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Sweet Jesus
Christine Pountney’s dazzling and original novel, Sweet Jesus, is a work of deep feeling, wit, and piercing observation. Set mainly on Vancouver Island, in Toronto, and in the American Midwest, it tells the story of three siblings who, in the week before the 2012 US Presidential election, reunite and set off on a journey that will transform their lives.
Connie Foster, a mother of three young children, learns that her husband’s attempt to maintain their lifestyle has led them to financial ruin. Her sister, Hannah Crowe, a writer, desperately wants to have a child but the man she loves is determined not to. Zeus Ortega, their much younger adopted brother, who left the family home when he was only fifteen, is living in Chicago with his boyfriend and working as a therapeutic clown in a children’s hospital. Prompted by a heartbreaking loss, he quits his job and decides to search for his birth parents in New Mexico. Together, the three siblings head south and, on the way, they visit a mega church in Wichita, Kansas, where their mother, Rose, once had a powerful faith experience, and where they are confronted by the politics of the evangelical right.
What unfolds is a captivating story about three people bound by family ties and caught between loyalty and desire, searching for wholeness and finding something more real in its place. Achingly human, infused with sparkling intelligence and dark humour, and revealing of our foibles and our grace, Sweet Jesus illuminates how compassion goes a long way in the absence of certainty. Christine Pountney is one of Canada’s most exciting new writers.
Connie Foster, a mother of three young children, learns that her husband’s attempt to maintain their lifestyle has led them to financial ruin. Her sister, Hannah Crowe, a writer, desperately wants to have a child but the man she loves is determined not to. Zeus Ortega, their much younger adopted brother, who left the family home when he was only fifteen, is living in Chicago with his boyfriend and working as a therapeutic clown in a children’s hospital. Prompted by a heartbreaking loss, he quits his job and decides to search for his birth parents in New Mexico. Together, the three siblings head south and, on the way, they visit a mega church in Wichita, Kansas, where their mother, Rose, once had a powerful faith experience, and where they are confronted by the politics of the evangelical right.
What unfolds is a captivating story about three people bound by family ties and caught between loyalty and desire, searching for wholeness and finding something more real in its place. Achingly human, infused with sparkling intelligence and dark humour, and revealing of our foibles and our grace, Sweet Jesus illuminates how compassion goes a long way in the absence of certainty. Christine Pountney is one of Canada’s most exciting new writers.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 11, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 7, 2012
My review for the Waterloo Record, Nov.3, 2012
Christine Pountney’s novel, Sweet Jesus (McClelland & Stewart $29.99) was released in September but was overlooked for the G-G and Giller shortlists. I used to take delight as a bookseller in spotting such a book “below the radar” that I could hand sell. She is the author of two earlier novels. Her partner is the Newfoundland-raised Michael Winter, which makes Kathleen Winter (Annabel) her sister-in-law. I discovered these connections (via jacket blurbs and the internet); a continuation of “connecting the dots” that I did while reading Sweet Jesus.
In the first half of the book chapters rotate between three siblings each at a crossroad in their lives. Zeus, born Jesus Ortega, works as a therapeutic clown in a Chicago children’s hospital, along with his older gay partner, Fenton. He was adopted at age seven by an Anglican priest and his wife from Victoria who had two daughters, Connie and Hannah. At fifteen Zeus ran away from home when his father tried to squelch his homosexuality with prayer circles and exorcisms. By then his sisters were already on their own. Connie is married with three kids, happy in suburban affluence. But her world is about to collapse: her husband’s business and their house are being repossessed to cover his leveraged investment flops. Hannah is an unpublished author, living on arts grants, in love with her boyfriend who loves her too, just refuses to have a child with her.
The second half of the book becomes a road trip on the eve of this fall’s presidential election. Fenton has died of liver cancer but left money and instructions to help Zeus to find his birth parents in New Mexico. His two sisters are headed to a mega-church in Wichita where their mother Rose had once found peace. They invite Zeus to join them. And their mother makes an unannounced trip from Vancouver Island to Wichita. Connie is the most religious of the three, eager to experience the Holy Spirit via the ‘prophetic ministry’ practitioners. Hannah argues that she lacks the temperament to have faith but is curious about those that do. Zeus has never recovered from the exorcism and the self-hate it engendered. And Rose winds up in the ER of a Wichita hospital before she can find her children.
Pountney excels at painterly descriptions: “The late October sky was like milk with a drop of blue paint in it. The ground scrubby, the field shaved and corrugated. … Last night’s rain had left ribbons of bright water in the furrows, like incisions revealing another sky beneath the earth.”
