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God Says No
Gary Gray marries his first girlfriend, a fellow student from Central Florida Christian College who loves Disney World as much as he does. They are nineteen, God-fearing, and eager to start a family, but a week before their wedding Gary goes into a rest-stop bathroom and lets something happen. God Says No is his testimony—the story of a young black Christian struggling with desire and belief, with his love for his wife and his appetite for other men, told in a singular, emotional voice. Driven by desperation and religious visions, the path that Gary Gray takes—from revival meetings to out life in Atlanta to a prayaway-the-gay ministry in Memphis, Tennessee—gives a riveting picture of how a life like his can be lived, and how it can’t.
304 pages, Paperback
First published May 25, 2009
16 people are currently reading
1032 people want to read
About the author
James Hannaham
15 books349 followersJames Hannaham is the author of the novel Delicious Foods, winner of the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction, the Hurston Wright Legacy Award, and the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His first novel, God Says No, was published by McSweeney's in 2009 and was a finalist for a Lambda Book Award, a semifinalist for a VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and was named an honor book by the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Awards. His short fiction has appeared in BOMB, The Literary Review, Nerve.com, Open City, and several anthologies. He has written for the Village Voice, Spin, Blender, Out, Us, New York Magazine, The Barnes & Noble Review and The New York Times Magazine. Once upon a time in 2008, he was a staff writer at Salon.com. He has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and Fundación Valparaíso and a NYFFA Fellowship. He teaches in the Department of Writing at the Pratt Institute. In November 2021, Soft Skull published Pilot Impostor, a multi-genre book of responses to poems by Fernando Pessoa, and in 2022, Little, Brown will release his third novel, Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
November 29, 2009
What is most surprising about Hannaham's tale is how superbly he handles all sides of the issue. Gary is absolutely sincere in his desire to change that which can never be, although it is obvious that he's happiest and most 'himself' when he accepts his nature. When he enters a program to 'remove' his homosexuality, a lesser writer would likely use the opportunity to condemn such actions as ludicrous and hateful. But Gary and his teachers are fundamentally good people, led by firm beliefs that what they do is right. This is not an attack on Christianity, but a dissection of people who take the Bible very seriously at the expense of their own unique individualities. There are no cheap shots, no laughs at the expense of bigotry. Hannaham's tale slowly expands itself into an exploration of how we all lie to ourselves to make ourselves feel better, and how we all alter our behaviour to suit the beliefs of others. Gary and his fellow students at the ministry are devout in their belief that they can change an innate portion of their being to satisfy others, even though the entire notion is inherently laughable. The rest of their lives will be spent in hollow denial of themselves, if the treatment actually worked: "Dr. Soffione's treatment didn't offer a 100 percent cure. From the way Bill and Gay spoke about it, nobody could. Did Christ really want that for us? Would we have to spend the rest of our lives counting the seconds to make sure our hugs didn't go into overtime?"
Read the rest of the review here.
Read the rest of the review here.
July 17, 2009
Gary Gray has a huge problem. On the one hand he’s young and black, a devout Christian, husband and father; on the other hand he’s secretly gay. His is the story of a black Christian bouncing between desire and belief, between love for his family and his worship of other men. Gary struggles for years to hold his life together with his dark secret always threatening to destroy his fragile world, but then what he believes is a clean way out presents itself – a way to slip away from his life and be someone completely different, with a new set of rules and where his gayness is no longer an issue. But of course, there is never an easy way out of big problems, and Gary must eventually face society, his family, himself, and his God.
I found few positive aspects to this story. I generally enjoy stories that pit lifestyle against religious beliefs, and I commend James Hannaham for tackling such a difficult subject. And although I didn’t care for the characters, any of them, they were all very unique, which was somewhat refreshing. I like characters with flaws, as long as their balanced with positives. What I enjoyed most was that the author has a clean, easy-to-read writing style. The book is written in the first person, so we get every detail of what goes through Gary’s dysfunctional head.
I had two very major problems with this novel. First, the author never gave me any reason to pull for the narrator. I found the main character, Gary Gray, nauseously pious at times, a raving hypocrite other times, and a sniveling fool most of the time, which these days makes him a candidate for high office in the Republican Party. My point is, since I found absolutely nothing appealing about him, I had nothing to pull for. I didn’t care what happened to him, which made for a dull read. And let me point out here that other readers, particularly Christians, could very well see many positive aspects to the characters. It was purely a personal distaste for the characters, all of them, that made me not care for the story.
