I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth [Hardcover]

Brenda Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2010

In Brenda Peterson’s unusual memoir, fundamentalism meets deep ecology. The author’s childhood in the high Sierra with her forest ranger father led her to embrace the entire natural world, while her Southern Baptist relatives prepared eagerly and busily to leave this world. Peterson survived fierce “sword drill” competitions demanding total recall of the Scriptures and awkward dinner table questions (“Will Rapture take the cat, too?”) only to find that environmentalists with prophecies of doom can also be Endtimers. Peterson paints such a hilarious, loving portrait of each world that the reader, too, may want to be Left Behind.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Talk of the rapture—the ascent to heaven of true Christians before the end of the world—surrounds Peterson (Duck and Cover), and she engages this conversation with delicacy, humor, frustration, and, at times, a begrudging respect, in this memoir about growing up among Southern Baptists and not quite fitting in. Peterson's story is told through what is really a series of vignettes, tied together by two themes, faith and the environment. She looks back at her childhood, college, and then adulthood, stopping here and there, selecting scenes from her life that show why she finds God outdoors, and why the rapture-obsessed family and community of her youth quickly loses its appeal. Her love for this world and everything in it is far greater than any promise of salvation apart from and above it. Readers interested in a story about leaving behind theologically conservative Christianity and other types of extremism will find Peterson's collection of anecdotes and remembered conversations engaging. The chapters can be read on their own, and her prologue, The Trumpet Shall Sound, and chapter In the Garden are among the best. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Peterson has been sharpening her ethos on the flinty tenets of the Southern Baptist Church ever since she was an inquisitive child enthralled by the living world. Following her fourth novel, Animal Heart (2004), she continues the inquiry into her complex heritage and ecological calling that she began in Build Me an Ark (2001). In this unusually affecting and radiant spiritual memoir, Peterson recounts her resistance to End Times teachings. Surely, life on earth is sacred, thought this “increasingly mutinous mystic” alert to the contradictions between her parents’ heaven-focused religion and her CIA-employed mother’s earthiness and her gifted father’s devotion to nature as chief of the U.S. Forest Service. With stirring immediacy, Peterson describes the traumatic awakenings during the 1960s and 1970s that inspired her to reject the concept of the Rapture and embrace the effort to preserve earthly creation. Guided by exceptional mentors, Peterson endured experiences painful, ludicrous, and profound in small towns, a “boot camp for Southern Baptists,” and the offices of the New Yorker before finding her true home on the Pacific coast. Frankly and knowledgeably critiquing evangelicalism and holier-than-thou environmentalism, Peterson seeks a meeting of church and earth in this witty, enrapturing account of a spiritual journey of great relevance to us all. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306818043
• ISBN-13: 978-0306818042
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"TOP TEN BEST NON-FICTION BOOKS OF 2010" BY CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

AN INDIE NEXT "GREAT READ" BY INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS NATIONWIDE

WATCH Brenda's BOOK LUST "You Tube" excerpt on this page below or see the full interview with Nancy Pearl at this link: http://www.seattlechannel.org/schedule/programDetails.asp?title=3031103

Brenda's new website: www.IWantToBeLeftBehind.com and Brenda's Blog is at: http://www.iwanttobeleftbehind.blogspot.com/

LISTEN to an audio excerpt from the new book on National Public Radio read by the author at: http://kuow.org/program.php?id=19037

"Unusually affecting and radiant...Peterson seeks a meeting of church and earth in this witty, enrapturing account of a spiritual journey of great relevance to us all." BOOKLIST, starred review

"A tender, lyrical account, Peterson expresses genuine love for her family and gratitude for their gifts. Peterson always seeks common ground." LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Blends her unique autobiography with compassionate and level-headed observations about family, food, religion, life and our relationship with living things. Peterson has a gift for describing her life's many adventures with disarming understatement and narrative poise." KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Brenda Peterson's picaresque memoir is a mesmerizing treat, at turns inspiring and hilarious. Her keen-eyed descriptions of the natural world, and a delicious sense of fun, combine beautifully with tales of protecting seals, whales, hope, and other wild things."
Diane Ackerman, author THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE


