Info ISBN: 9780802144966 Catalog #: BT3029193	Usually ships in 5-10 days	$12.49 (10% off) List Price: ~~$13.99~~

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Synopsis

In God Says No, Gary Gray marries his first girlfriend, a fellow student from Central Florida Christian College who loves Disney World as much as he does. They are nineteen, God-fearing, and eager to start a family, but a week before their wedding Gary goes into a rest-stop bathroom and lets something happen. God Says No is his testimony — the story of a young black Christian struggling with desire and belief, with his love for his wife and his appetite for other men, told in a singular, emotional voice. Driven by desperation and religious visions, the path that Gary Gray takes — from revival meetings to out life in Atlanta to a pray-away-the-gay ministry in Memphis, Tennessee — gives a riveting picture of how a life like his can be lived, and how it can't.

Review

Gary Gray is naïve, fat and a sweet black man who lives in Orlando, Florida in the 1980's and he makes terrible mistakes and then struggles with what he has done. Jesus is always in his thoughts and the author takes a good look at religion, race, sexuality and the American South with lots of humor as well as seriousness. Gary lusts for men and forbidden pleasures. Gary is the voice of someone telling their own story and it is a clumsy voice. At times you wonder if all that is said is true but then you realize that it must be. Gary is on a quest for "normalcy" and has a great deal of trouble finding it.
Gary married his first girlfriend when they were both 19 but a week before the wedding he went to a bathroom in a rest area and allowed something to happen there and his story is one of a Christian struggling with desire and belief in God who loves both his wife and other men. The book is a comedy and it goes where few novels have gone before. Gary is a hero who is not very smart and it is his innocence that causes all of the events to occur. Gary goes to restoration ministries to try to become straight but instead he goes through introspection and then acceptance of who he is. You cannot help but feel his pain and the reader is pulled in different directions throughout the book. Gary is so completely human that he becomes an everyman kind of character, Written poetically, the book holds surprises and is original and very funny. I could not stop reading because everything is so totally unpredictable. It is a great read for those who want to know about themselves or for those who just want to read a real good book.

-- Mike Whitt