How do you review a memoir, a real life story?

I couldn’t put this memoir down. Esau McCaulley is a masterful storyteller, handling heartbreak with compassion, tension and dissonance with truth and care. This window into a his life was a gift to receive with gratitude and reflection.

5 stars for the content, 4 for the writing. Highly recommend this memoir. His family stories are engaging but it's how he puts words to the tensions of being a Black man in white spaces that may be the most important for many to read.

The author's story, yes, but also evidence of God's hand on a young man's life. My favorite part of McCaulley's writing is the redemptive slant on every page.

In How Far to the Promised Land, NT Professor and NYT Columnist Esau McCaulley gets personal. He shares his family’s story: a drug-addicted father, a single Mom who survived brain cancer, playing basketball with drug dealers, college in a dorm with confederate flags. He even works that story backward as far as his great-grandparents. It is a moving, compelling account. What makes the book so powerful is the way McCaulley interprets it. His own family story becomes a way of telling the bigger story of Black experience in America. “A good narrative—a Black one, at least—is not owned by any single individual; it is, instead, the story of a people.” He also passes his family story through a theological lens, revealing how this story is the human story, and how it is filled with purpose. “Resurrection infuses our lives with meaning. It suggests that who and what we are echoes into eternity.” It is Esau’s life, but God is at the center of it. In each generation God speaks, culminating in his own call to ministry. Brokenness and beauty are mixed together in our world, and Esau shows us both.

Compelling stories well told prove moving and influential. Esau McCaulley tells his story in such a way in How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South.

The memoir is framed around the author’s experience when confronted with the death of his father and the eulogy he would have to present. The author then set forth his story: raised in northern Alabama by a hard working, engaged, yet medically disabled mother; a father out more than in and on drugs; in an environment in which everything and everyone seemed to work against any real material advancement.

The author explained well how being a decent football player gave him the ability and motivation to try to succeed, even though injury would compromise that career. He would be able to graduate and go to college, and he speaks well regarding his experience in a mostly white college.

Throughout it all is a story of faith: the faith of his mother, the faith he developed, the preachers in his background, and his journey to his current position as a major Black theologian and author. He takes solace in his father’s work toward sobriety and rekindling of faith.

It is always challenging to review a memoir or autobiography, since who is the reader or reviewer to cast aspersions or judgments upon a person’s reflections on their lived story? I can easily imagine how the memoir could be weaponized as an indictment of the kind of culture in which the author grew up while lionizing the author as one who was able to advance himself by his own skills. Such a reading would be unfortunate and an attempt to reinforce one’s ideological priors. Instead, the memoir is compellingly written to explain both how his community was marginalized and systemically discriminated against and how such fed into a host of poor decisions.

McCaulley already established himself as a profound and must-read Black theologian with his Reading While Black, and How Far to the Promised Land goes a long way to help explain why. A highly compelling read and very much recommended.

The memoir How Far to the Promised Land is incredibly moving. Every narrative written by captivating author Esau McCaulley captivates the reader. Reading about his life was a blessing since it improved my empathy. How Far to the Promised Land is highly recommended.

"How Far to the Promised Land" is an excellent option for anyone looking for a moving memoir. This story provides a very intimate look at the author's life and experiences in Alabama, entwined with his career as an author and theology professor. The memoir does not take on a "rags-to-riches" tone, nor is it your standard success story. Instead, the author accepts his lucky escape and carefully examines the traumas and ongoing hardships that Black communities have endured as a result of historical injustices, even connecting them to his own personal struggles as a child, including his father's drug addiction. This is a tale of hope, flawed individuals, and flawed institutions.

For those seeking a poignant memoir to delve into during MLK weekend or Black History Month, "How Far to the Promised Land" is a compelling choice. This narrative offers a deeply personal account of the author's life and experiences in Alabama, interwoven with his journey to his current roles as a theology professor and author. Far from a typical success story, the memoir does not adopt a "rags-to-riches" tone. Rather, the author acknowledges his fortunate escape and thoughtfully explores the ongoing struggles and historical traumas faced by Black communities due to various injustices even tying it to his own struggles within his family such as his absent father that struggled with drug addiction. This is a story of hope, of imperfect people, and of imperfect systems.

What a remarkable memoir! The audiobook was fantastic. Dr. McCaulley was personally telling me his life story with all of these unique yet tricky life lessons.

I can't wait to read more from Dr. McCaulley.

Thanks to Netgalley and Convergent Books for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Esau McCaulley and I grew up about 4 years apart in the same city (I'm older)I think the most fascinating part about this book is how different our lives were.

In the aftermath of his father's death, McCaulley begins to rethink the narrative of his own life and his roots. His father was in and out of his life and his mother raised four children on her own. He has always thought of himself as working his way out of the cycles and systems that held others back. Why do some make it and others do not? He talks about racism, poverty and the question of the American dream and he does it with eloquence and personal insight.

