JESUS, MY FATHER, THE CIA, AND ME
A Memoir . . . of Sorts by Ian Morgan Cron
This was my Christmas vacation read, and I loved it. It helped that I had heard Cron speak at STORY in September. I literally had his voice in my head, so picking up his gentle spirit in the tone of his writing was easy. I had also experienced his gift as a true minister of Jesus. At STORY he closed his session by reciting a prayer over us that nearly took our breath away. I felt like I was reading the story of a friend, even though I had only briefly met him in a church lobby in Chicago in the fall.
Though my life may have few similarities with the one Cron describes, he still held me close to his experience through his beautiful writing. I felt his heart and emotions in so many of the scenes. I’m pretty sure just from reading the engaging narrative of his First Communion I was baptized as a Catholic!
“And then I fell into God.”
After I read these words, I was done. Finished. They so perfectly sum up the way I have experienced God throughout my life. It didn’t matter if the vehicle was old-fashioned or pentecostal or just plain weird. I know this feeling. I recognize this language. I’ve fallen into God myself. Somehow Cron does this again and again in this memoir.
I’ll admit some resistance to being this sucked into the language of a memoir. Cron discloses his approach in the introduction. It’s typical memoir-speak. The author may or may not have exaggerated certain events or descriptions in an attempt to help the reader feel the emotional weight of the actual event. I dont’ have a problem with this. I do it in my own conversations. Many times I’ve caught myself embellishing the story just a bit, just enough to make sure you REALLY understand the significance. I get it.
Still, I did catch myself wondering WHEN he was exaggerating. Did he add the tears on his face during that First Communion? Or maybe the priest’s knowing look? Was it his friend’s embrace when he finally admitted to a drinking problem? Maybe the photos of his father playing golf with Richard Nixon? I thought about this off and on until I realized it didn’t matter to me. I wanted to feel the emotional weight just as he felt it, even if he had to use a bit of artistic license to get me there.
I do hope the conversation with Miss Annie at the barbeque is exactly as written, though, because I want to tattoo those words on my arm (or on everyone else’s foreheads) so I don’t forget:
“Love always stoops.”
Read it. Live it.
Please, Rev. Cron, please tell me that’s really what she said! Because like the rest of the book, that just felt so real and true.
Wait, don’t tell me. I like just believing it.
I can’t wait to read this now! He was so engaging at Story. I don’t know why I haven’t picked it up yet.
This has been on my To Read list since it first came out. I’m going to have to move it closer to the top. The lines you quoted absolutely resonate.
I’m so jealous right now. I didn’t know you were reading this! I want to own it just so I can have a piece of him in my home and remember that moment at STORY forever when again we fell into God. Beautiful. And love stoops? Seriously? The perfection of that hurts me, it’s so good.
You’ll love the context of the love comment even more. So good.
Your dad picked up the audio version — Read by the Author! — for our trip this week. Great stuff.
Well, I have to read this book, are you kidding? After reading this post I feel compelled, almost p u l l e d towards the bookstore as I type this. =)
We did listen to him,( Book read by author on CD) all the way down and back to Kansas City for the conference. We laughed, we cried, we gasped, I nodded frequently as I recognized myself in his descriptions of himself. His education in Bowden college(assuming it really occurred there) stood him in good stead. The book is one of the best at educating people about alcoholism/addiction that I have read to date because it introduces them to the real higher power, Jesus. His writing is so good that, like Lici, I really don’t care what the exact details are either, how he expressed them here is as good as it gets.