I have been reading Mary Katherine Backstrom’s substack for a few years now, I found her through her fellow deconstructionist writer Father Nathan Monk, whom she talks about in this latest book. I was fortunate to be allowed to download an advanced listening copy audiobook via NetGalley; thank you to the author and Hachette audio. I am not sure why I was so surprised at MK’s personality and bubbly Southern accent- I knew she was from Alabama and somehow never read her words in a southern accent.
There are a few memoirs and Christian living books in this genre, I really enjoy reading them and it helps me to learn about myself. This book is a lot funnier than I expected, MK has a self-deprecating and simple humor associated with her past time as an evangelical. She has a very mature and questioning attitude about her faith, rejecting rigidity and self-righteousness. Being a mom and having kids that ask great questions really help her make sense of her deconstruction and reconstruction.
This is not written as a linear story and memoir, but focuses on those moments that were monumental in shaping her faith- how her church reacted to find out her stepfather was abusing her, how she reacted when her son asked her if a friend was going to hell, her husband asking for a divorce, and being an ally to the LGBTQ community.
I think sometimes deconstruction stories can be incomplete without the re-construction. MK uses a lovely analogy about a mosaic art of Jesus that was destroyed in a tornado and then painstaking put back together and strengthened. She is honest and contemplative, but not flashy and emotional. This is funny but definitely at a distance. I think she is a great writer and I appreciate when an audiobook memoir is voiced by the author. She has a refreshing humility to approach doubt and faith, and the way those two play with each other.
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