FaithfulReader.com - JESUS LAND by Julia Scheeres

JESUS LAND
Julia Scheeres
Counterpoint Press
Memoir
ISBN: 1582433542

• Discussion Questions
• Critical Praise

About the Book

Sinners go to: Hell. Rightchuss go to: Heaven. The end is neer: Repent. This here is: JESUS LAND. Julia Scheeres stumbles across these signs along the side of a cornfield while out biking with her adopted brother David. It's the mid-1980s, they're sixteen years old, and have just moved to rural Indiana, a landscape of cottonwood trees and trailer parks--and a racism neither of them is prepared for. While Julia is white, her close relationship with David, who's black, makes them both outcasts. At home, a distant mother--more involved with her church's missionaries than with her own children--and a violent father only compound their problems. When the day comes that high-school hormones, racist brutality, and a deep-seated restlessness prove too much to bear, their parents' solution is reform school--in the Dominican Republic. In this riveting memoir, first-time author Scheeres takes us with her from the Midwest to a place beyond imagining. Surrounded by natural beauty, the Escuela Caribe is nonetheless characterized by a disciplinary regime that demands its teens repent for their sins under boot-camp conditions. Julia and David's striving to make it through is told here with startling immediacy, extreme candor, and not an ounce of malice.

Discussion Questions

1. Throughout JESUS LAND, Julia oscillates between close identification with David (referring to "our color," for example), involuntary alienation from him (as when he and Jerome are pitted against the rest of the family), and intentional attempts to separate herself from him (as she does during high school). Does her perception of her relationship with David affect her perception of herself? How?

2. Julia and David have very different attitudes toward the concept of "family." What does it mean to be a family? Is Julia's cynicism about it ever belied by any of her family relationships? Are any of them a source of strength for her? Does David's enduring hope for an accepting, united family harm him? Is his faith in the concept ever justified?

3. Julia has a number of very different sexual encounters in the course of the memoir. How does each of them shape her views about sex? Why do you think she doesn't tell David about Jerome?

4. Julia and David encounter a great deal of talk about faith. What do they have faith in? How does their faith differ from that of the adults around them?

5. People's reactions to David's race are a source of abuse -- both voluntary and involuntary. What are Julia's attitudes toward race and how do they affect David? Is race ever used as an excuse by characters in the book to justify other issues?

6. Do Julia and David learn anything worthwhile from their time at Escuela Caribe?

7. How do horseplay and humor figure into Julia and David's relationship? What about fantasy?

8. Does the effect Christianity has on the predominant culture differ between Indiana and Escuela Caribe? How is the religion interpreted to enforce the status quo? Does the rigidity of the Christian culture of Escuela Caribe ever make it easier to subvert?

9. Throughout the book, Julia describes and names the music she is hearing. How is music used by Julia, her mother, and the people at Escuela Caribe?

10. JESUS LAND is written as a memoir focused around the relationship between Julia and David. How does the form affect your reaction to the story? How would you respond differently if it had been written as a novel based on real events, an expose of Escuela Caribe, a documentary on racism in Indiana, or some other format?

Critical Praise

"[A] marvelous remembrance . . . JESUS LAND will break your heart and mend it again, but it won't stop haunting you. . . . Grade: A"

—Entertainment Weekly

"Sibling bond is at the core of JESUS LAND, Scheeres’s gritty, heart-wrenching memoir. . . . A lesser writer would have buckled under the weight of this story . . . A page turner . . . Heart-stopping and enraging . . . There is much praise, these days, for the detached, quietly elegant narrative. But there is little mention of the power a well-tended rage can bring to a good story . . . Striking . . . Focused, justified and without a trace of self-pity. Shot through with poignancy."

—New York Times Book Review

"Judging from this exquisitely wrought memoir, Scheeres emerged with sensibilities intact and learned that love can flourish even in the harshest climates."

—People

"[A] clear-eyed memoir . . . with judicious restraint. To spend your childhood in a doctinaire environment, whether political or religious, is to become too familiar, too fast, with the worst of human frailties--hypocrisy, bigotry, moral cowardice."

—Vogue

"A harrowing memoir of coming-of-age amid religious zealotry . . . Scheeres manages to balance her righteous rage against fanatical hypocracy with a smart sense of humor . . . poignant and heartbraking."

—Mother Jones

"[A] gripping memoir"

—Essence

"Unflinchingly honest. . . . A-"

—Washington Post

"[A] riveting memoir . . . [JESUS LAND] is a book readers are sure to be talking about, and references to such titles as 'Running With Scissors' and 'Girl, Interrupted' will likely be drawn. Scheeres succeeds at relating a harrowing life story with effortless humor and wisdom."

—Chicago Tribune

"Told with unflinching precision . . . Scheeres’ language is consistently matter-of-fact without sounding hard; her strong storytelling skills drive each chapter, every page."

—Bust Magazine

"Woody Allen once said 'If Jesus Christ came back today and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.' He was right. JESUS LAND is the story of Christianity gone horribly awry, of children entrusted to unfit parents, and of siblings united against terrible odds. Scheeres' is a heart-breaking memoir, a compelling read that will hold you fast from start to finish and leave you in tears."

—About.com

"What did Julia and David learn from their strict Christian upbringing? How to write apparently . . . Everything in this memoir, including its final tragedy, is brightly, clearly rendered, by a voice as rich in forgiveness as it has unforgivable stories to tell."

—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"A frank and compelling portrait . . . Tinged with sadness yet pervaded by a sense of triumph, Scheeres's book is a crisply written and earnest examination of the meaning of family and Christian values, and announces the author as a writer to watch."

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The writing is Dickensian in its blend of the tender, the brutal, and the absurd."

—Booklist

"[Scheeres] deftly exposes the disparity between her parents' religious beliefs and their actions . . . and confesses with honesty and emotion her guilt and shame at abandoning her little brother in her search for acceptance. This work will force readers to relive the angst of being a teenager at a new school and desperately trying to fit in. Highly recommended."

—Library Journal

"The road out of an intolerant small town leads straight to a faith-based reform school in journalist Scheeres’s scarifying memoir . . . A bristly summoning of unpretty events, conveyed with remarkable placidity."

—Kirkus

"The grace and emotional brawn that carried Julia Scheeres through the pummeling brutality of her youth has enabled her to tell the tale with a measured intensity that pulls you to her side and keeps you there. I could not stop reading this book."

—Mary Roach, bestselling author of STIFF

"This book will break your heart and mend it again. Julia Scheeres peels back the shiny, plastic veneer of fundamentalist Christianity to reveal the intolerance, hypocrisy and cruelty that can lie beneath. She does this with a merciless eye for detail, and an uncanny ability to evoke the essence of the Midwest. However, it is the exquisite candor and humor which makes JESUS LAND so worth the reading. That, and the simple human love that shines out of every page"

—Lisa Reardon, author of BILLY DEAD and THE MERCY KILLERS

"In this brilliant, sorrow-filled, race-tangled memoir, Ms. Scheeres story-telling skill makes you cheer for her and her adopted brother every step of the way as they navigate a cruel childhood. You will especially love the well-written sections about Ms. Scheeres' exile to a Dominican Republic reform school--inhabited by many emotionally-uneven adults who prove the adage that some Christians are too heavenly minded to be any earthly good."

—Joe Loya, author of THE MAN WHO OUTGREW HIS PRISON CELL