My second major issue was that it all too often bogged down in numerous details that didn’t seem to add to the plot, character development, or enjoyment of the reader. I felt this was a three-hundred-page story that could have been a much stronger hundred-page story.
As stated above, I generally enjoy stories that pit religion against lifestyle, so I came to this novel with high expectations, hoping that it would ignite my imagination and tickle my intellect. But sadly, I didn’t feel a spark of anything except disappointment. This is not a story that I can honestly recommend.
I found few positive aspects to this story. I generally enjoy stories that pit lifestyle against religious beliefs, and I commend James Hannaham for tackling such a difficult subject. And although I didn’t care for the characters, any of them, they were all very unique, which was somewhat refreshing. I like characters with flaws, as long as their balanced with positives. What I enjoyed most was that the author has a clean, easy-to-read writing style. The book is written in the first person, so we get every detail of what goes through Gary’s dysfunctional head.
I had two very major problems with this novel. First, the author never gave me any reason to pull for the narrator. I found the main character, Gary Gray, nauseously pious at times, a raving hypocrite other times, and a sniveling fool most of the time, which these days makes him a candidate for high office in the Republican Party. My point is, since I found absolutely nothing appealing about him, I had nothing to pull for. I didn’t care what happened to him, which made for a dull read. And let me point out here that other readers, particularly Christians, could very well see many positive aspects to the characters. It was purely a personal distaste for the characters, all of them, that made me not care for the story.
My second major issue was that it all too often bogged down in numerous details that didn’t seem to add to the plot, character development, or enjoyment of the reader. I felt this was a three-hundred-page story that could have been a much stronger hundred-page story.
As stated above, I generally enjoy stories that pit religion against lifestyle, so I came to this novel with high expectations, hoping that it would ignite my imagination and tickle my intellect. But sadly, I didn’t feel a spark of anything except disappointment. This is not a story that I can honestly recommend.
July 21, 2011
Gary Gray is a hot mess and doesn’t have a clue how to pull his life together. He’s fat, black, gay, and newly married with a child on the way. And he’s convinced he’s going straight to hell. A sad, humorous, and touching story of one man deciding if he is “a for-real homosexual” or “a straight fellow with some problems.”
At first, I thought the writing was a little messy but later changed my mind. Hannaham writes in a way that doesn’t make his main character particularly likeable. And that was probably the point.
At first, I thought the writing was a little messy but later changed my mind. Hannaham writes in a way that doesn’t make his main character particularly likeable. And that was probably the point.
June 7, 2009
Not exactly a fun read--more fascinating and disturbing than fun. It's the story of a young Christian man struggling with homosexuality. It's heartbreaking at times how he suppresses who he is. I usually think of prejudice as being something one person imposes on another, so it was eye opening to read a story about someone who was prejudiced against himself. It saddens me that it's possible for religion/society to make people suffer so much and hate themselves for who they are.
September 11, 2012
this book blew me away. i couldn't say that i loved in the sense that it...was good in the conventional sense. it just spoke to me in a way that i didn't anticipate. i bought it because i thought it was nonfiction, and it had that feel throughout the whole book. it's a novel, however, about the struggle of homosexuality and the Church. it reads like a memoir, and that makes it terrifying. i was deeply affected by this book; i found it hard to put down, hard to give up on. i was repulsed by it, in love with it, but most of all, it made me think. i don't know who i was rooting for throughout the book. i wanted gary to be happy most of all. i wanted him to leave some things behind, and then i wanted him to be himself. it was awful. but, i was able to step back and appreciate the author for initiating those feelings in me. i cried through parts of these books because my emotions were so strong and involved in what was happening. the book was raw. i don't know if i could handle reading it again. i feel it's an important book to read, however. even though it's graphic and rough, it's enlightening. it changed my schemas, slightly.
July 14, 2009
Readers, read it. Teachers, teach it. I know James, and this book surprised and deeply impressed me. At the heart of it is a trick-- er, I could call it a trick if it was less successful, let's call it a major accomplishment-- of personation, inhabiting the voice of a fat, closeted, deeply religious black man from South Carolina named Gary Gray. The two might not have all of those aspects in common, but think of Kenneth the Page as maybe not too far-off in terms of voice. Gary is freaking hilarious, and the book is fun all the way through. But in addition to laughing at Gary, James got me crying with him, too, which as far as I've been taught is not technically possible in fiction. This may say something about the books I tend to choose, but God Says No also feels like the most positive book I've read in a long time. Here's a book with a serious social theme (God and gays) that actually manages to earn its happy ending, just by doing the things that a novel does naturally, allowing its characters to grow. It's... nice.