"A loving, luminous portrait of an irresistibly intriguing family, told by the most fascinating member of all -- the one who doesn't fit in. It's alive with stars over the Grand Canyon, scents of the sea, menus at family gatherings, and singing a descant. The story is told with such truth and tenderness that you can't help loving the whole family."
Sy Montgomery, author of THE GOOD, GOOD PIG


"I've been a fan of Brenda Peterson's novels since the witty DUCK AND COVER. But I can't think of another book at all like this memoir -- it's so odd and wonderful. Peterson writes here of family and conflicting faiths with moving and poignant humor."
Diane Johnson, author of LE DIVORCE


"Brenda Peterson, one of the most eloquent nature writers of our time, takes on human nature. Read this book and share it widely. It is that important."
Marc Bekoff, author of of THE EMOTIONAL LIFE OF ANIMALS

Visit Brenda's website at: www.literati.net/Peterson


Brenda Peterson is the author of 15 books, including a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year," DUCK AND COVER. Her memoir, BUILD ME AN ARK: A Life with Animals was chosen as a "Best Spiritual Book of 2001" and translated into Chinese. Her non-fiction books include the classic LIVING BY WATER and the National Geographic Book SIGHTINGS. Peterson's most recent novel is ANIMAL HEART (Sierra Club Books).

For the past three decades Peterson has written about inter-species relationships and edited several bestselling anthologies, including INTIMATE NATURE and FACE TO FACE. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Body/Soul magazine, Reader's Digest, Sierra, San Francisco Chronicle, Utne Reader, and Oprah magazine. Since 1993 she has contributed commentary for Seattle's NPR stations.

Peterson's new book, I WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND: Finding Rapture Here on Earth is a spiritual memoir, widely acclaimed and award-winning. Hew new children's book, PUPS ON THE BEACH is due out from Henry Holt for Young Readers in 2010.Peterson is the founder of the grassroots citizen naturalists Seal Sitters [www.sealsitters.org] and she is also a devoted singer in a Seattle chorale. Peterson writes and teaches in Seattle, Washington by the Salish Sea.Contact her through her website: www.literati.net/Peterson

author photos by: Chris Stuvek and Deb Ching

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming, insightful and illuminating, March 5, 2010

By 

Maverick (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth (Hardcover)

I just finished reading this book last night and slept feeling very much at peace. Brenda's description of her family and reunions were such a joy to read - I instantly fell in love with her parents. There is so much I learned from this book about nature, family, animals and spirituality. My favorite chapter was In the Gardens - I couldn't imagine how the writer left her job at the New Yorker and moved to the middle of no where to look after a farm and grow corn. Once I read that chapter I cried, I understood the passion and connection she felt with nature and nurturing nature. This book transported my to various family gatherings and experiences from Brenda's life and I now have a better understanding of the Southern Baptist culture, nature, kindness and importance of family - no matter what flavor they come in.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding Earth Rapturous Now, February 25, 2010

By 

Trish Lawrence "http://www.trishlawrence.com/... (Seattle) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth (Hardcover)

What I particularly liked about Brenda Peterson's spiritual memoir, I Want To Be Left Behind, is that she's gone two steps further than most of our modern thinkers do. When thinking about living a life, there are three things that must be touched upon, especially when one wants to live a good, fulfilling life.

First, is the idea that there should be harmony and what C.S. Lewis called "fair play" between individuals. Second, there is the "harmonisation" (Lewis was British) of the inner life. Third, there is the knowledge of what humanity is here for, what we're supposed to be doing, and what voices we listen to as we do it. Modern thinkers have got the harmony and "fair play" idea down pat. We've got tons of books (memoirs even) about this. It's the loudest cry of our modern world. "Hey, let's play fair. Can't we all just get along?"

While Peterson espouses this idea all throughout her book, she takes us deeper into the personal "harmonisation" of her inner self. When a hasty (probably well-meaning, but ill-advised) comment from a Vacation Bible School teacher frustrates the young Peterson, she begins to assemble her own inner life "harmonisation" at a very young age. Rather than accept the idea that God could not appear in nature (every experience she had with her Forest Ranger father and nature-loving family had taught her exactly the opposite), Peterson began a quest to live a life that fit what she authentically believed already. No one can fault her for that. That's the beauty of the book. It's a journey of inner harmony.

