Facing the Music: Discovering Real Life, Real Love, and Real Faith

Bursting quickly to stardom in the Christian music world shortly after her college conversion, singer-songwriter Knapp disappeared abruptly from the public eye in 2004. Here, she offers a comprehensive memoir spanning her earliest childhood in the 1970s to her 2010 return to performing from self-imposed exile. The book seems designed to explain her seclusion, which she chalks up to physical exhaustion from her brutal tour schedule and the emotional strain of coming to terms with herself as a lesbian. Her memoir suffers from uneven pacing, alternating between catalogues of activities and long reflections on her emotional state. While she does paint a bleak portrait of the constant scrutiny and moral nitpicking contemporary Christian musicians face, her retelling of events seems to place blame for problems outside her own actions. The book will appeal to fans seeking insight into Knapp’s work and to others hoping for an insider view of Christian music. Some readers might find the issues raised, such as Christian hypocrisy, doubt, and homosexuality, unhelpfully unresolved. (Oct.)