Suburban Gospel

By Mark Beaver

When the deacons at Mark Beaver's Bible Belt church cue up an evangelical horror flick aimed at dramatizing Hell, he figures he'd better get right with God, and soon. Convinced he could die at age seven and spend eternity roasting on a spit in the fiery furnace of Hades, he promptly gets Saved. But once adolescence hits, the Straight and Narrow becomes a tight squeeze. But SUBURBAN GOSPEL offers more than a look inside Bible Belt suburbia, circa Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. In an Atlanta suburb filled with Prince posters and Atari games, SuperWow church camps and Baskin Robbins, Beaver captures a boyhood full of faith and flesh. As much about the adolescent heart as the evangelical mind, the story explores similar emotional terrain as coming-of-age classics like Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life and Mary Karr's Cherry. SUBURBAN GOSPEL is a tale of growing up Baptist, all right-but also of just growing up.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1938235193
• ISBN13: 9781938235191
• Release Date: April 2016
• Publisher: Hub City Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.5"