Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir [Hardcover]

This book wasn't what I expected. The author, Susan Isaacs, is a moderately successful actress/writer/comedienne who has worked on movies and TV shows you would be familiar with. Why don't you know her on a first name basis? That is part of the fuel for the fire of this book. In telling her lack-of-success story Susan is "snarky," her cover is cute, and even her book title is clever. I imagined that it would be a humorous read, something fluffy like Oreo filling that I could enjoy between the hard shell theology books on my plate. But this ended up being a book that has significant substance.

Sometimes I get the impression that the Christian authors I read just want to sell books, to see their name on a book spine, or to appear to the rest of us that they are ahead of the pack. They produce books full of outlines that if followed will solve all the answers to church growth problems, deal with leadership issues, nail down how to live as a modern Christian in the post-modern world, and provide seven steps to get to whatever. And though I'm sure there is much value in these attempts, sometimes I just want to relate to someone who is asking the same questions that I am.

Susan has some questions; like when her pastor encouraged her not to act in a film that was too dark, but then later used the same movie in a sermon illustration once it was released; and when all the people around her found the success that she didn't; and when all the relationships she invested in came up bankrupt; and when each of the churches she attended became cliché, full of hype, and self-serving; and especially when Susan decided that the God she knew was nothing but cruel.

This isn't a book about blame. Susan takes accountability for her issues and her honesty about them will make some readers blush. Other readers may not be embarrassed but will envy Susan of her candor and freedom. And some readers will admire that Susan was brave enough to drag the God she was married to into couple's therapy.

That is one of the things that make's Susan's memoir different than the others I've read lately. After writing about a chapter in her life, Susan, God and her counselor have a discussion on how they feel about what has just been shared. It is a like hiding in a closet listening to your sister and her husband verbally vomit on their therapist. But if you're like me, if you open the closet enough to peer out, instead of seeing Susan in the room you may just see yourself.

Who is this book for?

* People whose dreams and ambitions are stuck in neutral.
* People who believe in God but aren't so sure that he loves them.
* People who feel angry at God- not irreverent, just angry.
* People who don't have the answers to all of life's questions.
* And even people who think they have all the answers and would like to set Susan straight- she has a special place in her heart for you. (Yes, that was snarky.)

1. Not for anyone looking for Christian platitudes or easy answers.
2. Will cause sustained periods of uncontrollable laughter.*
3. Reader may not be able to put this one down...

...and if you do, your friends will steal it. Trust me. I'm currently awaiting a second copy, and I'm pretty sure I know who will want to "borrow" it next.

Susan Isaacs delivers the goods with Angry Conversations. It's wonderfully insightful, refreshingly honest, and completely hilarious - in short, a Christian book I can actually recommend (at long last).

Buy one - or three - today.

*If uncontrollable laughter persists beyond four hours, call your doctor.

Who does not bring their own checkered past and frustrations to this kind of story? Who has not wondered what God can possibly be up to, in view of the dubious ways he shapes our paths? -- That said, here's my disclaimer: Part of the impact this outstanding book has on me was due to the many ways I relate to the pilgrimage Susan Isaacs relates. But (a corollary disclaimer) I'm confident anyone in our schizoid society who knows the meaning of honest doubt will be transfixed by this story as I am.

My advice is to get hold of "Angry Conversations" and strap yourself in. You will see the amazing, probing questions Susan has asked, but you'll be asking your own as well -- and learning more about the amazing God who inspires and welcomes such questions, both from hearing the author's statements observations comments and riffs but even more from bearing your own struggles before God without a precondition.

One lesson this book teaches, by demonstration, is far beyond price: how costly and precious it is to finally achieve the utter openness that a true encounter with the Almighty requires. As if that weren't enough, the book also teaches how to smile and even laugh through the tears wrung from the pain of healing, a process that often includes debridement (cutting away dead tissue) and cautery (purifying wounds with fire). Part of what has to burn up is the humanly distorted view of God every one of us has, and everyone faces a unique struggle to come to terms with their own self-deceptions about God and find the joy of handing them over to be torched.

I won't presume to quote any of this sparkling book. In my view it would diminish the place of each quote in the sweep and wonder of the story (no disrespect to any reviewer who does use quotations). I might only reduce a quote to a one-liner, when in reality it's probably the crown jewel of a set piece that may go on for pages. Trust me: You'll find the great lines, and they will pay off as you meet them, in the heart of the story, whether they are howlers, groaners, or jaw-dropping moments of revelation that let you feel the gale of the Spirit roaring through the vastness.

I compare this book favorably to "The Spiral Staircase" (by Karen Armstrong) and "Crazy for God" (by Frank Schaeffer) as a top-tier memoir of Christian frustration and discovery. In contast, however, Susan is one of us, neither a triumphant but finally disillusioned nun nor the equally disillusioned son of an Evangelical statesman.

In the course of reading Isaacs's book, I was reminded of the implacable Anne Lamott and her series, "Traveling Mercies," "Plan B," and "Grace (Eventually)," which series one may hope is to be continued.

If you know and love the searing, uncompromising reflections of any of these writers, you will treasure "Angry Conversations with God," welcome Susan Isaacs to their bracing company -- and advance a few leagues along your own pilgrimage into the bargain.

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