You Can't Meet Jesus Wearing Sneakers
by Kevin Watson
Published by Press 53(to come)
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Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
If you loved visiting Sherwood Anderson's classic small town of Winesburg, Ohio, then you're gonna love Kevin Watson's Morgan Grove, Missouri. Set in Missouri Ozarks, Watson takes us back to small-town life and the problems that face us all.
In his first collection of short stories, You Can't Meet Jesus Wearing Sneakers, the stories are poignant and tender but the obstacles that the character face are as tough as trying to reach the peek of Mt. Everest in the middle of a blizzard.
There are eight stories in this small collection. I can't decide which is my favorite. First, there's the intro story, "Hallowed Ground." No one in town knows Ray Gathers very well. He's relatively new to Morgan Grove. He keeps to himself, but he has more in common with some of the townfolk than they realize. Ray is a man on a mission. If I say anything more, I'll give away the mission and I hate it when reviewers do that. Ray completes his mission in a poignant way that's sure to touch every reader's heart.
My second favorite was "Longing for Michael." Teenage mom Molly refuses to believe that her drop-out boyfriend is the louse everyone says he is. They set out for Hollywood on a snowy night, but when the baby gets sick, five miles from Morgan Grove, Molly is forced to face the fact that Rory will never, ever be the man, husband, provider, father, that she so desperately wants him to be. Molly grows up in the course of the snowstorm and becomes the parent she knows her son needs.
The title story, You Can't Meet Jesus Wearing Sneakers, is a little uneven and kinda wacky, but the theme and the meaning are clear as a bell.
Armchair Interviews says: You Can't Meet Jesus Wearing Sneakers takes about three hours to read and it is three hours that won't be wasted.