Cover Image: They Have Jesus, We Have Lasagna

They Have Jesus, We Have Lasagna

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Member Reviews

So just like any overenthusiastic reader I have multiple books that I am reading at any given time. Hence my reviews are little, sometimes lot delayed. I am half way though Patrick Resetar's book They Have Jesus, We Have Lasagna. When I saw the title of this book, I was hoping for a laugh out loud material but it's not so well at least not in its entirety. That being said, the book reads like a memoir, a reflection of the author's life during childhood, the story of "that" time and how author related to everything around him. Our experiences make us who we are and seems like the author's experiences are very rich and colorful as described in this book. I certainly look forward to finishing up the rest of the book and add more to my review but for now I think this book will keep you going during this time of lockdown and add few laughs while you are at it.

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They Have Jesus, We Have Lasagna is a rollercoaster of a memoir by Patrick Resetar. The author is a great raconteur who manages to skillfully trick us into laughter,followed quickly by tears. The book is a memoir of growing up in a poor coal mining town in Pennsylvania. His family is inconsistently Catholic and often dysfunctional. His father struggles with alcoholism and there could be triggers for a reader who experienced that, coupled with abuse.
The author wrapped up these stories of his crazy childhood with insights and reflections that show he is healing. It was comforting to come to some resolutions at the end and to reflect on lessons learned, despite the hardship.
Thank you to the author, the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

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"They Have Jesus" is both laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreaking. But if anyone can rise through the ashes like a Phoenix, it's Patrick Resetar.

In his debut memoir, Patrick reveals snippets of his life growing up in a coal-mining town. While Catholics attend church, the Resetar family attends Sunday dinners. And have major squabbles over plates of pasta.

Mrs. Resetar, Patrick's mother, is a true character. A "second-generation Catholic," she loves cigarettes, swear words, scratch-off tickets and Sega Genesis. "Her secret power was calling people on their bullshit."

The dinner-table dialogue involving his mom is the hands-down the best part of the book. Case in point:
--
"What are you giving up for Lent?" my mother asked [his sister] Rachel one year.
"Who wants to know?" Rachel snapped back.
"Maybe give up that attitude. God knows we can all use a break."
"You're being an ass. I'm not even being bad! You're the one with the bad attitude. Why don't you give up scratch-off tickets?" Rachel taunted my mother.
"You watch your mouth. I don't have a ticket problem," my mother falsely denied.have fooled me. You were scratching the air in your sleep," my sister said.
"I saw it. You looked like Daniel-sun, painting the fence," my brother said, referring to the decade-old movie The Karate Kid.
"Maybe you should give up sleeping in this house if you keep it up," my mother rebutted.
--

Besides Patrick's immediate family, we meet average, small town people. All have one or more obsessions: religion, alcohol and sports. And Patrick's deepest fear is that he will end up like them. Especially his father who is an abusive alcoholic.

Readers will wince as Patrick and his mother experience physical and phycological abuse. And belly laugh at the hilarious familial dysfunction and satirical back-and-forth banter.

As you can imagine, Patrick wants nothing more than to escape the chaos. Thankfully, sports save him. (Not God).

Baseball was his first love, the racetrack was his first home and football was his first religion.



I read an advanced copy my NetGalley app, and found myself snapping screenshots to come back to later. This is a book I will want to own and gift to my friends. (The ones who don't take themselves so seriously and don't mind a few curse words).

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Often books that tackle religion or life-philosophies feel heavy and hard to read, but this was such a nice read. It could be due to the fact that I also grew up in a Catholic household and overall had very oddly similar experiences, but I really feel this book has a sense of relatability for all readers. A true highlight is the voice and imagery in this book. I felt like I was sitting at the dinner table with them, eating their mom's lasagna (hilarious recipe included!) I would recommend this book for anyone, no matter what phase of life they are in, who is looking for a light read.

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Wish I could have liked this. Not for me.

Thanks to author,publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

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I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and author Patrick Resetar for providing me with an ARC of They Have Jesus, We Have Lasagna!

For some reason, I saw this cover/title and I knew I had to request it. Resetar is a brilliant storyteller who I found completely relatable. I was entertained throughout and I loved how unapologetic the author was when diving in to the topic of his rough upbringing. This was for sure a raw read, but I think that those who have experienced a similar childhood will find comfort within these pages. I fully agree that sometimes a big dish of lasagna is what you need to have to believe in. This was something different for me, but I recommend it!

Thank you again to those named above for the chance to read and review this ARC!

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I found 'They have Jesus, we have Lasagna' by Patrick Resetar to be very entertaining! It was gorgeously written and unapologetically raw. Reading about this family and their dysfunction was hard at times but I think people with a similar upbringing would find this book to be very relatable. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the wide range of emotions that it evoked. Definitely recommend. I would like to thank Netgalley and Match Point Publishing for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

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