Julia Scheeres

I can only give this 4 stars because of the pain it caused my soul. I am sensitive to tales of mental torture and anguish caused to humans, particularly when it is inflicted for no good reason. And this memoir is rife with it: racism, family violence, sexual exploitation, and of course, religion. I suppose I should be astonished by the resilience of the human spirit in the face of such terrible injustices, but I can only think that "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" is bullshit. We shouldn't have to gain strength through such violent adversity. Surely we can be strong, whole, healthy people without having to endure abuse and pain? I had a pretty soft upbringing in comparison to Julia Scheeres: my parents love me, nobody ever tried to force me to do or believe anything I didn't want to do or believe, nobody injured my body or my soul. And yet I have turned out to be a strong and smart person, without being subjected to exile and alienation from my family. This book is painful but gripping-- I pretty much had to read through it in order to convince myself that people are essentially good. I more or less succeeded.… (mais)

You know, I could almost give this book a heart because I could NOT put it down. It's compulsively readable.

Julia tells us about her unique childhood being raised by very strict Christian parents in the Midwest. Her parents have four children of their own, and they adopt two African American boys. One of the African American boys, David, is the same age as Julia, and this memoir relates their story of growing up together as siblings.

Unfortunately, this tale is not a pretty one. Julia's parents are largely absent, in the case of the father, physically, and in the case of the mother, emotionally. Julia and David truly only have each other, and even their relationship is under a lot of stress as their parents treat them differently, and David struggles as one of the only African Americans at his school.

This memoir is to some degree in the same vein as Mommy Dearest or Dave Pelzer's books. Not quite as graphic and horrible - - but definitely the situation is not good, and you feel Julia's pain throughout the story. The parents really seem to have NO redeeming qualities whatsoever . . .so I didn't find it quite as strong as The Glass Castle where the writing really goes so far beyond a mere characterization and really develops the family dynamics.

Nonetheless, Jesus Land is pretty gripping. You want so badly for things to take a turn for the better for these two children. Unfortunately, things by and large get grimmer and grimmer . . .but underneath all the pain, Julia and David's love and loyalty to one another takes center stage and makes the book more than a parent bashing session.

For those of you who do not like much in the way of sexual content, it should be noted that there is some here. Not unduly graphic and not gratuitous - - but it's there.… (mais)