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Summary
Summary
Sometimes salvation is found in the strangest places: a true story.
Aaron Hartzler grew up in a home where he was taught that at any moment the Rapture could happen. That Jesus might come down in the twinkling of an eye and scoop Aaron and his family up to heaven. As a kid, Aaron was thrilled by the idea that every moment of every day might be his last one on planet Earth.
But as Aaron turns sixteen, he finds himself more attached to his earthly life and curious about all the things his family forsakes for the Lord. He begins to realize he doesn't want the Rapture to happen just yet--not before he sees his first movie, stars in the school play, or has his first kiss. Eventually Aaron makes the plunge from conflicted do-gooder to full-fledged teen rebel.
Whether he's sneaking out, making out, or playing hymns with a hangover, Aaron learns a few lessons that can't be found in the Bible. He discovers that the best friends aren't always the ones your mom and dad approve of, and the tricky part about believing is that no one can do it for you.
In this funny and heartfelt coming-of-age memoir, debut author Aaron Hartzler recalls his teenage journey to find the person he is without losing the family that loves him. It's a story about losing your faith and finding your place and your own truth--which is always stranger than fiction.
Author Notes
Aaron Hartzler has written books, screenplays, and a great number of tweets. His first book, Rapture Practice is a true story about his own life, a memoir about getting kicked out of his Christian high school in Kansas City two weeks before graduation. The New York Times called Rapture Practice "effervescent and moving, evocative and tender." It was also one of Amazon's Best Books of 2013, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. He invites you to visit him online at www.aaronhartzler.com.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Hartzler makes his debut with this accessible memoir about coming of age in a very strict Christian family. Aaron, the oldest of four children, has always been a stellar son, following his parents' edicts to the letter-no television, secular music, or movies-even when he doesn't fully understand them. He's also a joyful soldier of the Lord, happy to help his mother lead their neighborhood Good News Club, or lend accompaniment to his preacher father at church services. But when Aaron turns 16, his natural desire to explore the larger world outside his faith, including listening to pop music, dating and experiencing sexual attraction, and experimenting with alcohol, is perceived as rebellion, stirring up big trouble at home and at his ultra-conservative Christian school. Many readers may find the circumstances of Aaron's sheltered upbringing hard to believe. What rings very true, however, is the author's thoughtful search for answers to his heart's biggest questions, and his pragmatism and sense of humor on the journey. Ages 15-up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
All his life, Aaron Hartlzer's ultraconservative, evangelical Christian parents exhorted him to live to honor the Lord. But as he begins to listen to secular music, drink, and experiment sexually, he struggles to reconcile his secret lifestyle with his parents' expectations. This is a captivating, honest, and relatable memoir about a teen's search for his true identity and for love. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Jesus is coming back. That's what Aaron's family believes, and as a boy, so does he. But by the end of this memoir, Aaron isn't sure of much, other than he wants the freedom to be himself. Heartfelt and humorous, this book introduces Aaron; his strict but devoted parents; his grandmother, whose love is unconditional; and the classmates at his Christian schools, instrumental in shaping him. Hartzler writes with a keen eye for detail, whether it's the early scene in which his grandfather crochets (while he makes pot holders) or the description of what it feels like to make out with a girl for the first time. He is equally sure-footed describing his inner turmoil as he does the opposite of what's expected of him, all while maintaining the good-boy facade. One of the best things, however, is how lovingly Hartzler portrays his parents, even as they anger him. Aaron's attraction to other boys is hinted at, but one has to read the acknowledgments to find out more. Readers will hope for a sequel to learn how his family dealt with the news of his sexuality.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
A ARON HARTZLER and Rafe Goldberg grow up mostly as polar opposites. Aaron comes from a fundamentalist Christian Kansas City family; Rafe is a child of modern-hippie Boulder, Colo., (stereo)types. Aaron, the main character in the memoir "Rapture Practice," is real; Rafe, the protagonist in Bill Konigsberg's novel "Openly Straight," is made up. But both wrestle, over several hundred pages, with their identities. And both share a secret: They're liars. If I were growing up in the Hartzler household, I'd want to lie too. The devoutly Baptist Hartzlers rear their children in eager anticipation of Jesus' second coming. Movies are banned. He-Man action figures too. For his 16th birthday, Aaron's parents give him a purity ring, his mom agush about "when you'll be able to slip this ring off your finger and give it to your new bride - the best wedding gift of all: your virginity." Hartzler paints a compellingly unlikable portrait of his preacher dad - Jerry Falwell meets Kim Il-sung, religiously ultraconservative and determined to protect the hermit kingdom of his home from evil. Temptation is everywhere. One stirring passage describes a battle over whether Aaron must wear socks with his Top-Siders to church. (Aaron says no: "It's dorky.") Aaron: "It's just socks." Aaron's father: "Aaron, it isn't just socks. It's rebellion." Despite Aaron's repetitive rebellion, cover-up attempts and exposure, "Rapture Practice" is often effervescent and moving, evocative and tender. Aaron's as-yet-inexplicable romantic feelings are described in a particularly affecting, authentically adolescent way. One day, while working at the local skating rink, he meets a cute boy on the ice. "We