Book Review: Crossbearer

Title: Crossbearer
Author: Joe Eszterhas
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (September 2008)
Category: Memoir

My rating: ***
Crossbearer is another Macmillan book, and it was just published last month. It is a memoir by Joe Eszterhas, a Hollywood screenwriter, whose films include Jagged Edge, Showgirls and Basic Instinct. After a lifetime of smoking and drinking, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. His doctors told him if he smoked one more cigarette or had one more drink, he would die. A month after surgery, he was walking through his small Ohio neighborhood in an attempt to deal with the intense cravings, and when he thought he couldn't take it anymore he sat down on the curb and cried out to God to help him. This memoir of faith describes his transformation from Hollywood bad boy to crossbearing follower of Jesus.

I really enjoyed Eszterhas candidness about life in Hollywood and how his former colleagues viewed his new faith. It was impressive to read about how many times God saved his life even though Eszterhas didn't see it that way at the time. It's hard to understand how people don't believe in the power of God when they hear stories like this. I hope the book does well and that his story inspires others.

There's an interview on NPR with the author, if you're interested.

BTW: This whole book review addition to my blog has come about because of a challenge. I really enjoy competition, and my friend Dustin told me about a book blogger who read 8 books from 8 genres in '08. I thought it would be fun to do a similar challenge: 9 books from 9 genres before the end of '09. I'm getting a head start because that's 17 more books than the '08 challenge. To keep track of what I read, I'm including it in my blog. I'm a bit behind on the blogging part, but I'll catch up.