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Holy Roller
In this rollicking memoir, Diane Wilson—a Texas Gulf Coast shrimper and the author of the highly acclaimed An Unreasonable Woman —takes readers back to her childhood in rural Texas and into her family of Holy Rollers. By night at tent revivals, Wilson gets religion from Brother Dynamite, an ex-con who finds Jesus in a baloney sandwich and handles masses of squirming poisonous snakes under the protection of the Holy Ghost. By day, Wilson scratches secret messages to Jesus into the paint on her windowsill and lies down in the middle of the road to see how long she can sleep in between passing trucks. Holy Roller is a fast-paced, hilarious, sometimes shocking experience readers won’t soon forget. It is the prequel to Wilson’s first book, telling the story of the Texas childhood of a fierce little girl who will grow up to become An Unreasonable Woman , take on Big Industry, and win. One of the best Southern writers of her generation, Wilson’s voice twangs with a style and accent all its own, as true and individual as her boundless originality and wild youth.
- GenresNonfictionMemoirReligion
240 pages, hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
3 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Diane Wilson
4 books4 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Diane Wilson is an eco-warrior in action. A fourth-generation shrimper, Wilson began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight. By 24, she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Wilson insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay.
Since then, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, and countless hunger strikes to raise awareness for environmental and human rights abuses.
Wilson speaks to the core of courage in each of us that seeks to honor our own moral compass, and act on our convictions. She has been honored with a number of awards for her work, including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, Blue Planet Award and the Bioneers Award.
She is also a co-founder of CODEPINK, the Texas Jail Project, Texas Injured Workers, Injured Workers National Network and continues to lead the fight for social justice.
Diane Wilson is an eco-warrior in action. A fourth-generation shrimper, Wilson began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight. By 24, she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Wilson insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay.
Since then, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, and countless hunger strikes to raise awareness for environmental and human rights abuses.
Wilson speaks to the core of courage in each of us that seeks to honor our own moral compass, and act on our convictions. She has been honored with a number of awards for her work, including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, Blue Planet Award and the Bioneers Award.
She is also a co-founder of CODEPINK, the Texas Jail Project, Texas Injured Workers, Injured Workers National Network and continues to lead the fight for social justice.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 11, 2009
Holy Roller is the childhood memoir of former shrimp boat captain and current activist Diane Wilson. It is a follow up to her 2005 memoir An Unreasonable Woman, which details her fight against chemical plants and a multi-billion dollar corporation (Formosa Plastics) upon learning her Texas county was the number one toxic polluter in the United States. Holy Roller invites readers into the world of shrimping and praying that made Wilson the “unreasonable” woman she is today.
As one can gather from the book’s title, the story focuses on Wilson’s upbringing in an intensely religious community, and how she ultimately quits loving the blue-eyed Jesus she’d been told to put her faith in for the first years of her life. Wilson’s story is relatable because, at some point, most adults were once gullible children, believing in everything from Santa Claus to the Tooth Fairy to whatever god their family might believe in. Wilson is a particularly gullible child; she believes everything she is told, quite literally, which is endearing to a fault.
The main plot of the story involves the murder of her uncle, Archie Don, and her grandfather Chief’s search for Don’s killer. Chief enlists Wilson’s help to complete the task, and the result is more than a girl her age can take. In the end, she experiences a sort of psychotic break, thinking the actor Anthony Perkins (best known for his role as Norman Bates in the original Psycho) is speaking to her, which doesn’t sit well with her family.
Her tipping point comes after realizing that the only thing years of believing in God gave her is guilt. In the Church of Jesus Loves You, every bad thing that happens is because a person’s faith isn’t strong enough. As Wilson’s grandma tells her, “If you’re asking Jesus for a Rolls-Royce, but you only got bicycle faith, guess what you’ll get? A bicycle!”
Though the women in Holy Roller all practice religions that preach their submission, most of them are as strong as any of the male characters. In particular, Wilson’s Aunt Silver and grandma are tough, take-charge women. Aunt Silver believes in leadership roles for women in religious communities, and her grandma (a widow, which she credits to her own “bicycle faith”) makes her living by shrimp heading, and is known as the fastest in the fish house.
Holy Roller has a great variety of examples of strong women coming out of adversity—a tried and true tale—and Wilson’s story in particular is an entertaining and satisfying read.
Review by Jill Hindenach
As one can gather from the book’s title, the story focuses on Wilson’s upbringing in an intensely religious community, and how she ultimately quits loving the blue-eyed Jesus she’d been told to put her faith in for the first years of her life. Wilson’s story is relatable because, at some point, most adults were once gullible children, believing in everything from Santa Claus to the Tooth Fairy to whatever god their family might believe in. Wilson is a particularly gullible child; she believes everything she is told, quite literally, which is endearing to a fault.
The main plot of the story involves the murder of her uncle, Archie Don, and her grandfather Chief’s search for Don’s killer. Chief enlists Wilson’s help to complete the task, and the result is more than a girl her age can take. In the end, she experiences a sort of psychotic break, thinking the actor Anthony Perkins (best known for his role as Norman Bates in the original Psycho) is speaking to her, which doesn’t sit well with her family.
