I picked this book up after reading a review/excerpt on [...]. As an avid reader of memoirs, I was excited to find one that tackled the subject of spirituality from a Christian experience. Ms. Bauer's writing is engaging, and I had no problem going along for the ride. I enjoyed her lyrical turns of phrase and creative metaphors but found, like a prior reviewer, that some of her references were obscure (or perhaps, over my history major head). I also found myself stumbling every now and then on over-worked phrasing that took me out of the rhythm of reading.
The work itself is honest, open, detailed and entertaining. . . for the first 75% of the book. It seemed like so much care and detail was given to the first part of the book that I was disappointed at the rushed turn things took once she decided to convert to Catholicism. It seemed from that point on, things were combined, edited down, rushed and passed over. Additionally, it's hard to feel satisfied with the trajectory of the story when something as crucial as the author losing her faith is given all of a few paragraphs of development (it was unclear, was it 9/11 solely? The book seemed to imply that after 9/11 she just stopped going to church and walked away from God, but it was so under-explored for something so huge.). Likewise, her two real adult relationships feel tacked on at the end. I can't decide if the odd way those relationships are handled (referring to her boyfriend as "her friend", no name, no pseudonym) is due to real life legal issues (no releases) or rush to publication? Regardless, the overall effect feels unbalanced when the themes threaded throughout the book are her relationship with God and how it grows and changes as she does, and her decision to remain a virgin as a facet of that relationship, that when the loss of both of those is treated with such brevity and without refection, it felt like a letdown.
If not for the rushed last 25% of the book and the flat ending, I would have happily given this 4-5 stars.
