“A riveting book that invites you into the personal journey of one of the finest writers alive today.” (Beth Moore, New York Times bestselling author of All My Knotted-Up Life)

“Esau McCaulley’s riveting memoir holds together tensions that many of us pry apart: systemic injustice and personal responsibility, accountability and forgiveness, honesty and sympathy. This book is prophetic without being preachy, and heartwarming without being cloying. . . . A triumph of storytelling.”(Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary)

“In these pages are words that redeem time and refresh the human spirit. . . . The timeliness of McCaulley’s honest, hope-filled story—told with depth, precision, and purpose—feels like a balm for the weary soul.”—(Charlie Dates, senior pastor of Salem Baptist and Progressive Baptist Church)

“With uncompromising honesty and deep introspection, McCaulley complicates the narrative of ‘overcoming racism and poverty as a hero.’ . . . Powerful and necessary.”(Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“As soon as I finished, I wanted to reread. McCaulley is already recognized as a great scholar and essayist, but this is his best writing yet. The storytelling here is both poetic and prophetic, free of both superficiality and cynicism. Read this book and the words will linger with you.” (Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today)

“McCaulley gives his readers an offering to peer into the window of his soul and that of his southern Black family. It is a story of the convergence of structural racism and the grace of God, which carries them on as they traverse the rugged terrain of life to the promised land.” (Ekemini Uwan, public theologian and NAACP Image Award–nominated co-author of Truth’s Table)

“A thoughtfully written book that offers heartfelt, empathetic lessons without preaching to the choir." (Kirkus Reviews)

A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
"For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class.
But that narrative was called into question one night, when McCaulley answered the phone and learned that his father—whose absence defined his upbringing—died in a car crash. McCaulley was being asked to deliver his father’s eulogy, to make sense of his complicated legacy in a country that only accepts Black men on the condition that they are exceptional, hardworking, perfect.
The resulting effort sent McCaulley back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him. In these pages, we meet his great-grandmother Sophia, a tenant farmer born with the gift of prophecy who scraped together a life in Jim Crow Alabama; his mother, Laurie, who raised four kids alone in an era when single Black mothers were demonized as “welfare queens”; and a cast of family, friends, and neighbors who won small victories in a world built to swallow Black lives. With profound honesty and compassion, he raises questions that implicate us all: What does each person’s struggle to build a life teach us about what we owe each other? About what it means to be human?

How Far to the Promised Land is a thrilling and tender epic about being Black in America. It’s a book that questions our too-simple narratives about poverty and upward mobility; a book in which the people normally written out of the American Dream are given voice."

Loved this book. What a powerful story of growing up black in the South. Shocking how little progress we've made. ( )

Compelling stories well told prove moving and influential. Esau McCaulley tells his story in such a way in How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South (galley received as part of early review program).

The memoir is framed around the author’s experience when confronted with the death of his father and the eulogy he would have to present. The author then set forth his story: raised in northern Alabama by a hard working, engaged, yet medically disabled mother; a father out more than in and on drugs; in an environment in which everything and everyone seemed to work against any real material advancement.

The author explained well how being a decent football player gave him the ability and motivation to try to succeed, even though injury would compromise that career. He would be able to graduate and go to college, and he speaks well regarding his experience in a mostly white college.

Throughout it all is a story of faith: the faith of his mother, the faith he developed, the preachers in his background, and his journey to his current position as a major Black theologian and author. He takes solace in his father’s work toward sobriety and rekindling of faith.

It is always challenging to review a memoir or autobiography, since who is the reader or reviewer to cast aspersions or judgments upon a person’s reflections on their lived story? I can easily imagine how the memoir could be weaponized as an indictment of the kind of culture in which the author grew up while lionizing the author as one who was able to advance himself by his own skills. Such a reading would be unfortunate and an attempt to reinforce one’s ideological priors. Instead, the memoir is compellingly written to explain both how his community was marginalized and systemically discriminated against and how such fed into a host of poor decisions.

McCaulley already established himself as a profound and must-read Black theologian with his Reading While Black, and How Far to the Promised Land goes a long way to help explain why. A highly compelling read and very much recommended. ( )

“A riveting book that invites you into the personal journey of one of the finest writers alive today.'" (Beth Moore, New York Times bestselling author of All My Knotted-Up Life)

“Powerful . . . McCaulley uses examples of his own family’s stories of survival over time to remind readers that some paths to the promised land have detours along the way. "The Root, Books by Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read)

“Esau McCaulley’s riveting memoir holds together tensions that many of us pry apart: systemic injustice and personal responsibility, accountability and forgiveness, honesty and sympathy. This book is prophetic without being preachy, and heartwarming without being cloying. . . . A triumph of storytelling. "Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary"

“In these pages are words that redeem time and refresh the human spirit. . . . The timeliness of McCaulley’s honest, hope-filled story—told with depth, precision, and purpose—feels like a balm for the weary soul.” (Charlie Dates, senior pastor of Salem Baptist and Progressive Baptist)

“With uncompromising honesty and deep introspection, McCaulley complicates the narrative of ‘overcoming racism and poverty as a hero.’ . . . Powerful and necessary.(Publishers Weekly starred review)

“As soon as I finished, I wanted to reread. McCaulley is already recognized as a great scholar and essayist, but this is his best writing yet. The storytelling here is both poetic and prophetic, free of both superficiality and cynicism. Read this book and the words will linger with you.(Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today)

nonfiction/memoir - Black Christian academic writer reflects on the lives of his grandparents, his father (who struggled with addiction) and how they and their circumstances may have impacted the lives of himself, his siblings, cousins, family and children.

very readable, with a positive outlook (also not overly preachy if you're not into that). Would recommend. ( )