It is rare to find a novel that treats both religious faith and the lack thereof with respect but not piety. ”Sometimes I think we all live by faith when we’re children, Hannah said, and then spend the rest of our adult lives trying to regain that trust.” An early chapter about Hannah’s first time caribou-hunting set in Newfoundland ends with Jesus’ words: Take, Eat, this is my body broken for you. Pountney may not be a PK (preacher’s kid) but from this reviewer was, she nails life growing up in the rectory with parents whose priorities mostly put parish family ahead of their own. I read part of this book while at a conference on The Emergent Church and was fascinated by her description of the Kansas mega-church. Even American charismatics are treated with respect. Back home, while reading a passage about Fenton as young man, sent by his Zionist father to do military service in Israel, my IPod shuffled through my music library on the stereo. Up popped a recording I had made of my late father talking about his military training in 1942. As I said, reading this book was a series of connected dots. Becoming aware of such synchronicities, both inside this timely novel and between the story and one’s life, is a thoughtful lesson in faith.
New research is confirming what many booksellers and therapists have long known: reading fiction improves our ability to empathize with other people. (Keith Oatley, a U of T psychology professor, summarizes this research in his online journal, OnFiction http://www.onfiction.ca/ ). I recommend Sweet Jesus as a two-way exercise in expanding empathy.
Christine Pountney’s novel, Sweet Jesus (McClelland & Stewart $29.99) was released in September but was overlooked for the G-G and Giller shortlists. I used to take delight as a bookseller in spotting such a book “below the radar” that I could hand sell. She is the author of two earlier novels. Her partner is the Newfoundland-raised Michael Winter, which makes Kathleen Winter (Annabel) her sister-in-law. I discovered these connections (via jacket blurbs and the internet); a continuation of “connecting the dots” that I did while reading Sweet Jesus.
In the first half of the book chapters rotate between three siblings each at a crossroad in their lives. Zeus, born Jesus Ortega, works as a therapeutic clown in a Chicago children’s hospital, along with his older gay partner, Fenton. He was adopted at age seven by an Anglican priest and his wife from Victoria who had two daughters, Connie and Hannah. At fifteen Zeus ran away from home when his father tried to squelch his homosexuality with prayer circles and exorcisms. By then his sisters were already on their own. Connie is married with three kids, happy in suburban affluence. But her world is about to collapse: her husband’s business and their house are being repossessed to cover his leveraged investment flops. Hannah is an unpublished author, living on arts grants, in love with her boyfriend who loves her too, just refuses to have a child with her.
The second half of the book becomes a road trip on the eve of this fall’s presidential election. Fenton has died of liver cancer but left money and instructions to help Zeus to find his birth parents in New Mexico. His two sisters are headed to a mega-church in Wichita where their mother Rose had once found peace. They invite Zeus to join them. And their mother makes an unannounced trip from Vancouver Island to Wichita. Connie is the most religious of the three, eager to experience the Holy Spirit via the ‘prophetic ministry’ practitioners. Hannah argues that she lacks the temperament to have faith but is curious about those that do. Zeus has never recovered from the exorcism and the self-hate it engendered. And Rose winds up in the ER of a Wichita hospital before she can find her children.
Pountney excels at painterly descriptions: “The late October sky was like milk with a drop of blue paint in it. The ground scrubby, the field shaved and corrugated. … Last night’s rain had left ribbons of bright water in the furrows, like incisions revealing another sky beneath the earth.”
It is rare to find a novel that treats both religious faith and the lack thereof with respect but not piety. ”Sometimes I think we all live by faith when we’re children, Hannah said, and then spend the rest of our adult lives trying to regain that trust.” An early chapter about Hannah’s first time caribou-hunting set in Newfoundland ends with Jesus’ words: Take, Eat, this is my body broken for you. Pountney may not be a PK (preacher’s kid) but from this reviewer was, she nails life growing up in the rectory with parents whose priorities mostly put parish family ahead of their own. I read part of this book while at a conference on The Emergent Church and was fascinated by her description of the Kansas mega-church. Even American charismatics are treated with respect. Back home, while reading a passage about Fenton as young man, sent by his Zionist father to do military service in Israel, my IPod shuffled through my music library on the stereo. Up popped a recording I had made of my late father talking about his military training in 1942. As I said, reading this book was a series of connected dots. Becoming aware of such synchronicities, both inside this timely novel and between the story and one’s life, is a thoughtful lesson in faith.
