Everyone seems to be comparing Pete Gall's book to Blue Like Jazz since it's in the spiritual memoir genre. No offense to Donald Miller, but I thought 'Idol' was a far better read.
It could just be where I'm at in life right now, but I felt that Pete was just filled with way more self-absorption, more insecurity, more ridiculous stories, and more excuses in life than I've ever read about. Some reason stuff like that sells with me these days.
I don't know how many times I stopped to say to myself, I can't believe he just wrote that. And I also don't know how his wife let him get away with writing about all these other women the way he did. With every girl he wrote about I kept flipping to his bio wondering, so is this his wife? ...nope. His wife wasn't even mentioned until the final closing paragraphs of the book. I'm hoping this sets things up for a follow up memoir.
It's hard to bring up quotes from the book because it's almost one giant narrative that rarely stops to explain itself. Here's a few random tidbits...
Things you don't even know about today are things that I'll make sure you won't be able to live without tomorrow
... and idol is a god you can put in your pocket. It's something you can control, pull out when you need a dose of insurance or magic, and then put away while things click along well. Oh, and an idol will always choose your death over it's own.
Seminaries are full of salespeople in training
My mother mentioned that she misses being able to brag about me
... We work so overly hard to make God look good that what we say has no credibility at all; we lie about him all the time.
...I want to earn God's love because I can't just let it happen without taking him for granted, or maybe I'd hate him if he loved me for no reason.
I don't know if I'll ever be quoting anything from the book again, but it's definitely helped me to become a more honest follower of Jesus.
Lon Wong
http://solarcrash.com
Blue Like Jazz was amazing and chnaged my life in many ways, especially what I like to read, etc, etc.
So if you are saying that this is that good or better....then it looks like I know what I'm reading next.
rhett
Posted by: Rhett Smith | May 30, 2008 at 11:00 PM