A Review of Jen Hatmaker’s “Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire”
On Fire for Jen Hatmaker
I’ve probably said this elsewhere in these pages, but I am not part of Jen Hatmaker’s target audience of readers. She exclusively writes for Christian women, and her latest book — Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire — is no exception to this rule. The book is a little different from past Hatmaker tomes, though. For one, there are no food recipes in this volume (waahhh!). Secondly, while she tells stories about her life here, this is not a memoir in the way that previous books might have been. No, Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire is a book all about you — your wants, your needs, your dreams, your core being, your truths. Perhaps this is a sign of Hatmaker maturing as a writer, but Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire is not your typical Jen Hatmaker book, for better or for worse.
No matter what she writes, I’ll be on the sidelines acting as a cheerleader — even if I’m not really the type of person that she might want to attract to her writing. There are a few reasons for this, even thought I own a penis and am thus not a part of the Hatmaker cohort. First, Jen Hatmaker is an extremely funny writer. The comedy is a bit more muted in this book, and she has an annoying tendency to slip into sarcasm when talking about her five kids (three biological, two adopted). Still, if you’re looking for an honest-to-goodness belly laugh, you need to pick up a Hatmaker book. Secondly, despite having ties to the conservative Evangelical world, Hatmaker came out in support of the LGBTQ community four years ago and was severely burned for it (as recounted briefly in this book). Anyone who has the conviction to fight for what’s right is cool in my book, and if you feel that gay people don’t deserve God’s love, you can go fuck off right now. (Oh, by the way, in what might be a Hatmaker first, there is light swearing in Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire.)
However, I’m probably meandering around how I feel about this book. My feelings are complicated. For one, I think there’s useful information in this book that can help meek women stand up and be strong for themselves. On the other hand, I felt that Hatmaker sometimes slipped into generalizations and stereotypes about women from time to time that might make this book not resonate with its intended audience. If I could offer a further critique — and this is something she directly acknowledges in her own work here — she sometimes comes off as unfocused, and starts writing about whatever tickles her fancy at any given point in time, although it might not have much of a point to it. To wit, I found the final two chapters, which had something to do with honesty, to drone on and on without much in the way of a reason for existing other than to pad this book out to more than 200 pages.
I also have a question that perhaps may seem to be a critique of Hatmaker’s work, but I do want to pose it as a question and nothing more — I’m just trying to understand Hatmaker’s impetus for writing to and for women. The thing is, she notes her frustration at being viewed as a lesser preacher and public speaker in evangelical churches, where women can be taken less seriously for their views than men. However, she writes books for a categorically female audience. Isn’t this just lowering the bar and playing into the very thing that she rails against? Wouldn’t men have something to gain from reading this book and other works by Hatmaker as well? If she was serious about her intent in fostering women to dream big and have a voice, wouldn’t she try to take the lead on this by writing for everyone in the room? These are just questions and observations I have. I don’t know the answers to them — I would probably pose them to the author, instead — but I think they’re valid because they seem to have something to say about the venues that Hatmaker chooses and how they might rub against the very thing that she’s trying to say.
In the end, I had a lot of questions after reading Fierce, Free and Full of Fire. I’m mostly wondering about the change in tone in Hatmaker’s writing. In her past books, her funny and candid tone worked in spades, so shifting the spotlight from her to the reader deflects a lot of Hatmakers key strengths and it’s awkward when she talks about herself here because she goes to great lengths to put less emphasis on herself as a character. I do appreciate that Hatmaker is candid — at times, she notes in the book that she’s still working on whatever topic she’s writing about at hand. On the other hand, this just draws attention to the fact that the book is not being written by an expert. Certainly, it draws upon other works, which leads me to conclude that Hatmaker might have been better served by posting the titles of these books on her website and asking readers to go there.
As much as Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire didn’t work as well with me as other books by Jen Hatmaker, I do appreciate her voice and her sordid wit. She’s an easy read and reading one of her books is like pulling up a chair beside a long-awaited friend. Hatmaker is chatty and personable. As much as I wish she would write with a male audience in mind, I appreciate that her choice in audience might allow her to be more of herself — a trait that’s appreciated, even if I have mixed thoughts about it. Basically, no matter what Hatmaker writes, you can’t go wrong reading one of her books, and while Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire might be more Hatmaker-Lite, it is still worth reading for the love, guys, for the love. That’s all I need to say.
Jen Hatmaker’s Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You will be published by Nelson Books on April 21, 2020.
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You may also be interested in the following review: Jen Hatmaker’s Of Mess and Moxie.
Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
