Sunday, August 28, 2011

Pg. 99: Jeff Sharlet's "Sweet Heaven When I Die"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between by Jeff Sharlet.

About the book, from the publisher:
Linked narrative nonfiction from the best-selling author of The Family.

No one explores the borderlands of belief and skepticism quite like Jeff Sharlet. He is ingenious, farsighted, and able to excavate the worlds of others, even the flakiest and most fanatical, with uncanny sympathy. Here, he reports back from the far reaches of belief, whether in the clear mountain air of "Sweet Fuck All, Colorado" or in a midnight congregation of urban anarchists celebrating a victory over police.

From Dr. Cornel West to legendary banjo player Dock Boggs, from the youth evangelist Ron Luce to America's largest "Mind, Body, Spirit Expo," Sharlet profiles religious radicals, realists, and escapists. Including extended journeys published here for the first time, Sweet Heaven When I Die offers a portrait of our spiritual landscape that calls to mind Joan Didion's classic Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Learn more about the book and author at Jeff Sharlet's website and blog.

Jeff Sharlet, a contributing editor for Harper's Magazine and Rolling Stone, is the bestselling author of The Family, C Street, and, with Peter Manseau, Killing the Buddha. He is Dartmouth College's first tenure track professor of creative nonfiction.

The Page 99 Test: Sweet Heaven When I Die.

--Marshal Zeringue