June 20, 2009
It is a rare thing indeed that I want to have a good experience reading a book and then do. God Says No began with a premise I wasn't sure about and a character whose credulity I wasn't certain I could relate to, and a tone I couldn't quite parse at first, but after a few chapters I was hooked. What Hannaham (AKA (by me) my friend James) has done here is to turn his protagonist - a pitiable character not normally found in the protagonist role - and turn him into the Everyman. Though I am neither gay nor black nor Christian nor overweight nor from deepest Florida, I cannot help identifying with Gary Gray. He is a man fundamentally at odds with who he is and on a quest to make amends; who of us hasn't experienced that?
It is always interesting to find a protagonist who is clearly less intelligent or less in the know than the author. Gray is one of these, and his innocence makes him a foil for the endless string of absurdities that is American Sexuality. Nobody really gets off scott-free here, and nobody is fully skewered. The most potent part of the book is when Gray is at Restoration Ministries (where they turn homosexuals straight). The idea is hard to think of but with mockery, but this is where Gray has his first taste of introspection, of acceptance, and of cameraderie. As a reader you feel the painful irony of it; you are pulled in two directions: wishing for Gray to escape their clutches and hoping he'll stick around with them long enough to give himself an honest look.
It is always interesting to find a protagonist who is clearly less intelligent or less in the know than the author. Gray is one of these, and his innocence makes him a foil for the endless string of absurdities that is American Sexuality. Nobody really gets off scott-free here, and nobody is fully skewered. The most potent part of the book is when Gray is at Restoration Ministries (where they turn homosexuals straight). The idea is hard to think of but with mockery, but this is where Gray has his first taste of introspection, of acceptance, and of cameraderie. As a reader you feel the painful irony of it; you are pulled in two directions: wishing for Gray to escape their clutches and hoping he'll stick around with them long enough to give himself an honest look.
November 12, 2013
God Says No depicts the lonely, desperate world of a closeted and self-loathing gay man living within the cloistered world of African American evangelical Christianity. Without stereotyping or moralizing it presents well-rounded and believable characters with great sympathy and understanding. A soupçon of humor derives from the narrator's priggishness and down home vernacular, but it's ultimately a serious book about a sad character belonging to a subculture that seldom appears in well-wrought literary fiction.
November 28, 2020
3 1/2 stars
June 15, 2013
This disappointing story simply doesn't follow through on the major tenet of its plot: whether or not homosexuality can be accepted by an individual who is predisposed to those feelings. The abrupt ending does little more than dismiss that internal struggle, concluding instead with Gary accepting his duty to fatherhood. This is a cop-out, in my opinion; he cannot defer his struggle with homosexuality while he figures out how to be a father.
I hoped that somewhere in the book he would learn to love himself and accept himself as he was made, learn a little from other strong characters in the book, like Miquel or Manny. Instead, he berates himself with the most hateful part of religion he can find. It was difficult to read the brainwashing he went through for an entire year while he attempted to "pray the gay out." This made me hate - yes, hate - religion even more for how it preys upon our feelings and makes us hate ourselves, believing every normal temptation is a mortal sin.
I didn't care for his clueless wife, Annie; she cried and whined and really should have just stepped out of the picture.
The "year of free checking" was amazing to read. I loved reading about him wandering through Midtown Atlanta, learning about himself and his urges. I think he misplaced his disappointment with the experience and attributed it to being bad at being gay as opposed to being human and failing at a relationship.
This reminded me a lot of "The Dive From Clausen's Pier" because you root for the main character to start over and discover who he/she is and make a new life only to find one's tail between one's legs, retreating. Gary, you are good enough! Get out there and embrace your homosexuality!
I hoped that somewhere in the book he would learn to love himself and accept himself as he was made, learn a little from other strong characters in the book, like Miquel or Manny. Instead, he berates himself with the most hateful part of religion he can find. It was difficult to read the brainwashing he went through for an entire year while he attempted to "pray the gay out." This made me hate - yes, hate - religion even more for how it preys upon our feelings and makes us hate ourselves, believing every normal temptation is a mortal sin.
I didn't care for his clueless wife, Annie; she cried and whined and really should have just stepped out of the picture.
The "year of free checking" was amazing to read. I loved reading about him wandering through Midtown Atlanta, learning about himself and his urges. I think he misplaced his disappointment with the experience and attributed it to being bad at being gay as opposed to being human and failing at a relationship.
