Interior States

August 1, 2018
Personal essays rooted in religion with a Midwestern ethos.In the preface to her first book, a collection of 15 mostly previously published pieces, O'Gieblyn characterizes the contents as primarily dealing with "questions about history and historical narratives" and her "abiding interest in loss." The main loss is her own religion, evangelical Protestantism, which is the prism through which she smartly probes a variety of timely topics. "Although I no longer espouse this faith," writes the author, "it's hard to deny the mark it left on me." In the longest and one of the best pieces, O'Gieblyn takes on the concept of hell. She recalls watching an instructional video in school about four kids killed in a car crash who end up in cages: "I was always too shell-shocked to find it redemptive." She then recounts her time at the ultra-conservative Moody Bible Institute. Her stay there contributed mightily to her religious change of heart. However, she still finds herself "lurking" around the religion section of bookstores "like a porn addict sneaking a glance at a Victoria Secret's catalog." In a piece on John Updike, she confesses to having avoided his misogynistic-tinged fiction. The author was in a forgiving mood after reading his "great" novel Couples, which documents "one man's fears about the limits of his own dominion--his dawning premonition that paradise is tenuous, and his to lose." The sprightly "A Species of Origins" recounts a visit to Northern Kentucky's Creation Museum, the "backwater fringe of creationism," and its Ark Encounter, where visitors encounter "robotic beasts." It posits a worldview, she writes, "that precludes the very possibility of inconvenient truths." Other topics include Alcoholics Anonymous, the myth of motherhood, Henry Ford's "vanity project," Greenfield Village, and Mike Pence, a "curious kind of Christian politician."O'Gieblyn's contemporary, hip voice is one people need to hear.

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August 27, 2018
O’Gieblyn, whose essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Best American Essays, and the New York Times, muses on various religious topics in this delightful debut. Standout essays include “Dispatch from Flyover Country,” about her experiences being raised in a Midwestern fundamentalist family fixated on the end times, and “A Species of Origins,” about her visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. With her tongue planted in her cheek, she also writes on Christian rock music, contemporary culture in the Midwest, and the political views of Vice President Pence. Each essay is well-crafted and enjoyable, yet the collection as a whole feels scattered: though many of the essays address the central themes of faith (especially Christian faith) in American life, the overall organization is puzzling, and some of the works are removed from the theme, such as a book review of Emma Donoghue’s novel The Wonder. Still, O’Gieblyn is a strong writer, and the individual essays flow due to the moving prose, the author’s subtle sense of irony, and her deep insight into and affection for her topics. Although the collection never congeals, these distinct pieces shine individually.

September 15, 2018

Midwestern values continue to evolve as social media outlets broaden the cultural lens. Journalist O'Gieblyn argues that this evolution, however, ceases when it comes to Christianity and its stronghold on the Midwest. Born and raised in the heartland, the author spent her formative years in an evangelical community and attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to become a missionary when she began to question her faith. These 15 essays offer a unique compendium of contemplative musings that explore contemporary Christian culture from the point of view of an insider-turned-outsider, creative evangelical marketing tactics via music and museums, why Hell remains unnamed during megachurch sermons, the irony of Pure Michigan, and how a book by Raymond Kurzweil caused her a brief existential crisis. O'Gieblyn closes with "Exile," a thought-provoking essay on Vice President Mike Pence, unpacking the bigger picture on politics, evangelism, and today's Christian American identity. VERDICT A solid choice for intellectually curious readers with a bent for essays on the evangelical belief system and how it's shaped American identity, especially its influence on the social and political climate.--Angela Forret, Clive, IA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018
Native Michigander O'Gieblyn was raised a premillennial dispensationalist and pursued that faith to Chicago's Moody Bible Institute, aiming to be a missionary. She lost her religion before graduation, but her long immersion in it and her strong midwestern identity inform her essays, in which topicality and personal experience merge to afford insight. In Dispatch from Flyover Country, she conjures midwestern angst?especially that of the youngster to whom Madison seems to be utopia?with humor and dread. She examines big-time evangelicalism's growing avoidance of evil and sin ( Hell ) and the rise and fall of Christian rock ( Sniffin' Glue ) without a particle of condescension, showing why interest in those phenomena should be serious and humane. The Insane Idea is a fine pr�cis of the pros and cons of AA, and Exile is a genuinely empathetic critical inspection of Mike Pence. The Creation Museum, John Updike and the religion of sex, preparing for the End Times (her family did), and the resemblance of transhumanism (immortality through technology) to Rapture theology are other themes she considers with grace, wit, and compassion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)