I like to take time with novels I read; thirty or forty pages, let it sink in, and then come back tomorrow. I was not afforded this luxury with Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. The book is simply too engaging.
Gabe, our hero, is a California teen with good friends, raging hormones, fascination for the world, and anxiety about becoming an adult. A textbook teenager. What sets Gabe apart is that he is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religion that shields him the evils of his surroundings. The “world” is a dirty word.
Like all adolescent Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gabe’s future is prescribed: get married as soon as possible to a wholesome fellow Witness and become a full time door-to-door minister. Getting married is necessary because sex outside of marriage will get you disfellowshipped, shunned. And there is no point in going to college and pursuing a secular career because Armageddon is coming soon, maybe tomorrow.
Author Tony DuShane, a former Jehovah’s Witness, uses his first novel to spill the beans on what it is truly like to be a young JW. It’s fascinating and scary. Gabe and his friends crack each other up by writing curse words in the margins of bible study magazines. They go to Jehovah’s Witness conventions to scope out cute young sisters from other congregations, where the excitement of getting a phone number or an address is tantamount to getting a BJ on the first date. But even holding hands is a no-no, unless you are engaged to be married. Gabe, who has never seen a real, live boob fantasizes about a gray haired woman wearing a support bra in his mom’s medical supplies catalogue. Parts of this book will make you laugh out loud.
It’s only when Gabe gets disfellowshipped, cut off from his friends, his congregation, and everything that he has ever known, that he is given a pause, a perspective. He is an outsider of outsiders, which makes him realize that he is an individual in need of community. But above all, he is an individual.
File Jesus Jerk under “Coming of Age” novels. He is challenged, he learns, he grows, and ultimately gains a better understanding of the world. But in this tale the reader gains a better understanding of the world as well. A coming of age novel done right.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Many individuals are leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses! I want to encourage people that there is a good life beyond JWs.
Support each to achieve their free minds, independency and a positive, responsible life.
The Watchtower Society controls, over-controls their people.
Second that! There is life beyond the bubble.
As a former J.W I just want to say how powerful this story was for me. I went the through some of the same struggles and challenges and in the long run it almost took my life away. It wasn’t until I was pushed away that I suddenly woke up at 18 and knew that wasn’t the life for me, and I’m left with the product; a wonderful and great life with much more supportive people around me.
{ 1 trackback }