This reminded me a lot of "The Dive From Clausen's Pier" because you root for the main character to start over and discover who he/she is and make a new life only to find one's tail between one's legs, retreating. Gary, you are good enough! Get out there and embrace your homosexuality!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2009
This novel is phenomenally good. It’s important-to-have-been-written good. It made me laugh out loud, get teary-eyed, and re-read individual sentences for the music and poetry of the language. I am a lazy and picky reader, but hours flew by while I read this novel. I was entertained, surprised, and moved; I experienced the catharsis of feeling empathy for a fully realized character, appreciated a rich and nuanced story and a cast of well-drawn secondary characters, and found myself completely relating to things that in my real life I have no reason to relate to (ie: gay sex with strangers at Waffle Shops). I felt like I was there, in the scene, that I was indeed Gary Gray myself.
GOD SAYS NO is a novel that does what literature should do: make a completely unique and specific and realized character seem utterly human and relate-able. I challenge any reader who skims the book jacket copy and pauses to wonder what they might have in common with Gary Gray--the young Christian fundamentalist black man from the South who is gay--to walk away without feeling affected by this story and this character.
(Full disclosure, I went to graduate school with the author, but that did not guarantee that I would read, finish reading, enjoy, or, in this economy, even purchase the novel to begin with--but I did! And I hope you do too!)
GOD SAYS NO is a novel that does what literature should do: make a completely unique and specific and realized character seem utterly human and relate-able. I challenge any reader who skims the book jacket copy and pauses to wonder what they might have in common with Gary Gray--the young Christian fundamentalist black man from the South who is gay--to walk away without feeling affected by this story and this character.
(Full disclosure, I went to graduate school with the author, but that did not guarantee that I would read, finish reading, enjoy, or, in this economy, even purchase the novel to begin with--but I did! And I hope you do too!)
April 7, 2017
Gary Gray is Black, overweight, self-loathing, and (as my grandmother used to say) "gayer than a three dollar bill." He flunks out of his Christian college and becomes convinced that marriage is the only thing that can change his sexual desires, so he marries the first and only girl he's ever had sex with, a woman named Annie. Together they have a daughter and he settles into a unique life: a family man and marketing drone by day, prowler/cruiser for anonymous sex with men at night. Eventually, with his wife threatening divorce, he enters a 'pray away the gay' therapy program, hoping to 'cure' his SSA's (same-sex attractions).
This book is brilliant. I really give props to James Hannaham, and not just because he's a great writer (his other book, Delicious Foods is quite awesome), but for having the intestinal fortitude to tackle such a tough, almost taboo topic particularly within the Black Southern Baptist church community. Here we see first hand why so many gay Black men are closeted, and why they stay that way. There's also a healthy dose of humor here as we laugh at Gary as he covers his life with a veneer of self righteousness. He's not a likable character at all, but by the end of the book I was left with a singular desire--for Gary to simply be happy.
Needless to say, I loved this book. Do read, if you get a chance.
This book is brilliant. I really give props to James Hannaham, and not just because he's a great writer (his other book, Delicious Foods is quite awesome), but for having the intestinal fortitude to tackle such a tough, almost taboo topic particularly within the Black Southern Baptist church community. Here we see first hand why so many gay Black men are closeted, and why they stay that way. There's also a healthy dose of humor here as we laugh at Gary as he covers his life with a veneer of self righteousness. He's not a likable character at all, but by the end of the book I was left with a singular desire--for Gary to simply be happy.
Needless to say, I loved this book. Do read, if you get a chance.
December 16, 2023
I recently delved into James Hannaham’s debut novel after being thoroughly captivated by his later work, “Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta,” a book I’ve enthusiastically recommended to many. This novel impressively explores the complex interplay between religion and homosexuality, handling the subject matter with sensitivity and thoughtfulness. The structure of the book, divided into three acts, effectively marks the protagonist’s transformative journey, influenced by his religious beliefs and perceived divine signs.
What struck me most was the unexpected plot twist in the second act, where the character Gary strives to reinvent himself, seeking liberation from his inner demons with his “free year of checking”. Hannaham excels in crafting a compelling first-person narrative, allowing readers to deeply empathize with Gary, despite having little in common with him. The novel is not only humorous but also offers profound insights through well-rounded characters, each contributing a unique perspective.
While I found “Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta” to be more tightly paced, this novel felt slightly prolonged, perhaps extending about fifty pages more than necessary, with some moments feeling a bit stagnant.
Overall, it was an engaging and enjoyable read, and I’m eagerly looking forward to picking up “Delicious Foods” next.
What struck me most was the unexpected plot twist in the second act, where the character Gary strives to reinvent himself, seeking liberation from his inner demons with his “free year of checking”. Hannaham excels in crafting a compelling first-person narrative, allowing readers to deeply empathize with Gary, despite having little in common with him. The novel is not only humorous but also offers profound insights through well-rounded characters, each contributing a unique perspective.