New research is confirming what many booksellers and therapists have long known: reading fiction improves our ability to empathize with other people. (Keith Oatley, a U of T psychology professor, summarizes this research in his online journal, OnFiction http://www.onfiction.ca/ ). I recommend Sweet Jesus as a two-way exercise in expanding empathy.
April 3, 2013
I loved this book and am going to read everything Christine Pountney has written and writes in future. It deserves 5 stars for the writing, the closely observed poetry of everyday life. The book opens with this sentence: 'Zeus Ortega closed the door and leaned back against it, giving his weight over to its solidity.' 'Giving his weight over to its solidity'--beautiful! surprising. sensible. I'll never lean against a door again without thinking about that. I finished Sweet Jesus sadly, wishing I still had a hundred or more pages still to go.
I agree with the back-cover reviews by Miriam Toews--'Christine Pountney's prose is stunning...it's a guide to being human in an ungodly world'--and by Barbara Gowdy--'For the blessed clarity of its language, the irresistible momentum of its emotionally riveting story, and the courageous breadth of its sympathies, I fell madly in love with Sweet Jesus.'
And yet. And yet, in spite of tackling big issues--homophobia, what it's like to grow up as a gay man, the nature of marriage, the place for religion and spirituality in people's lives in today's world--it was somehow a small book. It lacked emotional intensity--I didn't feel very emotionally connected to any of the characters.
That being said, Christine Pountney is a writer to watch. Stunning prose indeed, and a 'dazzling and original' voice.
I agree with the back-cover reviews by Miriam Toews--'Christine Pountney's prose is stunning...it's a guide to being human in an ungodly world'--and by Barbara Gowdy--'For the blessed clarity of its language, the irresistible momentum of its emotionally riveting story, and the courageous breadth of its sympathies, I fell madly in love with Sweet Jesus.'
And yet. And yet, in spite of tackling big issues--homophobia, what it's like to grow up as a gay man, the nature of marriage, the place for religion and spirituality in people's lives in today's world--it was somehow a small book. It lacked emotional intensity--I didn't feel very emotionally connected to any of the characters.
That being said, Christine Pountney is a writer to watch. Stunning prose indeed, and a 'dazzling and original' voice.
October 2, 2012
This review and others can be found on Cozy Up With A Good Read
I am in love with books that deal with family, showing differences and how through everything they are the ones that are there for you in the end. Pountney emphasizes in her story how each child in a family can take such a different path with life when raised in a religious place. When I first started reading this book I was a little nervous thinking that it was going to be a heavily religious story where the ideals are pushed onto a reader, but it turned out to be nothing like that. This book was more about family than anything else.
Pountney's writing style is elegant, she describes scenes in vivid detail (which usually doesn't work in stories, but for this one was the perfect writing style). I enjoy how the book begins with the story of each of the three characters, Hannah, Connie and Zeus and shows us where their lives have led them to now. As the book goes on the stories come together and we get glimpses of their pasts as well as their present states. It was interesting to see how three children who grew up in the same place differ from each other so much in life and how they handle their situations.
The journey these characters take with one another teach them a lot about themselves and how their pasts influenced their futures. As a reader it really made me think over my life and how I handle situations myself. I found that this book taught me a lot about myself by the end of it. What I really loved was that this book teaches someone that religious faith isn't everything and can't help you through every problem. The characters learn along the way that belief in themselves is the main thing in life.
I was a little disappointed with how the book ended as a whole, I wanted more closure with the characters. Everything is left very open and up in the air and I want to know where the characters are going to take their lives after their journey.
This book is very easy to connect with and I would love to go back to it in the future to help me reflect on different points of life. Pountney has brought readers a beautiful and thought provoking novel.
I am in love with books that deal with family, showing differences and how through everything they are the ones that are there for you in the end. Pountney emphasizes in her story how each child in a family can take such a different path with life when raised in a religious place. When I first started reading this book I was a little nervous thinking that it was going to be a heavily religious story where the ideals are pushed onto a reader, but it turned out to be nothing like that. This book was more about family than anything else.
Pountney's writing style is elegant, she describes scenes in vivid detail (which usually doesn't work in stories, but for this one was the perfect writing style). I enjoy how the book begins with the story of each of the three characters, Hannah, Connie and Zeus and shows us where their lives have led them to now. As the book goes on the stories come together and we get glimpses of their pasts as well as their present states. It was interesting to see how three children who grew up in the same place differ from each other so much in life and how they handle their situations.
The journey these characters take with one another teach them a lot about themselves and how their pasts influenced their futures. As a reader it really made me think over my life and how I handle situations myself. I found that this book taught me a lot about myself by the end of it. What I really loved was that this book teaches someone that religious faith isn't everything and can't help you through every problem. The characters learn along the way that belief in themselves is the main thing in life.
