The World in Flames (Review)

With a cover blurb like “A black boyhood in a white supremacist doomsday cult,” how could you not be intrigued?

This book first came onto my radar while I was in college, where Walker was a professor. I never got to take a class from him, unfortunately, but I put his book on my reading list the first time I heard about it and had been looking for a copy ever since. 

I dove right in as soon as it finally arrived on my doorstep.

The book is short with quick chapters but covers a broad span of Walker’s life, with a focus, most notably, of course, on his membership in Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God. 

One would think that this story would be deeply disturbing, and it is on some levels when you think about how he grew up thinking he would die at eleven-years-old and become a god as the rest of the world perished, but also isn’t as horrifying as you might imagine. Walker discusses the actions of the cult through the lens of his own experiences rather than diving into further research and broadening the subject to talk about the Worldwide Church of God as a whole. The story paints a picture of how…normal being in a doomsday cult seemed to him as a boy, and how the word of Armstrong wove itself so easily with his other life events; going to school, having friends, growing up, puberty, siblings, and butting heads with parents. Perhaps that’s the most disturbing part of all when you really think about it: how normal being in a cult can seem to those involved. This makes The World in Flames a coming of age story of a boy growing up in 1970s Chicago as much as it’s a story about a boy in a cult.

Yet, I still found this book a bit of a page-turner. It doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat in the way other books do, but I was more than curious to know how Jerry was going to deal with the events that arose in his life, and above all, how his family could keep on believing the apocalypse was imminent as the date was pushed further and further away with weaker and weaker excuses by the cult’s leader.

The story more or less follows a chronological order as Jerry grows up. But I did on occasion feel lost in the timeline so that I became a little confused as to how much time had passed between one event and another and how old he was at particular times. However, I never became so confused that it really affected my overall reading experience. 

I would have also, perhaps, liked to get to know his siblings a bit more as they are introduced, as I had a hard time keeping them straight in the beginning. But, those who are important do come to stand out and are explored further over time. 

These small critiques aside, the writing was strong yet simple and followed a natural course throughout the story of his life. Sometimes, I find memoirs can get a bit sidetracked, as the author has to weed out what has been important to their life and whittle it down to the barest details which can fit with one theme. But this one did a good job of keeping on topic most of the time. 

I rated The World in Flames 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is certainly something I would recommend to those who enjoy memoirs and biographies but also intriguing enough for those who don’t usually read the genre.