Tammy - Hardcover

Excruciating drivel from the ex-wife of fallen televangelist Jim Bakker. Nearly a decade after PTL's collapse and her first husband's incarceration, the unsinkable Tammy Faye has resurfaced with her own talk show, a second marriage, and a wig business. This autobiography is part of her return to the public eye, an attempt to explain her marriages, her ministry, and her mascara (after a fundamentalist childhood in which cosmetics were forbidden, Tammy Faye discovered at age 17 that ``what I lacked in breasts I more than made up for in eyelashes''). What results from these self-revelations is an often skewed version of reality. She denies that she ever enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle at Heritage USA (the purported air-conditioner in the doghouse was really just a heating unit) and rejects any notion of financial wrongdoing on Bakker's part. She sees his downfall as the result of a conspiracy led by Jerry Falwell and suggests that high members of the Reagan administration, such as Ed Meese, assisted in the plot. Although even Falwell's supporters would not claim him to be above reproach, many of Tammy Faye's accusations are simply unsupportable. And her narrative has clearly benefited from hindsight. Repeatedly, she describes herself as intuitively mistrusting Falwell and others, but claims that Jim never listened to her advice and that his poor decisions led them to ruin. Her version of the PTL scandal is certainly the most salacious part of the book, which at other times is riddled with aphorisms like ``Faith is spelled R-I-S-K'' and ``God wants us to prosper.'' Jessica Hahn is regarded as a seductive tart who deserves all blame, and Tammy Faye expresses wonder that anyone would consider Hahn attractive, since ``she didn't even have boobs.'' Only diehard PTL followers will have sufficient faith to waste their money on this. (Jim Bakker is also publishing a memoir; see p. 1392.) (Author tour; satellite TV tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Here one half of the dynamic duo of the former PTL Club, Jim and Tammy Bakker, tells her story of the rise and fall of the Bakker televangelistic empire and the corresponding demise of the Bakker marriage. Messner narrates the saga of her rise from poor country girl in rural Minnesota to the glittering, fast-paced world of contemporary Christian television with surprising honesty and self-effacement. She leaves no stone unturned in her story of the early days of her relationship with a handsome young Bible college student named Jim Bakker. It was at Bible college that she discovered that using makeup, especially the false eyelashes that became her trademark, did not result in her being punished by God for a grave sin. The portrait of Jim Bakker that emerges from this account is one of a manic-depressive workaholic whose frequent absences and lack of attention to Tammy led to her own Platonic affair with Christian singer Gary Paxton. Messner reveals her own side of the salacious scandals that eventually resulted in the demise of the PTL empire, including Jim Bakker's "affair" with Jessica Hahn and Jerry Falwell's attempts to take over the evangelistic empire. Messner takes off her makeup for a brief moment in this book to show the world a sometimes insecure woman who has overcome recent bouts with cancer and retains a steadfast and enduring faith in God. Fans of PTL will want to read this book alongside Jim Bakker's I Was Wrong (Nelson, Oct.) for a fascinating glimpse into the souls of two people whose excesses in the name of religion have become legendary.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.