My therapist assigned me this book. Otherwise I would have DNF’d it very early on. I found it intensely annoying.
The author is obviously very impressed with himself and intent on having us be super impressed with him, too. He thinks he knows everything and can save us, and we’re all just clueless dumbfucks. Not only that, all of the advice in this book is the most elementary self-help basics, plus there’s a heavy-handed smear of “you must worship my god or you’re doing it wrong!” all over everything. Yuck.
Notably, Dick God makes an appearance on p. 137, where he gives a woman liver failure just to get her attention. Yet the takeaway of the story is supposed to be “yay God! I want me some of that!”
Actually, looking back, I’d say the theme of the whole book is “you’re doing it wrong.” Well, go fuck yourself, captain. In the immortal words of Ani DeFranco, “If you think you know what I’m doing wrong, you’re going to have to get in line.”
However, there was one tidbit that I found interesting. He says there are two gifts that are love for everybody: honest self-revelation and sincere affirmation. (P. 64) I never thought about it this way before, but I’d say he’s right about that.
Anyway, I’m super glad I got this book through inter-library loan rather than buying it. I will be very happy to return it.