Her tipping point comes after realizing that the only thing years of believing in God gave her is guilt. In the Church of Jesus Loves You, every bad thing that happens is because a person’s faith isn’t strong enough. As Wilson’s grandma tells her, “If you’re asking Jesus for a Rolls-Royce, but you only got bicycle faith, guess what you’ll get? A bicycle!”
Though the women in Holy Roller all practice religions that preach their submission, most of them are as strong as any of the male characters. In particular, Wilson’s Aunt Silver and grandma are tough, take-charge women. Aunt Silver believes in leadership roles for women in religious communities, and her grandma (a widow, which she credits to her own “bicycle faith”) makes her living by shrimp heading, and is known as the fastest in the fish house.
Holy Roller has a great variety of examples of strong women coming out of adversity—a tried and true tale—and Wilson’s story in particular is an entertaining and satisfying read.
Review by Jill Hindenach
November 24, 2009
Considering the subject matter, I was disappointed to find myself fairly bored while reading this book. It felt more like fiction than a memoir, and thin fiction at that. The way that dialect was used in Wilson's writing style felt forced, making the folksiness sort of unappealing. It felt like the author was trying to recall a way of communicating that she shared as a child, but had long since outgrown. I would rather have read this story in the author's genuine voice, as it is now.
Also, I was annoyed that there was so little reflection from the author about her own childhood religious and spiritual experience. She portrays herself as a blank, passive child that was simply shuttled about between the members of her family and their various agendas and personalities. At 10, it is hard to believe that she wasn't having any kind of personal reactions or thoughts about the events she describes. I would like to know what she was thinking and feeling, how her emerging personality impacted and was impacted by her environment, but there is precious little of that sort of information. She never does, in fact, address any particular moment in which she "quit loving a blue-eyed Jesus," as the title says, and when the book concludes, it does so at a moment in her childhood when she still embraced her family's overall belief system.
The book is primarily composed of character sketches of the members of her family, which do offer some humorous and entertaining moments, but they just weren't enough to make this book worthwhile for me.
Also, I was annoyed that there was so little reflection from the author about her own childhood religious and spiritual experience. She portrays herself as a blank, passive child that was simply shuttled about between the members of her family and their various agendas and personalities. At 10, it is hard to believe that she wasn't having any kind of personal reactions or thoughts about the events she describes. I would like to know what she was thinking and feeling, how her emerging personality impacted and was impacted by her environment, but there is precious little of that sort of information. She never does, in fact, address any particular moment in which she "quit loving a blue-eyed Jesus," as the title says, and when the book concludes, it does so at a moment in her childhood when she still embraced her family's overall belief system.
The book is primarily composed of character sketches of the members of her family, which do offer some humorous and entertaining moments, but they just weren't enough to make this book worthwhile for me.
April 9, 2009
I picked up this book, because I had some interest in the "holy roller" lifestyle, as it was my childhood. I was interested in the descriptions of these old churches. However, the plot of the story seemed extremely pointless to me. It's possible I missed something imperative, because I believe I laid the book down for a couple of weeks. However, I must admit I found no value in this book whatsoever, except for the occasional humor of the old south and people who reminiscently reminded me of my own family, ironically enough. Finally, I did not enjoy the writer's style of run-on sentences and lack of speech quotations.
Currently reading
November 25, 2008I'll finish this book one day if it's the end of me. I've met Diane Wilson, she's an amazing woman, she's done amazing things - but her sentence structure and my brain seem to be fundamentally incompatible somehow. Add that with a little too ripe a case of deja vu in reading about shrimpers and shrimp boats and coastal Texas towns, and it's been on my bedside table long enough that I should charge it rent.
March 16, 2009
Wilson's language captivated me when I picked this up randomly in the library. By the end, though, everything seemed to be losing steam and I felt it stopped somewhat abruptly. Still, an interesting dip into the world of southern pentecostalism, and it made me curious about her other book, An Unreasonable Woman.
March 4, 2009
THis was a fun read similar to "A Girl Named Zippy". Enjoyed it. Because here story invovles gorwing up as a Pentecostal Christen there is plenty of religion but it is all in good fun.
September 8, 2008
The title of this book is not HOLLY ROLLER, but Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus. And it's a lulu.
December 8, 2008
A book that I found tedious and which I would not recommend, this memoir could have been intriguing. For the full Amazon Vine review, you may visit the product page on Amazon.com.
Want to read
December 1, 2008perhaps not the book i was anticipating, given the title.
December 8, 2008
See the full Amazon Vine review on the book's product page.
January 9, 2009
Damn fun little read. Quick with a good story.
August 18, 2009
This is an interesting memoir and its locale, people and quality of narrative is very captivating. It's one of my favorite memoirs.
May 8, 2010
I love that this book was written in a southern twang.
March 10, 2012
I love the voice in this book -- straight out of the Pentecostal revival tent. I found the last half of the book to be a little confusing, and thus less engaging, or I would have given this 4 stars.
July 25, 2015
The memoir of a woman's childhood spent among fundamentalist Pentecostals in a Texas coastal town. Constantly amusing and engaging.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews