Trespassers Will Be Baptized: The Unordained Memoir of a Preacher's Daughter (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. "Daddy had a sermon voice and an at-home voice; his church smiles and his at-home grins; his damnation-from-above tone, and his damnation-on-whoever-flooded-the-bathroom-floor-trying-to-play-Olympics tone," writes first-time author Hancock in this beautifully crafted and downright funny memoir about growing up a Southern Baptist pastor's daughter in Kentucky. Hancock's voice is a real find, managing both spirituality and irreverence in her account of family and flock. Parishioners jostling for her father's attention are particularly skewered; on the competition among church ladies to prove themselves the most charitable: "Yes, Jesus was dirt poor... But this does not take away from the fact that if you really want to show that you love someone, you have to give them things." While her father is the focus, Hancock gives much time to nuanced, loving observation of her mother, sister and other family members, achieving unexpected depth in the ongoing narrative of her grandmother's long illness. A true gem of a memoir, this will resonate with anyone who grew up in a religious and/or Southern family.
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From Booklist

As this winning memoir makes clear, preachers’ kids aren’t like anybody else, ditto their upbringing, especially if they’re Baptist preachers’ children. In true preacher’s kid fashion, east-central Kentucky preacher’s kid Hancock divides the book into nine “lessons” on, respectively, kindness, gentleness, love, faithfulness, goodness, patience, joy, peace, and self-control. Sans hidden secrets, ugly abuses, and any Mommie or Daddy Dearest, this is a mostly sunny volume of happy memories, in which Kentucky basketball is almost as important as Jesus. Still, Hancock has a sly sense of subtle humor and ironic wit. Tension, when it does emerge, is a result of small misunderstandings and slightly mischievous behavior by her and her younger sister, Meg. Of course, there are dark moments recorded, such as the death of a grandmother, but the spirits of Christian goodness and a young girl at times confused about her father’s profession yet full of pride about it suffuse what is in toto a lovely book. --June Sawyers

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Center Street (June 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599957086
• ISBN-13: 978-1599957081
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #736,548 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PK's memoir almost too smart for its own good!, July 22, 2008

By	Christina Lockstein "http://christysbookblog.... (Oconto Falls, WI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Hancock's memoir about growing up as a pastor's daughter in the South during the 1980s is poignant and hilarious. Emy, as she is called by family, is the eldest daughter and full of ideas about what it means to be a PK (preacher's kid). She tries to follow all the rules and live a spotless life so that her sins don't reflect on her father, but at the same time, she wants the spotlight on her, so she occasionally slips up, like taking a pair of stone-washed Guess jeans from the donation box. Meg, Emy's younger sister, is fiercely independent and an enigma not just to her older sister, but to her parents as well. She is described as: and a little child shall spoil it for everyone else. Hancock ennobles the embattled position of minister in her description of her father and his faith. He is unable to cry when a best friend dies, because a pastor tucks those feelings away. He doesn't get to cry, because he has to support everyone else who is. Emy's deepest wish is to understand the her father's dichotomy. How does he wash away sin when baptizing and still give his daughters baths at night? Her mother has to put on her game face at church and hides Redbook magazine inside a Christian mother's magazine when sunbathing. Hancock truly captures not only her family's humanity, but their enormous faith as well. The book is filled with anecdotes you'll find yourself sharing with friends long after you've finished it. Hancock manages to straddle the fine line between humor and heresy with ease.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Memoir, June 12, 2008

By	Literate Housewife "Jennifer" (Roanoke, VA) - See all my reviews

Trespassers will be Baptized tells the story of Elizabeth Emerson Hancock's early childhood as the oldest daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher living in Kentucky. Miss Em was a precocious little girl who grew up certain that she knew exactly the way it was, only to find out that even her parents weren't always so sure. It is her experiences coming to learn and understand how her parents, most especially her father, live within the spaces between their holy" (public) life and their "human" (private) life that make this memoir interesting and applicable to almost anyone who once was a child.

Although you should never judge the book by its cover, I really feel as though I got exactly what I was eagerly anticipating from the moment I first held the book in my hand. Hancock tells her story in a vivacious manner that pokes fun at her childhood notions and background while honoring it all at the same time. She sheds light on what it is like to grow up in a Southern Baptist home, but also provide insight on girls coming of age in the early to mid-1980s.

The stories she tells specific to her religious upbringing ring true, but so do her experiences as an oldest child. She brought back so many memories for me. I laughed as much at her story about fishing a pair of acid washed Guess jeans out of the Missions box for herself as I did about times when I used my advanced reasoning with my younger siblings to get them to go along with my schemes. Once I convinced myself that what I was setting out to do was okay, I could often easily recruit the rest to go along with me. The tricky part was working it so that they would get the blame if we were caught...

I very much enjoyed my time reading Trespassers will be Baptized. It was well paced and smoothly written. I reminded me of how much I enjoyed reading A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel. It's nice to read about childhood experiences that weren't traumatic or abusive. Living in a Southern Baptist area, I am happy now to know a little more about how my neighbors might have been brought up and some of the characters they might have encountered at church. Even still, despite doctrinal differences, growing up in an religious yet open home and regularly attending church is more alike than it is different. I would most definitely recommend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I don't normally read "chick books"......, October 13, 2008

By	Robert C. Hufford (Hopewell, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

.....but Miss Em, as her father calls her, was doing a signing at a local Barnes & Noble...I noticed her, we got into conversation......

Miss Hancock's memoir of growing up a Baptist preacher's kid is at once hilarious, sad, and thought provoking...I won't spoil it for you, but some of the stories are doozies. That they are well-written is natural...one expects a Harvard lawyer to write well, though she's sure the prettiest one I ever saw...

Church people sometimes have problems, and occasionally they can be vicious beyond belief, gladly doing unto other Christians as they would not dare do unto anyone else. No Church is exempt. Still, there's a lot more good than bad in the Kingdom...Miss Em makes that clear...

This is a fine book that will both entertain and inspire you...yes, the Hancocks had problems, but they solved them without destroying each other, or their faith, and moved on. That's what Christians are supposed to do. Compare this to the [superbly written] garbage in Jeanette Walls' "The Glass Castle"...Reverend Hancock and Mr. Walls served different Masters, and everything else flows from there. Miss Em will probably sell about 1% of the books Miss Walls sells...that's tragic, but that's life.....