When the deacons at Mark Beaverâ€™s Bible Belt church cue up an evangelical horror flick aimed at dramatizing Hell, he figures he d better get right with God, and soon. Convinced he could die at

Suburban Gospel

When the deacons at Mark Beaverâ€™s Bible Belt church cue up an evangelical horror flick aimed at dramatizing Hell, he figures he d better get right with God, and soon. Convinced he could die at age seven and spend eternity roasting on a spit in the fiery furnace of Hades, he promptly gets Saved. But once adolescence hits, the Straight and Narrow becomes a tight squeeze.

But Suburban Gospel offers more than a look inside Bible Belt suburbia, circa Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majorityâ€”itâ€™s a tale of faith and flesh. Beaver invites us into a world filled with Daisy Duke fantasies and Prince posters, Nerf Hoops and Atari joysticks, raggedy Camaros and the neon light of strip malls. As much about the adolescent heart as the evangelical mind, the story explores similar emotional terrain as coming-of-age classics like Tobias Wolffâ€™s This Boy's Life and Mary Karrâ€™s Cherry. Suburban Gospel is a tale of growing up Baptist, all right but also of just growing up.

Suburban Gospel