I was a little disappointed with how the book ended as a whole, I wanted more closure with the characters. Everything is left very open and up in the air and I want to know where the characters are going to take their lives after their journey.
This book is very easy to connect with and I would love to go back to it in the future to help me reflect on different points of life. Pountney has brought readers a beautiful and thought provoking novel.
August 8, 2017
This book is as recommended to me but I have to say it was one of the most boring books I read. The beginning bounces around a lot between three different lives and is a little hard to follow/ I kept wondering what was the point. There were so many great reviews for it I assumed it all tied together nicely in the end but it really didn't. It wasn't awful, but there was nothing special to it. I really did not enjoy this book.
July 31, 2018
Three somewhat estranged adult siblings at various significant crossroads in the personal lives gather together to go on a road trip. Each must confront his and her own issues including how to move forward with significant others and their parents. The impact of being raised in a fairly conservative religious home is also explored as some have embraced the faith and others have found it too black and white and abandoned it.
December 3, 2012
There are about four major characters with entwined plots in this book. I liked all of them, but loved one. Zeus's story is the one that shines in this book. He is a professional clown who loses the love of his life and spends the story looking for a way to continue living, looking for a way to belong to something, or someone, fully. His suffering is the most tangible and the truths he reveals the most evocative. God, faith, and ministry hover around this book, but I don't think this is a story about Christianity. It's a book about being seen--by god, by family, by lovers, in a way that completes and fulfills you. Each character searches desperately for recognition and meaning. They want to know why they are alive and to what purpose they can dedicate their lives.
There were some deeply moving passages in this book, but the characters all paled in comparison to Zeus, which is why I can't give this book more than 3 stars. He was so brilliantly alive that the rest of the characters became flat in his presence. You can fall in love with him and his sorrow and his struggle.
There were some deeply moving passages in this book, but the characters all paled in comparison to Zeus, which is why I can't give this book more than 3 stars. He was so brilliantly alive that the rest of the characters became flat in his presence. You can fall in love with him and his sorrow and his struggle.
February 16, 2014
I actually finished this book several weeks ago, and procrastinated on writing a review. But the characters and story have really stuck with me.
The story follows two sisters and their adopted brother as they journey together to a mega church in Kansas. Connie, the oldest sister, is facing financial ruin, and is hoping to renew her faith. Hannah, a writer, is faced with a difficult dilemma - she wants a child, but her boyfriend, whom she loves, does not. Their brother, Jesus, has just suffered a wrenching loss, and is hoping to reconnect with his biological family.
I'm not a religious person, but one thing I appreciated was how Pountney presented this rather fundamentalist church. The church members weren't portrayed as riducolous caricatures. But Poutney does, through her characters, point out how damaging some of their beliefs are.
Other things I loved about this book: the landscapes of the different regions and cities, the complex relationships between the characters, the way Poutney weaved the events of the day into the story. And the writing is beautiful.
Loved it.
The story follows two sisters and their adopted brother as they journey together to a mega church in Kansas. Connie, the oldest sister, is facing financial ruin, and is hoping to renew her faith. Hannah, a writer, is faced with a difficult dilemma - she wants a child, but her boyfriend, whom she loves, does not. Their brother, Jesus, has just suffered a wrenching loss, and is hoping to reconnect with his biological family.
I'm not a religious person, but one thing I appreciated was how Pountney presented this rather fundamentalist church. The church members weren't portrayed as riducolous caricatures. But Poutney does, through her characters, point out how damaging some of their beliefs are.
Other things I loved about this book: the landscapes of the different regions and cities, the complex relationships between the characters, the way Poutney weaved the events of the day into the story. And the writing is beautiful.
Loved it.
August 30, 2013
I got this book from Goodreads First Reads.*
To be honest, I actually couldn't finish it. I struggled with finding the necessary enthusiasm to continue reading it, but it was just that - a struggle. After months of idling, I decided it was time to officially put it down.
I found the book really confusing, actually. The story itself was beautifully written, but the dialogue was somewhat lost in translation due to the lack of parentheses. The character introduction seemed to drag on without actually having much purpose. It felt like I was reading the boring, unimportant parts of a movie; I desperately wanted it to get to the point. On top of all that, I didn't actually feel a connection with any of the characters except for a mild one with Zeus... which I understand serves the point of the story.
To be honest, I actually couldn't finish it. I struggled with finding the necessary enthusiasm to continue reading it, but it was just that - a struggle. After months of idling, I decided it was time to officially put it down.
