A beautiful and beautifully written book. The characters are wonderfully developed, thoughtful, relevant. As good, maybe better than Harriet The Spy. I wish she had written more.
Quotes:
JESUS HATES YOU
“Daddy?” Harriet said after a while. “Yes?” said Mr. Welsch. “Are you religious?”
“Frankly I don’t cotton to fanatics of any description. They tend to think the end justifies the means, always. I’ve never seen a fanatic that didn’t think that, and that’s just stupid.” Mr. Welsch appeared to be getting very heated. “How can it? When there never are any ends … everything goes on and on … so it remains that we are all means.
“I,” said Janie, “don’t understand how you can be so curious about people. I mean, elements or why certain things do certain things, I can understand—but people. People are just silly. Look at the mess they make of their lives. You can’t ever depend on them.”
Jessie Mae sat down with a bump. “You mean you don’t think there’s another one?” she gasped out. “Even if there is, Jessie, why does this one have to be so bad?” The Preacher asked calmly.
“Religion is a tool, Jessie, just like a tractor or a shovel or a pitchfork. It is a tool to get through life with. And if it works, it is a good tool. And if it don’t work, it is a bad tool. Now, for my people there it don’t work.”
“You have no talent. Believe me, we would have heard by now if you had. At your age Michelangelo had painted the Sistine Chapel.”
“Shy people are angry people.”
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