Holy Ghost Girl, Donna M. Johnson
Holy Ghost Girl, Donna M. Johnson
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
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Holy Ghost Girl
A Memoir

Author: Donna M. Johnson

Narrator: Carrington MacDuffie

Unabridged: 9 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/13/2011

Synopsis

A compassionate, humorous story of faith, betrayal, and coming of age on the sawdust trail She was just three years old when her mother signed on as the organist of tent revivalist David Terrell, and before long, Donna Johnson was part of the hugely popular evangelical preachers inner circle. At seventeen, she left the ministry for good, with a trove of strangerthanfiction memories. A homecoming like no other, Holy Ghost Girl brings to life miracles, exorcisms, and faceoffs with the Ku Klux Klanand thats just what went on under the tent. As Terrell became known worldwide during the 1960s and 70s, the caravan of brokendown cars and trucks that made up his ministry evolved into fleets of Mercedes and airplanes. The glories of the Word mixed with betrayals of the flesh, and Donnas mother bore Terrells children in one of several secret households he maintained. Thousands of followers, dubbed Terrellites by the press, left their homes to await the end of the world in cultlike communities. Jesus didnt show, but the IRS did, and the prophethealer went to prison. Recounted with deadpan observations and surreal detail, Holy Ghost Girl bypasses easy judgment to articulate a rich world where the mystery of faith and human frailty share a surprising and humorous coexistence.

About Donna M. Johnson

Donna Johnson grew up calling evangelical minister David Terrell “Daddy.” She left his ministry for good at the age of seventeen and has not returned since. She has written about religion for the Dallas Morning News and the Austin American-Statesman. With her husband, she owns and operates Bazzirk, Inc., a marketing and advertising firm that runs marketing programs around the world. She maintained a residency at the Ragdale Foundation in spring 2009 and won the Mayborn Creative Nonfiction Prize for Manuscript in Progress in 2007 for Holy Ghost Girl. She lives in Austin and is active in the local writing community.

Reviews

Goodreads review by La Petite Américaine on November 24, 2011

I couldn't stop reading ... in the train-wreck sense. This book was a lot like The Glass Castle with an evangelical slant. Speaking of which, this book will make you hate evangelicals. Kinda makes me wanna join their clan and copy their style though....you know, get up on the stage and say, "Jesus w......more

Goodreads review by Justin on December 27, 2012

I have to admit that I had some personal investment in reading this book and my review will be equally personal. I grew up hearing stories of the Prophet/charlatan David Terrell: horror stories from my mom and hero stories from my grandma. My grandmother was one of the infamous Terrellites mentioned......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on June 22, 2012

"Donna, I don't know if you're going to the funeral, but I hear Daddy is gonna try to raise Randall from the dead. Call me." That's the opening line of Holy Ghost Girl, as memorable a first line as any I have seen. Donna Johnson's memoir of a childhood spent on the "sawdust trail," the tent revival c......more

Goodreads review by Michael on June 21, 2018

I have mixed feelings towards this book, it started of promising but it got repetitive at the end. Now I will say that this book reminded me alot of my childhood because I grew up in the same charismatic environment. Healing, demons getting cast out, tongue speaking, pretty much everything that come......more

Goodreads review by Karen on May 13, 2011

Donna Johnson's mother joined Brother David Terrell's tent revival circuit as an organist in the early 1960's and Donna and her brother Gary spent most of their childhood in this world, traveling the South and hearing the Gospel every night. This is a fascinating look at that world, especially as se......more

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