Breaking Up with God: A Love Story
Release date: 2011 / 230 pages
Synopsis (from the back cover): Sarah Sentilles’s relationship with God was not casual. When it began to unravel she was in the ordination process to become an Episcopal priest, a youth minister at a church, and a doctoral student in theology at Harvard…
First Sentence: I broke up with God.
Review: This is a tough work to review, quite honestly. Just before I read it, I had finished Oscar Hijuelos’s memoir that read like a novel, filled with colorful characters and memorable stories — it even had an arc like traditional stories do, climaxing with when he won the Pulitzer.
Sentilles’ memoir is much more like a deeply personal, unflinchingly intimate journal. She is unapologetically honest and introspective and allows her memoir a free-form structure that circles back, engulfs, and even seems to terrorizes the writer. The defining metaphor of this memoir is less that of breaking up with God as if he were a boyfriend, and more the sentiment expressed by one of her favorite professors:
People are in cages of their own making… I can stand on the outside of the cage and show them the gate is unlocked, that they are free to go, that they have always been free to go, but they need to decide to leave the cage.
Sentilles allows her readers into her cage and shares her experiences with faith, politics, relationships, self esteem and identity. As a contemporary of Sentilles, as a woman who has studied religion and spirituality, and as a vegetarian for 22 years, it was interesting to remember having lived through similar experiences, although my transitions were often quieter, easier, and certainly less fraught with self-recrimination as Sentilles’. I did feel compassion for Sentilles, but was occasionally impatient with her, too.
There are aspects of this memoir that I believe are not as successful as Sentilles had hoped — the break-up metaphor, for example, was too superficial for the profound journey she was on. Whenever she made parallels between God and a boyfriend, I found the references more irritating than enlightening. I do think the break-up metaphor was meaningful for Sentilles, though. In fact, that was my lasting thought about Breaking Up with God — I hope the process of writing this memoir was helpful and enlightening to Sentilles, and I truly felt compassion for her throughout her journey. However, I do think this may be a bit too personal to engage some readers.
Interested in winning a free copy? Drop me a comment below and I will choose a lucky winner by the weekend!
Monday, May 23rd: Arriving at Your Own Door
Tuesday, May 31st: Regular Rumination
Friday, June 3rd: Life in Review
Monday, June 6th: Ponderings on a Faith Journey
Thursday, June 9th: Book Reviews by Molly
Monday, June 13th: Broken Teepee
Wednesday, June 15th: Colloquium
Monday, June 20th: Carol’s Notebook
Wednesday, June 22nd: In the Next Room
Monday, June 27th: Book Club Classics!
I would love to read this. Sounds like a wonderful book.
I would like to give this book a shot. Sounds good.
Sounds like an interesting read ~ please enter me
This sounds like a really good book. Different from what I have been reading lately and I would love a change in pace.
The title alone would make me pick up this book. Please enter me.
Sign me up! What an intriguing faith journey.
I would definitely be interested to read this one. Although you had mixed feelings on it, it sounds interesting enough for me to give it a try!
I’ve been following the tour for this book. My impression on the title is similar to yours, though obviously I haven’t read the book yet. I’ve commented on other sites that the Catholic Sisters of Mercy wear wedding bands (or at least they did when I was in school) and told us they were “Brides of Christ.” So, the God as boyfriend angle isn’t entirely new. I’m curious about the evolution (can I use that word in this context?) of the author’s spirituality. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of this provocative memoir.
This book sounds fascinating, what an unusual title! I look forward to reading and learning about the author’s spiritual journey.
I’m interested! Thanks for the opportunity.
It’s hard to read two very different memoirs one right after the other, isn’t it? I enjoyed your review though!
Thanks for being on the tour.