The Brilliant confessions of a teenage Jesus jerk

There has been a plethora of coming of age stories published over the last sixty years, the majority of them written by out of touch authors with ulterior motives other than honest story telling. Of course, there’s Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Kerouac’s On the Road and Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries. These books spoke to their generation because there’s honesty in the writing, words being delivered from the heart rather than the pen of a well versed commercial novelist.

The last great book of this genre was Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries which was a rough and often painful look at coming of age on the streets of New York. There have been many attempts at writing coming of age stories since Carroll’s 1978 publication. However, the majority of them fall short because they’re not written from the gut. You can’t tell this kind of story without brutal honesty.

Tony DuShane’s Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, is a novel written straight from the soul. What makes this book join the three previously mentioned books as a great coming of age tale is twofold.

First off, the plot is brilliant. The stories central character, Gabe, is coming of age within the strict world of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Most of us conjure up images of men in cheap suits banging on our door at 7:00 am on Sunday morning, adding to the headache leftover from our previous night’s debauchery. However, DuShane paints a compelling portrait of a community of people who are misunderstood and ultimately have become the butt of countless jokes. While pointing out the flaws in their beliefs, he does so in a considerate way. Of course, having been a Jehovah’s Witness, Tony is able to tell the story from a firsthand perspective. He develops the story’s protagonist, Gabe, into a real person rather than an indoctrinated cult member. Then there’s the literary style. There is a natural charm and innocence that the majority of today’s writers lack. He conveys his story from the heart and it shows. Rather than bury the reader with large, out of place words meant to bolster the writer’s ego, DuShane uses his words with the economy of Steinbeck.

There are priceless moments in this book, such as Gabe gaping over the breasts of a gray haired woman in a mail order catalog, that are far too real for many of us (religious or not). His perspective is spot on when it comes to male adolescence. His writing is so strong that you could take out the unique plot revolving around the Jehovah’s Witnesses and still have a brilliant coming of age story.

This is a book you need to run out and buy. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud until tears are pouring from your eyes. You’ll also find yourself pondering your own youth with remorse. You can also check out his writing at one of the hottest online literary magazines, The Nervous Breakdown, which features many great writers. So, go down to your local bookseller or library and grab a copy of this book.

If you like what you’ve read, subscribe to this column, leave a comment or email me and, as always, good reading.
 

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