In the style of New York Times bestsellers You Can’t Touch My Hair, Bad Feminist, and I’m Judging You, a collection of alternately hysterical and soul‑searching essays about what it is like to grow up as a creative, sensitive black man in a world that constantly tries to deride and diminish your humanity.
I Can’t Date Jesus presents us with the opportunity to have a sustained conversation with Arceneaux the thoroughly modern Renaissance man ... In an age of PrEP and Adam Rippon and Glee, Arceneaux’s is a refreshing voice of honest worry mixed with irreverent humor. All with a heavy dose of Beyoncé ... Like his patron saint Beyoncé with Lemonade, Arceneaux has created an enlightening urtext we haven’t seen before, essays in the queer lineage of James Baldwin and Eudora Welty, but soundtracked to a solid playlist of late ‘90s and early 2000’s R&B ... [an] impeccable debut.
Arceneaux’s essays penetrate to the heart of intersectionality to reveal personal and religious trials of faith. Together, they make a powerful statement of self-acceptance in a world much in need of lessons about diversity, tolerance, and openness ... A funny, fierce, and bold memoir in essays.
[A] witty and powerful collection of personal essays ... Arceneaux has a biting sense of humor ... Arceneaux’s confident voice and unapologetic sense of humor will appeal to fans of Roxane Gay.
