Jaci Dawn

I do not usually plug a book on my blog. Yes, I have put out a plug for Elaine Aron’s The Highly Sensitive Person, and that was because I found myself in Elaine’s book. She set me free, more or less.

I met Amy on Facebook through mutual friends. I purchased and read her latest book out of curiosity and because the reviews were so great. What I did not know when I purchased it and while I read it, was that Amy was going through a valley: Christian bookstores are not picking up and marketing her newest book. They have picked up all of her earlier books (and with great enthusiasm), but they are largely ignoring Letters From the Closet.

I loved Amy’s book. It’s about a student and her mentor and their ten years of correspondence. She has a secret; he has a secret. There is John himself: a character who is tormented with depression (boy, I relate to that). John taunts, encourages, disparages – it’s a one-sided conversation because we do not have Amy’s letters to him. We have only Amy’s recollections and her reaction to his letters when she uncovers them from her closet. Letters from the Closet. her closet; his closet; their secrets unveiled.

I do not want to provide a spoiler – but what Christian could refuse a book about redemption and the journey to understanding through the eyes of a Christian? Ultimately, that is what the book leads us to as Amy relives the ten years of correspondence (sometimes with brutal honesty about her own flaws) and she comes to terms with the letters she hid in her closet for so many years. 

I no longer have the influence I used to have on a mega church book store. If I could still wield that influence, I would. I haven’t set foot inside my mega church in over a year, maybe two. It’s a long story. Considering that I am a disillusioned church goer, my plug for Amy’s book should carry some weight with it: I don’t read much in the way of Christian literature. I have a tendency to swing into Fantasy, Young Adult, and all things Barbara Kingsolver (like The Poisonwood Bible). I am currently working my way through Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse and am re-reading the complete Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (I read all the books twice or more when I was in junior high).

Amy is a Christian writer who isn’t interested in converting me or selling me the latest fad prayer that will change my life. Letters From the Closet is much more than the title of a book where one of the lead characters just happens to be gay. It’s about love, forgiveness, redemption.