While I found “Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta” to be more tightly paced, this novel felt slightly prolonged, perhaps extending about fifty pages more than necessary, with some moments feeling a bit stagnant.
Overall, it was an engaging and enjoyable read, and I’m eagerly looking forward to picking up “Delicious Foods” next.
March 26, 2021
I've been working my way through my backlog of "books I bought with no plans to ever actually read but I absolutely needed them at that moment," and I've mostly found that my judgment was sound: there is a reason books like this one went unread for the better part of the decade they were in my possession.
I bought this years and years ago because it sounded like Proper Gay Literature. It isn't. There's nothing here I haven't seen (or read) in many, many other stories that are more exciting. The added dimensions of the protagonist's otherness could have been interesting, but there's no real discussion or analysis of them; this is a book entirely about a guy who loves having sex with men but doesn't want to call himself gay. And for a book with so much casual sex in the early 90s, there's only one mention of AIDS, which was bizarre and would have, again, added dimension and interest to the story. Meh
I bought this years and years ago because it sounded like Proper Gay Literature. It isn't. There's nothing here I haven't seen (or read) in many, many other stories that are more exciting. The added dimensions of the protagonist's otherness could have been interesting, but there's no real discussion or analysis of them; this is a book entirely about a guy who loves having sex with men but doesn't want to call himself gay. And for a book with so much casual sex in the early 90s, there's only one mention of AIDS, which was bizarre and would have, again, added dimension and interest to the story. Meh
December 16, 2014
First of all - I saw this listed as a memoir when I bought it. Unfortunately, when you read on a Kindle, you don't see a book jacket, or anything indicating it's a novel. This is a novel. I didn't find that out until I finished the book today. I feel stupid that I didn't figure that out, but I'm kind of surprised because the book was awkward and kind of did read like a memoir, in that it wasn't elaborate or thorough...as if it really were a memoir by somebody who didn't remember much, but did remember odd details.
This book kept me reading -- I wanted to see what was going to happen. I won't spoil the ending but the way it ended didn't satisfy me.
I was appalled by the errors and formatting in this book. Terrible and disappointing, coming from McSweeney's.
This book kept me reading -- I wanted to see what was going to happen. I won't spoil the ending but the way it ended didn't satisfy me.
I was appalled by the errors and formatting in this book. Terrible and disappointing, coming from McSweeney's.
June 30, 2013
I expected to be disgusted by this book and in some ways, I was. Mostly, I was curious about how a gay christian man struggles to deny his core, his very being, as he resurrects his heterosexual past life. I've heard of men praying the gay away but this book ignited my curiosity to find out more stories like Gary's.
I was shocked at how much Gary's feelings for men mirrored my own because to Gary, homosexuality was about loving a man and wanting to be loved by a man. Isn't that what I want? He could no more control his passion for men than I can.
This book is a literary piece with non-cliches and lyrical phrasing. Four stars indeed. Highly recommended for the closeted heterosexual who wants a peek into the life of a struggling homosexual.
I was shocked at how much Gary's feelings for men mirrored my own because to Gary, homosexuality was about loving a man and wanting to be loved by a man. Isn't that what I want? He could no more control his passion for men than I can.
This book is a literary piece with non-cliches and lyrical phrasing. Four stars indeed. Highly recommended for the closeted heterosexual who wants a peek into the life of a struggling homosexual.
August 10, 2009
Every now and then a book that I've requested comes in at the library, and I have no idea why I was interested in reading. Often, it turns out that the book was recommended at largeheartedboy.com, a music blog that I read. Even knowing where the recommendation came from, and having read the book, I'm still not sure why I chose to request it, though. "God Says No" is about a gay christian man who tries to free himself of his gayness. He makes some pretty stupid decisions through the book, and I often find it hard to enjoy a book when I dislike the main character, but he makes some great progress in self-understanding by the end. A good story, and I'm glad I read it.
January 27, 2010
Nobody talks about this. James guides you through the Odyssean perils of the closeted Christian gay man with compassion and wit. He provides a context for the self-deceit and denial that haunts so many men in this situation that rings right in its complexity and severity. I hope the people who really need this book can find it.
September 14, 2010
This got off to a promising start: fundamentalist boy discovering his homosexual tendencies in college. Buy by halfway through the novel, I was really tired of the character's flaws and internalized homophobia. I know that's what the book was about, but I just couldn't be bothered.
