Suburban Gospel

In Beaver’s debut, a humorous and candid memoir, he recounts his coming of age in the suburbs of Atlanta in the 1980s. After a brief glimpse of him in 1975—when he was a seven-year-old who, out of fear of eternal damnation, began “acting the part of a good Baptist boy”—readers meet him in the summer after his 13th birthday, when it became suddenly harder for him to abide by those Bible Belt values. Beaver chronicles his experiences following this shift. Highlights include his summer at the Super Wow evangelical camp, dancing with a chaperone at a party, getting his first car (“the Badmobile”), and desperately trying to find amusement in suburbia. In a disarmingly conversational tone, he describes his attempts to reconcile his adolescent desires with his evangelical upbringing. Though the book’s trajectory feels somewhat predictable, Beaver’s voice is engrossing; his deadpan self-satire is as sharp as his observations about his community. (Apr.)