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Jerry Cradleman, a senior in high school, and his best friend, Adam Goldberg, attend Bobby Knight's basketball camp for a week, where Jerry's journey begins regarding feeling that something is just not right with him and the world. Jerry continues throughout his life, attending college and finally seminary at Princeton, as he feels he needs to find God. Throughout his search, he feels unsettled, wondering whether he'll have to work at his father's urinal cake business, and continually searching within, finding anger and sorrow. He finds himself a minister at a church, chucks the job, goes searching, and ends up with more questions than answers as he travels the U.S. and the world. But the people and the situations he meets offer insight that Jerry internalizes as he begins to heal.
A thoughtful, sometimes irreverent look at one's path in life, the story examines the search for home within oneself in order to heal inner woundedness. The narrative examines the need for solace, inner child work, and the search for belonging. It takes on difficult topics including suicide and sexual abuse in a heartfelt manner. Beautifully written, the book starts off slowly but develops the story throughout, and the reader comes to know Jerry as a person, in his spirit and soul. Handled with grace and grit, the book is a soul-searching journey, and the reader will cheer for Jerry as he gets through his trials. The secondary characters also provide significant background to Jerry's life. This is a story that needs to be told and read.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review