May 17, 2010
Painfully funny, brilliant and bold. McSweeney's strikes again.
Gary is overweight, black, gay and Christian. What?! I heard you say.
Read it.
Gary is overweight, black, gay and Christian. What?! I heard you say.
Read it.
October 5, 2016
Terrific and honest book about a young gay man who doesn't want to gay. His journey is funny and sad at the same time. The writing and the story are brilliant!
October 1, 2020
I've never read a book quite like this. I first read it nearly a decade ago, or rather inhaled it in large segments during visits to the public library, and absolutely adored it. Ten years later and it's still just as brilliant on re-read. Even though I'm probably as far away from the lead character as one can possibly be (except for being gay), I felt his story. There's so, so much stuff that's stayed with me over the years, so many interesting and outright WEIRD plot points that I loved reading about. The characters are all great, IMO, and the prose goes from very good (at the beginning) to outright fabulous (at the end). This is one of my all-time favourite books, and if it sounds the slightest bit interesting to you - and if the plot points won't trigger you, as there's some trigger-y stuff in here - I highly, HIGHLY recommend it.
Things I remember staying with me, in no particular order:
Things I remember staying with me, in no particular order:
April 9, 2019
Stereotypes: gotta love ‘em, gotta hate ‘em. Mostly, though? Hate ‘em. With his first novel, James Hannaham deftly avoids the two most common stereotypes of gay African-American men (the rugged but closeted dynamo; the overly flamboyant drag queen) for someone more unassuming and painfully real. Gary Grey, the overweight narrator of God Says No has neither the flash of E. Lynn Harris’ characters nor the “Lord ha’ mercy!” minstrelsy of a closeted choir director (another infamous stereotype), and Gray’s struggle with marriage, religion and desire becomes all the more moving for its real-life dimensions.
We first meet Gary at a Christian college, fighting his roommate over a broken Jesus. Gary’s language, by turns sincere, naïve and lustful, reflects not only a religious upbringing, but also his Southern roots; he describes a love as fleeting as “a sugarcube in a hot shower.” But even as he tries to remain true to his moral code—chastising those take the Lord’s name in vain, for instance—his desire for other men overwhelms up his judgment. Gary prays for the Lord to change him but soon takes matters into his own hands: he impregnates and wed his fellow student and Disney World admirer, Annie. Despite his best intentions, however, Gary finds himself drawn to public restrooms and parks for his sexual urges until he finally finds himself in an ex-gay ministry.
Here, too, Hannaham avoids portraying the ministry as villainous. Even if the ultimate goals of Resurrection Ministries is suspect, the support mechanism the men in the ministry provide is touching, even as they relapse with too-long hugs or unsportsmanlike butt-grabs. The men undergo aching crises of faith; the seeming incompatibility between the life they’re required to lead and the life they’d like to lead proves poignant.
The section between his marriage to Annie and his admittance to Resurrection Ministries, however, is problematic. Through a plot contrivance, Gary is able to escape from Annie and creates a new identity, “August Valentine,” deciding to give the ‘gay lifestyle’ a trial run. He finds a lover, Miquel, and work with a theater company, but being able to express his sexuality doesn’t free Gary from his hang-ups—religious or sexual.
The humor feels forced in this section. Whereas part of the novel’s strength it Gary’s self-deprecating considerations, here, it relies too much on stereotype. Rex, the mime troupe director who hires Gary, steps out of central casting for a pretentious, self-important artist. And Miquel, for all his charm and talent for bon mots, is little more than a drama queen. Character-wise, Annie could chew Miquel like a chicken bone.
I’m surprised, as well, that the author doesn’t engage more with the issue of Gary’s weight. More often, his weight is used as a punch line. Even when a fellow bathroom cruiser calls him a “fat f***ing n***er troll,” Gary still gets some play. Though God Says No is far from an “issue-oriented” novel, given both the racism and body image problems within the gay male community, it’s a wasted opportunity to engage both more fully.
Those issues aside, God Says No proves to be overall as big-hearted and full of love as its narrator—not that I’m trying to stereotype or anything.
We first meet Gary at a Christian college, fighting his roommate over a broken Jesus. Gary’s language, by turns sincere, naïve and lustful, reflects not only a religious upbringing, but also his Southern roots; he describes a love as fleeting as “a sugarcube in a hot shower.” But even as he tries to remain true to his moral code—chastising those take the Lord’s name in vain, for instance—his desire for other men overwhelms up his judgment. Gary prays for the Lord to change him but soon takes matters into his own hands: he impregnates and wed his fellow student and Disney World admirer, Annie. Despite his best intentions, however, Gary finds himself drawn to public restrooms and parks for his sexual urges until he finally finds himself in an ex-gay ministry.