shake," Hartzler recalls, "but when I try to drop his hand, he holds on to mine.... I'm short of breath, but I haven't been skating hard." Sweet. But like its protagonist, "Rapture Practice" struggles with identity issues not atypical for the genre. The book is cast as a young adult memoir, and the author's note, which includes a parenthetical that says, "Be warned: There is kissing" affirms that skew. But how many teenagers today would get certain unexplained cultural references - Peter Cetera? Wilson Phillips? - that suggest Hartzler really wanted to write for people who remember Peter Cetera and Wilson Phillips? Hartzler wants to inspire, but he overreaches. He attempts to cover his whole childhood, examine his diminishing faith, poke at his super-religious upbringing, map his evolving sexuality and play it all for laughs (and a few tears). Sometimes he feels like memoirist-as-Anne-Hathaway. He's talented, but you never forget he's performing - and trying so hard. "Openly Straight" suffers no such identity crisis. It chronicles Rafe Goldberg's first semester at an all-boys boarding school in Massachusetts. Back in Boulder, he'd come out in eighth grade, prompting his mom to become president of the local chapter of Pflag. At his new school, he tells nobody he's gay. "I was silently saying goodbye to a part of myself: my label. That word that defined me as only one thing to everyone." Characters have worn masks and wrestled with the consequences, in works as similar but divergent as "Twelfth Night" and "There's Something About Mary." "Openly Straight" is a thoughtful, modern spin on that venerable device, and it works because of Rafe. While some secondary characters are thinly drawn - especially his parents and his best friend from home, Claire Olivia, who flits to another, more flamboyant gay boy once Rafe heads east - Rafe feels real. He's convincingly teenage. He's smart but never too articulate. He's searching but not always finding what he thinks he's looking for. That's especially true as his friendship blossoms with his taciturn, totally crush-worthy classmate Ben. Konigsberg depicts teenhood's somersaults especially adroitly through Rate's journal. In one entry, Rafe writes about his embarrassing dad: "I'm pretty chill, I'm pretty comfortable, but there's a difference between normal comfortable and being 40-something and shaking your backside to a bad hip-hop song in an Illinois restaurant full of strangers." "Normal" is, in some sense, what "Openly Straight" is all about. If Rafe passes for straight, will he be considered normal? What does that feel like? What does that even mean? We all grow up. That makes the coming-of-age tale so tough to tell well. At some point, each of us will compare, consciously or not, the story with our own. Thanks to Konigsberg's artful engineering, we travel deep into Rafe's world, and through his longing and his angst, the flutters of young love and the strains of seeking to be understood, we also revisit the same but different stations from our own journeys. Being openly gay may not be a curse, but it's exhausting, Rafe writes in his journal. "Always wondering what people are seeing, and feeling separated from so much of the world, that's hard." For many of us, that's also life, whether you're gay or straight. Konigsberg's lovely novel invites us to walk with Rafe through his season of assumed identity and his costly emergence into honesty. It's beautiful. It's a story of salvation. Jeff Chu, an editor at large for Fast Company, is the author of "Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America."
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Hartzler grew up in an Evangelical Christian home, where he was taught that the Rapture might happen any minute. As he grew into his teen years, he began to question this belief and to be drawn to more worldly things-movies, rock music, plays, literature, and kissing. To a secular audience, Hartzler's parents' rules about whom he can befriend and how he can live his life may come across as draconian, but the author is open and fair about how they lived their beliefs and how they always loved him, even as their rules drove him away. Hartzler is honest about his sexual encounters with girls (and boys) and about underage drinking that happened at parties he attended. His memoir is appealing because of his honesty, and forthrightness. When writing about Evangelical Christians, he never takes on a condescending tone. He shows where his own questions led him, even as he shows how his parents saw things very differently than he did. His style is clear and lively, and he makes readers see how the questioning of his faith began, and how it grew. Readers will want to spend time with Hartzler to find out how he became true to himself and what choices he made on that journey.-Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An eye-opening, autobiographical account of growing up waiting for the rapture. Since birth, Hartzler has been taught that any day, Jesus could scoop his family off to heaven. To prepare, his mom leads his youth group in a song called "Countdown," in which they sing "BLASTOFF!" at the tops of their lungs and jump as if they're being taken into the sky. Religion shapes every aspect of Hartzler's life, but love is also at the heart of his work. That's what's at stake when he starts making left turns in both his activities and his belief system in high school. He sneaks to movies his parents would never approve of, illicitly listens to popular music, and plans wild, drunken parties. He has his first kiss, and eventually he begins to think that he might like boys (but that's not the main point). His story emphasizes discovery more than rebellion, and the narrative is carefully constructed to show and not judge the beliefs of his family and their community. That said, he's constantly under close surveillance, and readers will wince in sympathy as they experience his punishments for what they might deem trivial actions. Hartzler's laugh-out-loud stylings range from the subtle to the ridiculous (his grandmother on wearing lipstick: "I need just a touch, so folks won't think we're Pentecostal"). A hilarious first-of-its-kind story that will surely inspire more. (Memoir. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
