Julia Scheeres - Jesus Land: A Memoir

Praise for Jesus Land

What makes Jesus Land unique and easy to relate to is its unadorned, dark humor... Many of us could have had the misfortune of stumbling into Jesus Land but few would have the spirit to survive.

Los Angeles Times

Unflinchingly honest.

Washington Post

[A] rough, brutal, and shockingly good memoir... Jesus Land is matter-of-fact, clear-eyed, and compassionate, without vindictiveness, which is, of course, what real Christian charity is about.

Boston Globe

[A] darkly comic memoir.

GQ

Julia Scheeres has written a love story that is as romantic and as sad as any recent memoir youll read... What Scheeres devastating book maps out is the story of this thwarted relationship, which somehow survives every twisted setback and deprivation to emerge intact.... Its tough going, but life-affirming.

San Francisco Chronicle

What did Julia and David learn from their strict Christian upbringing? How to write apparently... Everything in this memoir, including its final tragedy, is brightly, clearly rendered, by a voice as rich in forgiveness as it has unforgivable stories to tell.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[Scheeres] deftly exposes the disparity between her parents religious beliefs and their actions... and confesses with honesty and emotion her guilt and shame at abandoning her little brother in her search for acceptance. This work will force readers to relive the angst of being a teenager at a new school and desperately trying to fit in. Highly recommended.

Library Journal

Jesus Land is a fascinating study of how so-called discipline warps young minds... poignant and [more] important to share.

Seattle Weekly

[Jesus Land] is a book readers are sure to be talking about, and references to such titles as Running With Scissors and Girl, Interrupted will likely be drawn. Scheeres succeeds at relating a harrowing life story with effortless humor and wisdom.

Chicago Tribune

[A] gripping memoir.

Essence

The grace and emotional brawn that carried Julia Scheeres through the pummeling brutality of her youth has enabled her to tell the tale with a measured intensity that pulls you to her side and keeps you there. I could not stop reading this book.

Mary Roach, best-selling author of Stiff

The writing is Dickensian in its blend of the tender, the brutal, and the absurd.

Booklist

A harrowing memoir of coming-of-age amid religious zealotry... Scheeres manages to balance her righteous rage against fanatical hypocrisy with a smart sense of humor... poignant and heartbreaking.

Mother Jones

A frank and compelling portrait... Tinged with sadness yet pervaded by a sense of triumph, Scheeress book is a crisply written and earnest examination of the meaning of family and Christian values, and announces the author as a writer to watch.

Publishers Weekly

Jesus Land is an extraordinary memoir not just for the jaw-dropping tale it depicts, but for the wit and honesty, and literary courage within it pages. This book will make readers think of the Liars Club and Bastard Out of Carolina, but theres nothing derivative in it. For all its hardship and terror, it is above all a love story. Scheeres is the real thing, and this is a book that should last for a long, long time.

Tom Barbash, author of The Last Good Chance and On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11: A Story of Loss & Renewal

The road out of an intolerant small town leads straight to a faith-based reform school in journalist Scheeress scarifying memoir... A bristly summoning of unpretty events, conveyed with remarkable placidity.

Kirkus

This book will break your heart and mend it again. Julia Scheeres peels back the shiny, plastic veneer of fundamentalist Christianity to reveal the intolerance, hypocrisy and cruelty that can lie beneath. She does this with a merciless eye for detail, and an uncanny ability to evoke the essence of the Midwest. However, it is the exquisite candor and humor which makes Jesus Land so worth the reading. That, and the simple human love that shines out of every page.

Lisa Reardon, author of Billy Dead and The Mercy Killers

Woody Allen once said If Jesus Christ came back today and saw what was being done in his name, hed never stop throwing up. He was right. Jesus Land is the story of Christianity gone horribly awry, of children entrusted to unfit parents, and of siblings united against terrible odds. Scheeres is a heart-breaking memoir, a compelling read that will hold you fast from start to finish and leave you in tears.

About.com

Julia Scheeres beautifully-written memoir took my breath awayfor the cruelties she suffered, for the courage it took to survive and tell her story, and for her enduring, sparkling faith. She is able to describe the everyday details of her experience with a clear, candid eye, and without bitternessmaking her story vividly alive, at turns heart-breaking and humorous.

Laura Fraser, author of An Italian Affair

A real-life coming-of-age tale is told in Jesus Land... Scheeres... looks back with journalistic clarity and literary grace at her teenage years.

PW Daily

In this brilliant, sorrow-filled, race-tangled memoir, Ms. Scheeres story-telling skill makes you cheer for her and her adopted brother every step of the way as they navigate a cruel childhood. You will especially love the well-written sections about Ms. Scheeres exile to a Dominican Republic reform schoolinhabited by many emotionally-uneven adults who prove the adage that some Christians are too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.

Joe Loya, author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell

JESUS LAND

A MEMOIR

JULIA SCHEERES

COUNTERPOINT
BERKELEY

Jesus Land

Copyright 2005, 2012 by Julia Scheeres

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data is available.