So many memoirs about faith are surprisingly materialistic. Author is raised as a believer; X happens; author looses faith and plunges into horrible life of secularism. Y happens and author regains faith and becomes fully functioning member of society. She rides off into a doubtless sunset. In those memoirs, there is no room given to the gray area between faith and secularism, no mention to how the author dealt with doubts in the mind and griefs of the heart.
If those books are external memoirs (everything is on the surface), then Faith and Other Flat Tires is an internal memoir. It is a book by a bright, introspective woman who finds problems with religion in all manner of ways. An Eric Clapton concert is as likely to raise tough theological questions as does having to bury a childhood friend. Dilley's memoirs outline how she grew up a missionary kid and then became a 'melancholy Christian' before leaving the church. She eventually found that the same questions that drove her away from God ended up driving her back to faith once again. She returns to God hesitantly, with battle wounds and hope and also - get this - without all the answers.
As a memoir, this book is funny and honest. Dilley doesn't paint herself as a victim or a saint. She's awkward at times, painfully aware of her flaws and she bravely lays her selfish moments and bad choices along with her honesty and courage. She acknowledges that her tale is not a 'my life was the worst life ever' story. Rather, it's a tale of how a person can loose faith while still maintaining a 4.0 - how even the seemingly 'good' kids can find themselves stomping out of the church and slamming the doors behind them (literally) because their questions are not being answered.
As a spiritual book, Faith and other Flat Tires walks a very different line than others spiritual books I've read. (Thank God.) For one thing, it's not at all preachy. For another, it's wicked smart. Dilley knows her stuff - her theology, her church history, her convictions about social justice. When she takes a swing at the church, she's got the intellectual and emotional equivalent of a heavyweight behind her fists. This is a woman who has heard all the "good Christian answers" and yet can't reconcile that with the suffering she's seen in the world and the loneliness she's felt in her own heart. Dilley paints a clear picture of loss and bewilderment, of standing inside a church and a faith that feels like it's crumbling.
Christians who don't want to ask hard questions about their faith will likely be troubled by this book. It doesn't hold back. So also, people who want to walk away from the church forever may take issue with Dilley's refusal to settle for easy secular answers as well as easy religious ones. But for folks who are seeking for Truth with a capital 'T,' yet feel like they're out of place among the doughnuts-and-coffee-and-small-talk-after-church crowd, this book will come as a welcome read. I kept thinking, 'Man, I wish I'd been able to read this as a teenager.' At that time, the dichotomy of perfect Christian girl and 'other' seemed so stark in my mind.
Finally, as a work of non-fiction, this book is a delight to read. Dilley is a fantastic writer, and her flowing, conversational style deftly draws the reader from one striking metaphor to a vivid scene from her unusual life to a heady theological point, and then back again. The writing is funny, earthy, and philosophical in turn - sometimes all at the same time. The only complaint I could level at the book is that the references to Pilgrim's Progress that cropped up now and again felt strained to me. Maybe that's because I was forced to read that book as a kid and hated it. Dilley's simple, honest style sometimes seemed like it broke stride to side-step Bunyan's overwrought metaphors. This was a small enough thing not to detract from the point of the book, but I didn't care to hear about Bunyan's fictional journey when Dilley's real journey was going on.
SUMMARY: To keep with the car metaphor laid out in the book, Faith and Other Flat Tires is not a religious tract you found stuck under your windshield. Instead, it is like sitting in the passenger seat with a dear friend, driving through her life, discussing questions about God as you head down the road together.
