Book Review: Out of a Far Country

The book Out of a Far Country recounts the story of authors Christopher Yuan and his mother Angela Yuan as they deal with Christopher's homosexuality. I thought this book would be interesting because it would offer an interesting point of view on a common issue in our society. What I found, however, was that the book was just depressing. I had to force myself to finish it.

It wasn't the subject matter that was necessarily inherently melancholy, it was that the presentation highlighted the gloom and despair and it took WAY too long to get to the happier times at the close of the memoir. I understand that it wasn't meant to be a happy book, and perhaps I should have read it at a different time, but it just struck me as unnecessarily depressing.

At the close of the memoir, Christopher comes to an understanding of his homosexuality. He believes he needs to be holy in his sexuality, not necessarily heterosexual, but holy. For him that means abstaining from homosexual sexual activities, but he definitely doesn't fall into the "pray the gay away" camp.

It was actually somewhat refreshing to hear Yuan's views on the problem with homosexuality being an issue of holiness rather than physicality. That being said, it certainly didn't redeem the book for me.

I give this book two stars out of five. I really didn't like it.

Note for Full Disclosure: While I do not receive any monetary compensation for my book reviews, I am provided with free complimentary copies of each book. That being said, this review is completely my own, and free from the influence of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.