Here, too, Hannaham avoids portraying the ministry as villainous. Even if the ultimate goals of Resurrection Ministries is suspect, the support mechanism the men in the ministry provide is touching, even as they relapse with too-long hugs or unsportsmanlike butt-grabs. The men undergo aching crises of faith; the seeming incompatibility between the life they’re required to lead and the life they’d like to lead proves poignant.
The section between his marriage to Annie and his admittance to Resurrection Ministries, however, is problematic. Through a plot contrivance, Gary is able to escape from Annie and creates a new identity, “August Valentine,” deciding to give the ‘gay lifestyle’ a trial run. He finds a lover, Miquel, and work with a theater company, but being able to express his sexuality doesn’t free Gary from his hang-ups—religious or sexual.
The humor feels forced in this section. Whereas part of the novel’s strength it Gary’s self-deprecating considerations, here, it relies too much on stereotype. Rex, the mime troupe director who hires Gary, steps out of central casting for a pretentious, self-important artist. And Miquel, for all his charm and talent for bon mots, is little more than a drama queen. Character-wise, Annie could chew Miquel like a chicken bone.
I’m surprised, as well, that the author doesn’t engage more with the issue of Gary’s weight. More often, his weight is used as a punch line. Even when a fellow bathroom cruiser calls him a “fat f***ing n***er troll,” Gary still gets some play. Though God Says No is far from an “issue-oriented” novel, given both the racism and body image problems within the gay male community, it’s a wasted opportunity to engage both more fully.
Those issues aside, God Says No proves to be overall as big-hearted and full of love as its narrator—not that I’m trying to stereotype or anything.
March 13, 2021
Premise: devout, fat, black Christian man discovers he has homosexual desires and struggles fighting against them for basically the rest of his life.
This was a hard book to read and sad. It was sad because the main character (Gary Gray) had so many toxic internalizations that effected his life. He struggled with body image and negatively brought up his weight on the regular and he had very toxic attitudes towards homosexuality (which is the point of the book I know but that doesn’t make reading it easier). When he is in a program to affirm his love of Christ and working to not be gay he has “masculinity repair” sessions like group therapy. I think this is grounded in a reality and when I’m exposed to those moments of reality it pushes me away. I don’t want to read about someone learning toxic masculinity, but it does make sense for this story. Structurally this book felt too long. It almost has a stream of conscious feel to it (and those books aren’t my cup of tea).
While this is likely an important book, it was difficult to get through.
This was a hard book to read and sad. It was sad because the main character (Gary Gray) had so many toxic internalizations that effected his life. He struggled with body image and negatively brought up his weight on the regular and he had very toxic attitudes towards homosexuality (which is the point of the book I know but that doesn’t make reading it easier). When he is in a program to affirm his love of Christ and working to not be gay he has “masculinity repair” sessions like group therapy. I think this is grounded in a reality and when I’m exposed to those moments of reality it pushes me away. I don’t want to read about someone learning toxic masculinity, but it does make sense for this story. Structurally this book felt too long. It almost has a stream of conscious feel to it (and those books aren’t my cup of tea).
While this is likely an important book, it was difficult to get through.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2021
A novel with a strong, flourishing start that loses steam somewhat as it gets closer to the end. Hannaham has a beautiful way of writing with stark, clear prose that lends the book a memoir-esque feeling. Through Gary Gray, he writes with a deeply intimate and vulnerable voice, and his metaphors, for the most part, illustrates the nuances and complexities of Gary's chimera of contradictory feelings. Like other readers, I was a bit disappointed by the ending, feeling that we had gone on Odysseus' journey and come home to no revelations. It was a bit unclear how Gary Gray felt upon his homecoming and how he would reconcile his new life and his untampered sexuality. I was also intensely curious about how Gray's sexual urges began to bleed into how he viewed all people, (i.e. when he begins to imagine everyone, man and woman, naked) but it was left unexplored and felt almost as if the last third of the novel had been edited out. Still, I was glad to have had a glimpse into Hannaham's obviously skillful writing and am curious enough to check out some of his other work.
February 25, 2023
Review to come…
Too lazy to write an original so here is my Insta commentary:
I liked this but didn’t love it.
.
It reminded of Confederacy of Dunces with its large (and large living, despite his less than large circumstances) narrator. It’s got that comedy of errors / one mishap after another plotline that you find in lots of David Lodge and Richard Russo books so it reminded me of them too. And something about the narration, particularly at the beginning, reminded me of Percival Everett, maybe the narrator of Dr No?, where you sense immediately that altho you’re interested in following this voice, his interests in no way align with your own.
