Over the weekend I read this book.
It was a freebie Kindle buy that I picked up because I have this fascination with the AT and typically the free kindle downloads are things like “The Everything Gross Cookbook” and “Financial Freedom” and “Ruth’s Romance” and other such nonsense.
Anyway, I was chugging along in this book and enjoying the story (albeit it wasn’t superb writing by any stretch) and then BAM! I get slapped in the face by the J-man.
Look, I get it. Hiking along from Georgia to Maine can certainly be a spiritual experience and I was on board for the first couple times Jesus and Christian theory came into play. Then around the halfway mark things got REALLY churchy and less about the hiking and I couldn’t help but feel a little misled.
That’s what bugs me the most. I can’t say I would have read this book if I knew I was going to be in for some God talk, but I hate that I didn’t get a choice in the matter. The synopsis doesn’t mention it. Neither do any of the first few reviews on Amazon.
I’m starting to wonder if that’s par for the course in religious-themed fiction. This same thing happened to me with two books I picked up at Goodwill last year, halfway through what I thought was a forgettable chick lit, I fell victim to the religious sneak attack.
I’ve learned to double check books I don’t recognize when I’m shopping locally (this is Pat Robertson country) but I didn’t think anything of an A-T memoir.
Anyway, one sentence review: Thru-hiking memoir; fairly interesting, moderately churchy.
