Book Review
Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus
Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus by Diane Wilson, published by Chelsea Green
Life has taken some interesting turns for Diane Wilson, whose metamorphosis from shrimp boat captain to environmental activist was documented in Texas Gold, a multiple-award-winning documentary based on An Unreasonable Woman, her 2005 memoir. Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus is her irreverent take on the Pentecostal womenfolk and shrimp-fishing menfolk who raised her and their very different perspectives on life in tiny Seadrift, on the Texas Gulf Coast: By night Grandpa Chief would drag nine-year-old Diane out on clandestine boat runs while by day Aunt Silver would exorcise the demon of Anthony Perkins (yes, the actor) from her body. Wilson writes like a correspondent bemused by the strange goings-on in a foreign land, and Holy Roller is the salt-sprayed Rosetta stone that helps her readers understand. Chelsea Green, $24.95
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