I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Beautifully written, it not only was a thought provoking and honest inquiry into black families and America, it made me really rethink my own adolescence. All the places he mentions in Huntsville, Alabama, I knew from the prospective of a white female growing up in an upper middle class part of the same city. I hung out at the many of same places and stayed away from places he frequented. It conjured up nostalgia mixed with the realization that our perspectives were so different.

Thank you to @netgalley and @convergent_books for an advanced copy!

Powerful memoir of faith, family, and grief all while being Black in America. I appreciated how he looked carefully at his childhood and the all of the people in it through a lens of compassion and love. It was so well done. Highly recommend.

I found this book to be very interesting and intriguing. I would recommend this a friend because this is a book for everyone. I really enjoyed emerging myself into this book and it was just wonderful. This book evened my eyes to quite a few things and it’s one of those books that I’ll think about for quite awhile.

Esau McCaulley writes a compelling memoir about growing up in the South and the impact of his family on his life. News of his father's sudden death, prompts Esau McCaulley to reevaluate his upbringing and how what led him to becoming the man he is today.

"Patience with broken people and broken things is a manifestation of trust in God."

"But life is hard. The road is long and winding, and the path to the promised land is not always clear. Nonetheless, hard lives are beautiful in their own way. Wanderings are instructive in their own right."

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

As readers, we have a tendency to compartmentalize our reading choices. The subtitle of How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South shouts, “Race book!” Then, the first few chapters about author Esau McCaulley’s impoverished childhood land the book in the “Rags to Riches” biography category. And it just so happens that McCaulley is a believer and mentions Jesus, so say hello to category three: Christian non-fiction.

Fortunately, all this subconscious genre analysis didn’t get in the way of my complete enjoyment of the book’s narrative arc, a distinctly black account of one man’s experience of finding Joy. If you had a difficult childhood, you will identify with McCaulley’s struggle to fit education and vocation into the world he knew. If you didn’t grow up with a difficult childhood, the book will open your eyes and mind to the reality that family dysfunction, drug addiction, and hopelessness are simply the water many kids are born into—and swimming lessons are hard to come by.

This memoir about McCaulley's hardscrabble beginnings, schooling, faith, and life is an inspiring, unsentimental tribute to the mother and community that loved and guided him and a compassionate acknowlegment of the father whose own beginnings stunted his capacity to nurture. McCaulley illuminates without being preachy. I'll never again disdain school sports programs because McCaulley convinced me they provide safety and academic opportunity to those who might otherwise have neither. I appreciate his thoughts on the problem of evil, particularly in Black contexts, as well as on his encounters with white liberals who "had read all the Black books and knew what we needed without actually knowing any Black people," conservatives who insisted that"[a]l] true Christians... were fiscal conservatives and strict constructivists," and "out -and-out racists" who excluded Blacks and "wrapped themselves in the lore of the Confederacy," resistant to change.

Having enjoyed McCaulley's Reading While Black and podcasts that feature his no-nonsense perspective, I wanted to know more about this man and his background. While McCaulley is unapologetically Christian, you don't have to be religious to profit from his memoir. Buy it, read it, give it.

This is the second book I have read by the author. This book is a memoir about growing up in a Black Family in the American South. The book begins with the unexpected news that McCaulley’s father has passed away and that he has the task of delivering his father’s eulogy. As the author recounts his family’s life with his father, the author shares his family’s journey through the obstacles of being Black in the South. The recollections that he shares are written in a very powerful way that leave the reader pondering the implications of the words.

There were two areas in the book where the author’s tone seemed to shift from thought provoking to apologizing. When he describes the beginning of his preaching journey and when he describes his courtship and marriage to his wife. He seems to apologize for not being a traditional Black preacher and not marrying a Black woman.

This book is ideal for those who enjoy memoirs, spiritual journeys, or learning about Southern American life. Very good book.

I requested and received an advanced copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Esau McCaulley grew up without truly knowing his father, so when his father died in a car crash and McCaulley was asked to write and perform his eulogy, he felt a whirlwind of emotions. He went on a journey to better understand his father by digging through the history of his family. In this memoir, McCaulley shares the story of the generations before him, a story that reveals the long-reaching impact of racism in our society and the impossible demands on Black families. It's a tender, intimate memoir told with such grace. The religious elements of it didn't always land with me personally, but I know they will with other readers. Regardless of your religious background, this is a powerful and thoughtful read that shows no one person can be judged by their lowest moments.

Not a favorite. Very SLOW read it could have been shorter like alot shorter and I would have liked it more

How Far to the Promised Land is a truly powerful memoir. Esau McCaulley is an engaging writer that draws you in with every story. It was a blessing to read his life that deepened my ability to feel empathy. I cannot recommend How Far to the Promised Land enough.

This was beautifully written and a both painful and beautiful story. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.