I found the book really confusing, actually. The story itself was beautifully written, but the dialogue was somewhat lost in translation due to the lack of parentheses. The character introduction seemed to drag on without actually having much purpose. It felt like I was reading the boring, unimportant parts of a movie; I desperately wanted it to get to the point. On top of all that, I didn't actually feel a connection with any of the characters except for a mild one with Zeus... which I understand serves the point of the story.
August 13, 2014
I was surprised to find Hannah Crowe in this novel, the same Hannah Crowe I met in "The Best Way You Know How", except for she is older, wiser, far less ego-centric and way more likeable. Parts of Sweet Jesus really appealed to me. The soul-searching done by the three siblings, for example, struck me as genuine. I also appreciated how the sisters' personal concerns around religion were taken seriously and handled with respect, albeit on a rather superficial level. The ending was a little too ambiguous for my liking, however. Why did Zeus avoid meeting his birth parents after making the journey and what did his dream mean?? Ideas anyone?
January 2, 2013
This author is truly an artist. The novel was engaging, well-written, and full of interesting characters. She seemed to know quite a bit about her subjects, especially large scale evangelistic Christianity and the paradoxes evident in selling Christian experiences to the faithful. Her characters were likable and flawed, and while the book spent equal time on all three siblings, I want to say that she had a favorite. All in all, time well spent.
* I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads.
* I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads.
September 17, 2012
I recieved this book from Goodreads First Reads.
I want to give it 3.5 stars. I enjoyed this book. The characters were great, the story was great the ending left me feeling not great. What happens with Zeus?!!!
I had a hard time following the story sometimes since there are not parentheses when people are talking. I wish the book was longer though and we were able to find out more of what happens once the siblings go back to their homes.
I want to give it 3.5 stars. I enjoyed this book. The characters were great, the story was great the ending left me feeling not great. What happens with Zeus?!!!
I had a hard time following the story sometimes since there are not parentheses when people are talking. I wish the book was longer though and we were able to find out more of what happens once the siblings go back to their homes.
March 6, 2013
Charming characters, beautiful descriptive sentences and paragraphs, real life conflicts. Siblings on a journey together with Mom on the outskirts. Each character has their baggage, and I am not sure that all were resolved. I found I had to keep focusing during the reading, when I would expect to be able to simply follow the flow. The lack of quotation marks for dialogue was most distracting. Form the glowing recommendation I had for this book, I expected more.
May 5, 2013
Meaningful characters tied together on a journey thinking about their own relationships as well as their relationship to each other. On top of all that thinking - they also assess an evangelical church and why some people believe and others do not. Overall, I liked the characters (especially Zeus)and was interested in what they learned and found the wry humour here and there saved it from being heavy.
January 7, 2014
A book about a gay man who is a professional clown born in Chimayo, New Mexico and also includes a chapter about hunting moose and caribou in Newfoundland? How could I not adore this book? Hannah's character was cloying, self-entitled and annoying (I think that was the point) and Zeus definitely stole the show.
January 17, 2013
Interesting dynamics between two sisters and adopted brother. Some lovely literary images and nice turn sof phrases - I'm travelling with a dead clown's clothes....I almost gave up on it after the first few chapters but the writing kept me going. Ultimately though this just wasn't quite for me as I was ready for it to be over.
November 10, 2012
I really liked this book. A story about how far a family can drift apart and then find their way back together. The writing was good, there were some laugh out loud moments and some tears; all in all, a very good read.
November 13, 2012
Bookclub read--will be a lot to discuss in this one: family relationships; religion and politics; yearning, searching, and personal crisis. It looks at faith and lack of faith from many angles.
November 26, 2012
An intriguing novel which describes the impact of religion on the lives of three siblings.
April 29, 2013
I loved this book! It is easily one of my favourite reads this year!
April 11, 2013
I loved this book; the writing is exquisite! What a fabulous juxtaposition of magic and religious belief. Both require a leap of faith and are more connected than we know.
February 8, 2013
A well written, and expertly constructed, story about three siblings finding themselves and each other.
Read
February 23, 2013too depressing
March 24, 2013
First five star read in a while! The characters were wonderful, the story developed beautifully, and who doesn't love a road trip?
August 29, 2013
Really enjoying it. Characters and storyline encourage you to read on.
August 20, 2013
If it weren't for doing so much knitting, I would have torn through this book. It was wonderful, full of realistic characters, places, and situations. A great read.
June 6, 2014
Oh my! can this writer write. The characters and scenes are so deft. Authorial alchemy at work here.
July 15, 2013
Found in lacked much of a climax or ending.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews