With the electoral map re-drawn last November, it’s a bit more difficult to consider old divisions between the north and south as set in stone. Progress has been made and we’re breathing a bit easier, so it’s as good a time as any for fiction to examine the wreckage of years past, and this is precisely what James Hannaham does with his debut novel God Says No. The cultural debris is strewn about this hilariously heart-warming look at life in the American south through the eyes of an overweight, black Christian named Gary Gray who can’t make himself straight no matter how hard he prays.

We meet Gary while he’s a 19-year-old student at a Christian college in central Florida in 1988, crushing on his male roommate but impregnating a girl named Annie on the kitchen floor. They marry and frequent Disney World — Gary’s favorite, after Jesus. When the birth of their daughter doesn’t curb his homosexual longings, he rationalizes participation in what he calls “guy stuff” in Waffle House bathrooms and rest stops.

You could consider Gary stupid, or a coward, or both, but the clarity with which his confusion is rendered allows only for empathy. Lost and pressured by guilt, Gary uses a train accident as a means of escape and gives the out life a go in Atlanta under the name August Valentine. He’s eventually discovered and sent to Resurecction Ministries, where his “same-sex desires” continue to tempt. Despite their best efforts, he and Annie ultimately accept that there’s no way to hide from yourself.

Hannaham keeps all of Gary’s inconsistencies consistent with his naïve perspective — no easy feat considering all the deals he makes with himself and Jesus as he aches to change. Over-the-top sensual descriptions of food show us where he truly finds affirmation, as such visceral language is never used to depict either sex or religion. And though the latter causes a lot of trouble, it is never demonized, but portrayed with the reaching desperation of someone who wishes he could love both God and himself.

Gary Gray is a wholly American character unlike many we meet in literary fiction, written in a clear, contemporary style that has a good chuckle at our taboos. God Says No takes our cultural anxiety about homosexuality and spins it into prose that breathes, capturing a human moment with all the sadness and humor that it deserves.