Book Review…Christian testimony takes bizarre turn

Apr 12, 2015 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

---

Book: Man’s Destiny Unplugged
Author: Tanya Coley
Reviewer: Dr Glenville Ashby

In this metaphysical chronicle, writer Tanya Coley recalls her life story that began in the

storied bucolic and humble beginning in Font Hill and Cooper Hill, Jamaica. It’s uneventful – a typical West Indian lifestyle of yesteryear, divorced from the amenities and allure of city life.
For Tanya, her eleven siblings and parents, the ennui and quietude of rural life could only be overcome by the imagination and will to transcend, to create and chart their own course. Coley details her conversion to evangelical Christianity. It redefines her and rattles her parents’ hitherto stable relationship. Their visiting pastor has overreached; he is intrusive, offering unsolicited counsel on expected behaviour and demanding that married women refrain from wearing their wedding bands. Her father weathers the storm and life goes seemingly without additional seismic disturbances.
Coley’s narration is even, at times, ‘Unplugged’ lumbers along. And for her part, Coley at times tends to be annoyingly vague, unable to remember key moments when it really matters, for example her inability to recall the precise charges leveled against her by her supervisor when she worked at an adult literacy programme.
Life, though, for the outgoing teen is not all tepid and trite. She reveals an unconscionable act toward her – a rape at the threat of bodily harm
But there is also something otherworldly lurking, poised to transform Coley’s world. She sees dead people. For the most part, paranormal experiences of children are oftentimes dismissed as the product of suggestibility or an overactive mind. Sometimes, though, they foreshadow a veritable gift bestowed by a higher power.
But Providence does not unfold just yet. Readers are asked to lend an ear to Coley’s foray into the military, a five-year stint without any volcanic occurrences, save for male egos gone awry and overt and blatant gender bias. Sexual harassment follows in quick suit. But her sojourn proves long and winded, like her initial years in New York. Sure, there is one poltergeist-like encounter and one subliminal (spiritual) prompting, but readers must endure before Coley’s life takes a bizarre turn.
A mysterious illness sends her to a hougan (voodoo priest) in Haiti who removes crawling lizards from her body. It is fantastical and incredulous, but to Coley and those witnessing the phenomenon, nothing could be more real. Her ailment abates but not for long. We can only surmise that she is the target of colleagues at work. Twenty thousand dollars later and the victim of charlatans, Coley cries out for divine help and her prayers are answered.
Once derailed from the Christian path, she is as thirsty as ever for her Saviour. She pens, “My interest in Jesus had increased. I realized that through the preachers and teachers of his word, was teaching me, guiding me, providing necessary information to me, and blessing me immensely. One morning, after praying and before leaving for work, as I knelt there, I heard a voice telling me that I needed to forgive.”
Coley’s mediumistic abilities grow. She becomes a conduit for what she imagines is the Holy Spirit, an agent oddly obsessed with death. A string of predictions bear bitter fruits: the Tsunami that claimed the lives of tens of thousands and the imminent deaths of high profile and nondescript individuals.
Her Christian journey may prove unsettling to some readers as she welcomes the flood in New Orleans. “Yes, Lord, destroy it – the Mardi Gras and all the things they do there that are wrong.” And she basks when her home is saved from damage during Hurricane Wilma. She is convinced of Jesus’ protection and unbowed by calamity.
Clearly, Coley’s testimony goes beyond the pale. From the comfort of fine living, she finds herself penniless, a transient resident of multiple homeless shelters. Her relatives lend a hand reluctantly, if at all. She perceives her husband as her tormentor from whom she must escape. Fellow Christians are unhinged by her very presence. She is suspicious, almost paranoid, trusting only God’s counsel – not intuition – but God’s very words that are audibly transmitted to her.
She is committed to a mental institution albeit for a few days until she finally finds comfort and solace in a man she swears in Jesus incarnate. Coley resettles in Jamaica with her divine husband. But readers well know that this saga is far from over.
‘Unplugged’ takes us on a roller coaster of a ride. It is wildly unpredictable and borders on flights of grandeur, pathology, hubris, self-centeredness and Christian Exceptionalism. But through it all, Coley remains an endearing figure. And only by virtue of her authenticity are we compelled to root for her.

Feedback: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Man’s Destiny Unplugged by Tanya Coley 2014
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-5035-1579-6
Available: amazon.com
Rating: Interesting read

---

---