{ "item_title" : "The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman", "item_author" : [" Deesha Philyaw "], "item_description" : "ⓘAUTOGRAPHED EDITION AVAILABLEBuy Autographed CopyPhilyaw has created a heroine you can't help but root for, and a book you can't help but love. - Rufi Thorpe, author of Margo's Got Money TroublesSmart and juicy and compulsively readable. - Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date and The ProposalThe wife of a popular and powerful megachurch pastor upends her charmed rags-to-Rolex life when her secret past comes roaring into the spotlight--in this funny and juicy and sexy and delicious peek behind the pulpit (Samantha Irby) from the acclaimed and beloved author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior, she's been labeled too brash and too of the world by church folks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn't have many allies, but that hasn't stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband's power affords her.On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she's always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors' wives--First Ladies--who are like Jesus' disciples if they had been a group of mean girls. Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw.But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church, optics can matter more than the truth.Unflinchingly funny, frank, and splendidly unruly, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman exults in the luscious, messy pleasure of finally feeling free.Deesha Philyaw has already established herself as one of the greatest short story writers, but in The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman she cements herself as the most soulfully entertaining writer of her era. - Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy and Long Division", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/06/338/307/0063383071_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "32.00", "online_price" : "32.00", "our_price" : "32.00", "club_price" : "32.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "32.00" } }

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Deesha Philyaw’s debut novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is a coming-of-middle-age tale that sharply satirizes Black megachurch culture. Framed as the memoir of Scharisse Freeman, the wife of a megachurch pastor, it’s a story peppered with clever and irreverent asides that showcase Scharisse's no-holds-barred personality. When we first meet Scharisse, she’s a contestant in the 2011 First Lady USA Pageant held in her hometown of Belleton, Georgia, a competition for the wives (First Ladies, in church parlance) of megachurch pastors. Unlike the other First Ladies, who have never accepted her, Scharisse grew up poor with a too-young single mother who died at 37, and she’s 15 years younger than her husband, Pastor David. She has long coveted the pageant crown. During the talent portion of the pageant, Scharisse begins to tell her audience all about her secretly tumultuous past year. The novel then shifts back a year to Scharisse’s lavish 40th birthday party on the extensive grounds of her and David’s mansion. With their product, book and TV deals, the Freemans have a beyond luxurious lifestyle. Scharisse has designer clothes, an enormous, lavishly furnished house, fancy cars and a yacht. And yet, her party is peopled with acquaintances and connections, not friends; she’s on rocky ground with her teen daughter; and she refuses calls from her aunt, who’s her last connection to her dead mom. But soon, a secret from the past upends what she thought she knew about the megachurch world and her own family. As the narrative moves toward Pageant Night, Scharisse connects in a new way with other women, her daughter and their family friend Marcus, slowly coming to a more empowered sense of herself. She makes lots of mistakes along the way, which she relates entertainingly, along with her quest for the pageant crown. Philyaw, the author of the National Book Award-finalist short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, has a lot of fun in setting up Scharisse’s opulent world, and in letting Scharisse begin to confront the hypocrisy and misogyny built in to that world. The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman also makes great use of elements like texts, emails, invitations and sermons. But what’s most impactful is the memorable character Philyaw has created in Scharisse, a woman who finds that her middle-aged happy ending is not at all what she once thought it would be.