Casey Gerald's Auto-bio "There Will be No Miracles Here" NPR & PBS Book Picks

Casey Gerald's uniquely told coming of age revelations depict his early unstable years shuffled from one home to another in TX while trying to negotiate salvation in this life and the next.  Born to a legendary football father whose glory days are over and a mother with mental health issues who flits in and out & ultimately vanishes from his life, Casey searches for any welcoming port wherever it may come.  Casey possesses a preternatural pluckiness while at odds with himself.  He is forever questioning his masculinity & divinity with apprehension sensing his homosexuality is perceived as an abomination; the ultimate sin.  Casey struggles to secure deliverance in this life while wary of jeopardizing his chances in the one yet to come.  We learn early on he'll be attending Yale & Harvard although neither Casey or the reader have a clue how this remote opportunity will be achieved and maintained.  Gerald's writing warbles timelines and is indiscriminate in placing gravitas on events that bear more significance.  It feels as though his influences & maturations are more serendipitous than strategically planned.  I had difficulty deciphering the ephiphanies or moments that molded Gerald.  However much his writing meandered as is more in keeping with memory, the glimpses of greatness outshine confusion.  "Our time is too short and our odds are too long to wait for 2nd comings.  When the truth is there will be no miracles here... It will not be our blind faith but our humble doubt that shines a little light into the darkness of our lives and our world."