Sister Aimee

The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson

By: Daniel Mark Epstein

Narrated by: Tom Parks

The true story of America's first superstar evangelist that "fills a significant gap in the history of revivalism" (The New York Times Book Review).

Once she answered the divine calling, Aimee Semple McPherson rose fast from unfulfilled housewife in Rhode Island to "miracle woman" - the most enigmatic, pioneering, media-savvy Christian evangelist in the country. She preached up and down the United States, traveling in a 1912 Packard with her mother and her children - and without a man to fix flat tires. Her ministry was rolled out in tents, concert halls, boxing rings, and speakeasies. She prayed for the healing of hundreds of thousands of people, founded the Foursquare Church, and built a Pentecostal temple in Los Angeles of Hollywood-epic dimensions (Charlie Chaplin advised her on sets).

But this is not just a story of McPherson's cult of fame. It's also the story about its price: exhaustion, insomnia, nervous breakdowns, sexual scandals, loneliness, and the notorious public disgrace that nearly destroyed her.

©1993 Daniel Mark Epstein (P)2020 Tantor

Balanced admiration

from author, but narrator has confusing inflection. And said she's buried in Forest Lake. It's Forest Lawn!
Pay narrators more so they can afford to read the book first.

Sister Aimee

Loved it. very well written informative and gives chronological events according to her life and works.

COMES OFF LESS LIKE A BIOGRAPHY MORE LIKE FICTION

Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson by Daniel Mark Epstein seemed off to me after Chapter One. It is not that this book is not well written, it is. But it comes off as a commissioned work and it appears to have been commissioned by the church founded by Aimee Semple McPherson (the Four-Square Gospel Church) or her descendants. Frankly if it were not for the fawning adjectives of admiration this tome would have half as many pages. There is no objectivity about the subject. It sounds like, I cannot be certain, that the source material for this biography were the writings of Aimee Semple McPherson herself, her family, and the Church leadership. The book does an OK job about her early life, but there is no questioning of the claims of healing and miracles. Essentially if Aimee said it the writer just presents it as true. There is no questioning of what appears to be handpicked source material. Thousands healed of all kinds of things, yet by Aimee's admission she did not want objective observers in the audience or doctors to review claims of healing. As an aside I find it odd that these faith healers never seem to visit a hospital. Maybe inadvertently at least the author did indicate that many of the "healed" were hand-picked before the service. No doubt Aimee Semple McPherson was smart and had some talent, she certainly knew how to handle a crowd (remember this all took place before Television, so I know that some folks would attend these Pentecostal services for entertainment. And, anything negative in Aimee's life is glossed over, not her fault, the fault of others, or when backed into a corner she would blame loneliness and a lapse of judgement. The three events that jumped out to me are how she abandoned her second husband (it is mentioned but there it stands,) the "kidnapping" by, I chuckle here, Steve and Mexicali Rose, and her father's death. Her father though much older than her mother and handler Minnie, did not seem to be a bad sort or abused Aimee in any way but he apparently did not buy into the whole Salvation Army and later Pentacostal thing. When he died there is no indication Aimee and her mom Minnie did not attend his funeral or even send flowers. I could go on but this is just a very odd book. At least in the end the author or somebody listed the current church leadership. There are better biographies of Aimee Semple McPherson out there. I cannot recommend this one.

Weird obsessions

Reading this about a great woman of faith made me uncomfortable at times, it was either obsession with her looks or the lack of faith in miracles. This is the only time I’ve read from this author and honestly don’t want to read anymore. It has facts in it which is what I wanted just has some odd bits.