.
It’s also an interesting book in the absolute absence of truth on so many fronts! The narrator lies often to himself, to others; other characters lie to him, and to themselves. Everyone in the entire book is basically unreliable at any given moment.
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And last I would say it’s such a condemnation of how our culture has treated people who do not fit the white dominant heterosexual Christian narrative, and that will always be to the detriment of the culture (I expect more and moreso as history goes on and looks back).
Too lazy to write an original so here is my Insta commentary:
I liked this but didn’t love it.
.
It reminded of Confederacy of Dunces with its large (and large living, despite his less than large circumstances) narrator. It’s got that comedy of errors / one mishap after another plotline that you find in lots of David Lodge and Richard Russo books so it reminded me of them too. And something about the narration, particularly at the beginning, reminded me of Percival Everett, maybe the narrator of Dr No?, where you sense immediately that altho you’re interested in following this voice, his interests in no way align with your own.
.
It’s also an interesting book in the absolute absence of truth on so many fronts! The narrator lies often to himself, to others; other characters lie to him, and to themselves. Everyone in the entire book is basically unreliable at any given moment.
.
And last I would say it’s such a condemnation of how our culture has treated people who do not fit the white dominant heterosexual Christian narrative, and that will always be to the detriment of the culture (I expect more and moreso as history goes on and looks back).
July 22, 2022
This is a brilliant book. I've seen that when it came out it was described as a comic novel. Sure, it has a few humorous moments, but I think the core subject matter here is dead serious. Then again, maybe I just don't know enough to get the humor. I can tell you that it is a coming-of-age story about a young black man, from a fundamentalist background, who has to confront and then accept the fact that he is gay. Midway, the book takes a wild detour into Christian-based gay conversion programs. Hannaham both pokes gentle fun at and show the utter fruitlessness of such programs. I don't know what he based his novel's gay conversion center on; it certainly isn't how I imagine such places to be run, bordering at times on the ridiculous. (Yet somehow believable at the same time.) But, I guess, if you're hoping to write a comic novel, making it up makes perfect sense. Comic or not, the novel ends in a really interesting place, not at all funny. Very touching. And not what I expected.
December 28, 2020
I dislike not finishing a book, but I am not going to waste any more time trying to force my way through this one. Made it to pg 227 over 2 years of putting it down & picking it back up... I thought the title of the book was being ironic, or sarcastic. I thought it was telling the story of how this man would finally realize that being gay is not a lifestyle choice or a sin or something that can be scared out of you by crazy Christians, finally embrace who he is and point out how ridiculous that concept of "fixing" him is. However, that point never came. If it does make that turn in the final 75 pages, that is too late. Like the couple in a Hallmark movie that share their first kiss in the last two minutes of the movie, it's too little too late. I can't take anymore of the religious homophobia. There are so many better books out there to spend our time on.
September 12, 2022
Lambda Award finalist? Must have been a bad year!
The Lambda and Stonewall recommendations were most of the reason I thought I would like this book. Also, the blurb that said it was tender and funny. Really? I'm not laughing. Internalized homophobia, denial, and the self hatred that Evangelical Christianity beats into gay boys isn't funny. Is this supposed to be satire? Satire s supposed to be funny. Again, I'm not laughing.
Also, on a different note, the Kindle version is full of dreadful errors. I would say it was bad editing, but I think most of the problems come from the process of converting from the original text to the ebook format, having been involved in one such publishing conversion myself. But we corrected the errors before releasing the book through editing and proof reading. Why wasn't that done with this one? Really sloppy job, Amazon!
The Lambda and Stonewall recommendations were most of the reason I thought I would like this book. Also, the blurb that said it was tender and funny. Really? I'm not laughing. Internalized homophobia, denial, and the self hatred that Evangelical Christianity beats into gay boys isn't funny. Is this supposed to be satire? Satire s supposed to be funny. Again, I'm not laughing.
Also, on a different note, the Kindle version is full of dreadful errors. I would say it was bad editing, but I think most of the problems come from the process of converting from the original text to the ebook format, having been involved in one such publishing conversion myself. But we corrected the errors before releasing the book through editing and proof reading. Why wasn't that done with this one? Really sloppy job, Amazon!
January 4, 2021
The characterization is brilliant. I was amused by Gary's stubborn religiosity, but was thankful that he finally "stepped inside" his many identities at last, and made a life for himself outside of dogma.
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