But it's the third point that I find the most to learn from. What is humanity here for? What are we supposed to be going? What voice are we listening to? Is it the loud and angry voice of dogmatic fundamentalism of both Right and Left promising destruction of the earth because of humanity's failings? Or is there another voice we could choose to hear? Peterson has shown that there is a third path: we may not know what is going to happen in the future, but there is "harmonisation" available now, free to anyone who chooses to take it. To some it may look like grace given from a Christian God, to others it may look like a sense of knowing oneself as taught in Eastern religion.

The most beautiful piece of this memoir is that what she offers for us to do does not fit neatly into either of the most dogmatic, fundamentalist camps. Her approach of peace and reconciliation between former harpoon-yielding humans and the gray whales gathered in Baja, for example, is beautifully rendered and a testament to her writing skill. Her same approach to her own family--no malice, no judgment, just grace and truth--seems to me a loving, heartfelt extension of that same feeling. As I read her book, I heard myself singing softly to myself:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul.

The key is that Peterson has found a wonderful path to the same place as her family--a love for nature, a love for humanity, a love for God--that provides "harmonisation" for her inner life. And that she has written a book about it and brought us along is a gift. For one thing we can all agree on--earth now is rapturous. And we only have to step out our front door to find it.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Breath of Fresh Air, September 23, 2010

By 

Story Circle Book Reviews - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth (Hardcover)

In her memoir I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here On Earth novelist and nature writer Brenda Peterson explores the paradox of a family both deeply in love with nature and deeply committed to the belief that the true salvation will only come with the earthÕs destruction.

The lone liberal in a family of conservative Southern Baptists, Peterson writes lyrically about her early childhood in a Forest Service station--and in a world where God and Satan, and the impending Rapture are as real as the forests she loves. She traces her path away from her conservative Southern Baptist childhood, through the Civil Rights era, protests at Berkeley, a fledging career at The New Yorker, another career farming in Colorado, and then yet a third career as a nature writer in Seattle.

Peterson's account of a transformative period in American history is fascinating. Equally fascinating is the more intimate journey she and her family take in finding paths through the deep religious and political schisms that divide them. The climax of the book comes in an epiphany--that fundamentalists and environmentalists butt heads not because they are so very different, but because they are flip sides of the same coin.

One day, Peterson lists the defining characteristics of fundamentalists and environmentalists:
Fundamentalists / Environmentalists
Enraptured by doom / Enraptured by doom
Apocalypse Now / Apocalypse Near
Fear of future consequences / Fear of future consequences
Righteous anger / Righteous anger
Thou shalt not / Thou shalt not
Holier than thou / Holier than thou
Humorless / Humorless
Blame, shame, judgment / Blame, shame, judgment
Evangelical / Evangelical

She continues: "This list was so disturbing to me that I immediately put it in the back of my notebook, feeling disloyal to all my own environmental causes. Yet I could not help but see that both sides were so busy envisioning a future Eden that they took no time to appreciate the present moment. I began to watch myself whenever I tended to fall into the simple formulas of my heritage: black-and-white thinking, a belief that I knew all the right answers. This was a much more unsettling path wandering a wilderness of uncomfortable gray areas. I was seeking common or even uncharted ground. Or, as Rumi says, 'Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I will meet you there.'"

The list highlights a central theme: As long as we inhabit the far reaches of any extreme, conversation is difficult--or impossible. That epiphany changes the way Peterson relates to her remarkable family. Increasingly, she seeks common ground, conversation rather than conversion, and in the end learns to find rapture in her family as well as in the world around her.

In an time when concerns about moral and ecological decay give rise to increasingly heated, polarized debate, Peterson's book comes as a breath of fresh air--a reminder that the earth and its inhabitants are a joy as well as a responsibility, and that the best path to our future lies in seeking, and finding, the common ground that lies in the fields beyond. I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here On Earth is available through Amazon, and at bookstores everywhere.

by Sherry Wachter
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women