CALLED!

Postill reflects on his journey from a life of dissipation to one of spiritual purpose in this debut memoir.

The author was born in Toronto in 1948 and generally enjoyed a “fairly seamless and unremarkable” middle-class upbringing. However, his life became more eventful when he began attending Queen’s University and discovered that “alcohol magically distanced me from years of feeling insecure, lonely, and sexually inept.” Eventually, he added marijuana, LSD, and Valium to the list of things he used to feel confident or descend into oblivion, and he failed his first years as a college student. After a “three-year debauched, deceitful romp of endless thrills and delights,” as he puts it, he entered a rehabilitation program; however, that didn’t rescue him from dissolution, and he was arrested for petty larceny. Then, one day, he opened up his old Sunday school Bible, and he found himself transformed: “I found myself on my knees, enveloped by joy and wonder, weeping. Never had I felt so cherished, understood, and whole.” Over the course of this book, Postill movingly relates his dramatic change of heart, which led to his enrolling at Emmanuel College in Toronto to pursue a master’s degree in divinity, teaching Sunday school to 11-year-old-boys, and finally becoming an ordained minister. Although his story is a familiar one, as an account of a journey from self-indulgence to religious meaning, it is impressive and inspiring, although it may be appreciated most by readers who know the author personally. He relates his remembrance, dotted with black-and-white photos of himself and loved ones, with admirable, confessional candor in a breezily anecdotal style. However, his prose is also pockmarked with clichés, such as “feeling trapped like a wounded animal.”

An often engaging personal reflection on a transformed life.