It’s been about ten days since I received a copy of Richard E. Kelly’s Second Edition of “Growing Up in Mama’s Club.” What an accomplishment for a freshman writer!
For those of you who may have read my earlier post about Kelly and his book, you might remember that I mentioned that his pre-release version had already received great reviews from its 200-plus readers. The Second Edition is very likely to become a classic to those who follow the history and activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses and their Watchtower Society.
Kelly very clearly emphasizes that his goal in writing the book was not to try to expose any of the Watchtower’s dirty laundry. All he was trying to do was to try to get readers to understand what it is like to be a kid being raised in such a religion.
At ten years of age how do you please your parents who teach that “society is evil” - and then try to go out and function normally within that society? Kelly says that for some children it is almost impossible, often resulting in their suffering mental problems and eventual financial ruin.
Kelly’s first book stops rather abruptly at age 20 when he first makes his decision to break away from the Jehovah’s Witness culture. But this is only the beginning. His next book, “Ghosts of Growing Up in Mama’s Club” will pick up from where his first book leaves off and carries the story through his next 40 years.
According to Kelly the real damage of “Mama’s Club” comes after he grows up and his fight to free himself from the Jehovah’s Witness organization had only really started in his early 20s.
Kelly says that it will be several months before the second book will be released, probably sometime in 2009. In the meantime he is concentrating on getting orders filled for “Growing Up…” and getting distribution channels finalized. ”I think getting the book distributed will turn out to be even a bigger job than writing it,” Kelly jokes, “And it took me over six years and two versions to get that part right!”
Anyone interested in getting a copy of Kelly’s autobiography should contact him through his website at RichardEKelly.com.
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I read this book and it is very good. Anyone who is a Jehovah’s Witness should read it too. They will learn a lot about their religion that they didn’t know before. I went to richardekelly.com and saw that the book is now available on Amazon.com. The book is well worth the bucks and should be in every library. I am going to get one for a friend that is studying the Watchtower and try to save his ass from making a big mistake.