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My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus
by
Kelly Barth (Goodreads Author)
Kelly Barth, like many American kids, went to Sunday school, sang songs about Zaccheas, and was tucked in with bedtime prayers. A typical Christian kid, that is, until she developed a searingly deep crush on another little girl playing afterhours in church, and more importantly, until Jesus—a tiny, imaginary Jesus, one that stays “safely tucked behind the baseboard or the...more
Paperback, 229 pages
Published
September 1st 2012
by Arktoi
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I knew that I would find this book interesting, but I had no idea how much it would resonate with me. Young people often struggle with self-loathing and become expert shape-shifters. We buy into false dichotomies, and we make ourselves miserable trying to live up to their demands after we force ourselves to choose sides. Kelly's misery is, as for so many of us, bound up in her desire to please her family as well as her God. Those desires, she realizes at a very early age, conflict with more auth...more
A review of mine, published in the Missoula Independent:
Fundamentalist religion and homosexuality have never been on especially good terms. In Kelly Barth's debut memoir, My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus, the tension between being Christian and being gay results in a personal implosion. In the book, Barth, who studied writing at the University of Montana, immerses herself in the ritual self-hatreds of right-wing religion while attempting to find distinctiveness as a lesbian and a writer...more
Fundamentalist religion and homosexuality have never been on especially good terms. In Kelly Barth's debut memoir, My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus, the tension between being Christian and being gay results in a personal implosion. In the book, Barth, who studied writing at the University of Montana, immerses herself in the ritual self-hatreds of right-wing religion while attempting to find distinctiveness as a lesbian and a writer...more
I went to church yesterday. Not in the literal, time honored sense, but I finished a book I've been reading and felt as if I had been to church. The book is ironically named My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus by Kelly Barth. Told with sincerity, honesty, and humor, this memoir could have been my life on so many levels - not so much in specific details, but in many of the passages Barth traveled on her journey as a gay woman of faith. I like that better than describing her as a woman of fai...more
There are many reasons I draw a heart around this book, not the least of which is the similarities of the author's journey to mine: Being gay and growing up in a compulsorily religious family, Fundamentalism, Youth for Christ, Bill Gothard, Pentecostalism, Exodus, Living Waters, feeling in the church like a piece of "machinery in need of parts and service." More surprising still is that she grew up in the Kansas City area, making her story seem even more uncannily familiar. I could not help laug...more
I enjoyed reading this memoir by a woman I am privileged to know, who grew up in Raytown, Missouri, where I now live and went, among others, to where I went to church at Broadway Baptist and Crossroads Churches. Kelly Barth is particularly open and creative in sharing how she went through much of the same religious questioning and emotional challenges about trying to fit in as the rest of us, but the same time was trying to work through questions of her own sexual identity. Let me know whether y...more
A little slow-moving at times, but well-worth a read. Ms. Barth's honesty is incredible. A beautiful story of finding love and finding faith and combining the two, whether judged for it or not. I was often sickened by what the author went through as she grew up denying her sexuality, being taught things that I was taught growing up but didn't affect me as greatly as a straight woman. This is such an amazing story and testament of how life can be changed by faith, love, and acceptance, of oneself...more
The author tried for many years not to be gay, though she knew she was at age 4. Always maintaining a relationship with Jesus (the one in the title), she veered through multiple expressions of church and of repression. This is a good read and a great tale of learning to be true to self.
This memoir was both funny and thoughtful. I enjoyed getting a look into what it was like for Barth to grow up in a fundamentalist faith, and come out as a lesbian. I especially liked how she was able to bring her faith and her true self together, giving up neither.
I especially found the first part of this book funny- laugh out loud funny in spots. Her struggles with being lesbian and Christian are depicted with both humor and poignancy. My heart was warmed with the falling-in-love section.
I am ten years older than Kelly Barth, but we might have grown up in the same church. I could identify with many of the issues on the table, and I wondered if any of my friends had a similar experience to Kelly's, being gay or lesbian. Funny and moving.
Sincere, authentic, and heart-felt. You could feel that this story has been trying to come out of Kelly for a while. A wonderful journey of struggle and ultimately of acceptance.
An illuminating and rewarding read for straight and gay Christians alike, this engagingly powerful memoir tells the story of a lesbian Christian's journey through fundamentalism to a place where even she can feel loved and secure within her Christian faith. Highly recommended!
4 1/2. Nice memoir!
Funny in an Anne Lamott sort of way, and poignant throughout. Proof that coming out is not for sissies.
My almost certainly real imaginary Jesus by Kelly Barth was a very hard book for me to read. Kelly's search for acceptance, her struggle to find people like herself was heartbreaking.
April 2013
April 2013
An honest, interesting, and frequently humorous memoir by a gay woman from a fundamentalist background coming to terms with her Christian faith.
A wonderful, thoughtful, insightful memoir, gently told, delicately provocative, intimate without being gratuitous and kind.
May 11, 2013
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| My Story Book Club: Online Chat with Kelly Barth | 37 | 11 | Dec 27, 2012 10:55am | |
| My Story Book Club: Reading Schedule | 1 | 2 | Dec 02, 2012 08:23pm |
Kelly Barth lives on very little money in a very small house with her partner Lisa Grossman in Lawrence, Kansas. She was a fiction fellow in the University of Montana’s creative writing program and has received fellowships from the Missouri Arts Council and the Kansas Arts Commission. Her work has been published in anthologies and literary journals, most recently Coal City Review, Literary Bird Jo...more
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