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If I could give 3.5 I would

Customer Rating:

Father Joe sounds like a fascinating guy the only problem is that most of the later parts of the book are not about Father Joe caring and insightful monk but rather about Tony Hendra. While it was interesting to see the author struggle with his faith and eventually turn away from it there is an inability on my part to feel any kind of sympathy for the man he eventually became. I'll go easy on him as a child I mean we all did strange things because we were lonely or misunderstood but having to read pages and pages of the self destructive behavior perpetrated by the author was almost too much to take. The only thing that kept me interested was waiting to see how the life of old Father Joe turned out. Overall-Parts of the book were fascinating but the book needed less Tony Hendra and more Father Joe.

Penultimate Example of Playing One's Self

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I read this recently, in a public library so as not to help Hendra's sales. I read it after being exposed to his daughter Jessica's book which makes a convincing case that he molested her. The narcissism was always self-evident in this book. But for Hendra to draw this picture the way he did where Father Joe's last advice to him is that he was put on this Earth to be a good parent and husband, that that was his destiny ... amazing. Hendra's fictitious bologna will stand throughout the ages as the penultimate example of "playing thyself" in print. To the extent that Father Joe actually told him anything like that, it reflects both Father Joe's disconnect with reality, borne of his insular life within "the Church", and the natural acceptance of pedophiliac tendancies that such a life seems to correlate to. "A Life Wasted Badly" would be a better title.

A personality I admire

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Fr. Joe offers one a splendid peek into the life of an admirable person. It was a priviledge to get to know him and his wonderful influence on people and his encouragement for all of us to live on a higher plane. This book made me feel that God holds us in the palm of His hand because we are the apple of His eye no matter how we fail; and we do so fail! Not a bit 'churchy', but rather speaks directly to real life.

Brilliant and frank Boomer spiritual memoir

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In spite of his celebrity and achievements in the world of satire, Tony Hendra possesses a worldview that is fairly typical of those who came of age in the 1960s. Deeply antagonistic to established authority -- be it that of parents, government, the Church or themselves -- he and his cadre of stalwarts blazed a path that changed the modern world, but brought more than a few to the hell of drugs, bitterness and alienation. Many have reconstructed their lives, after a fashion, and a few seem to have struggled back from the inferno to establish lives of meaning and peace. "Father Joe" is Hendra's funny, autobiographical, and brutally frank account of his successes and failings, especially through its touch points with Father Joe Warrilow, a Benedictine monk at the abbey of Quarr, on the Isle of Wight. Hendra grew up a stranger in a strange land -- a Catholic in anti-papist 1950s Great Britain. His memoir starts with his attempted seduction of a neighbor's wife, which landed him at Quarr on Good Friday, ostensibly for a bout of penitent reflection. It is here that Hendra meets Father Joe, almost a caricature of a gentle, pious monk, with large ears and flat feet and knobbly knees. Yet in spite of his comical appearance, Father Joe would be a presence throughout the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, as Hendra endured (usually willingly) the well-intentions depravities that characterized that era and his narcissistic generation. From his days as a guilt-ridden youth, Hendra nursed a desperate desire to become a monk, though like Saint Augustine, he wanted it "but not just yet." Hendra's lifestyle brought him fame as an actor (band manager Ian Faith in Spinal Tap), editor (National Lampoon) and director (Spitting Image) but also the purgatory of unfulfilled dreams and personal failings. His struggles often returned him to Quarr and Father Joe, whose generosity of spirit, elfin artlessness and unfailing love sustained Hendra through some truly difficult times. I heartily recommend listening to the audio version of the book if at all possible. Hendra does a wonderful job of portraying Father Joe's kindly, stuttery voice and his calming spirit. Hendra expertly renders his own state of mind at various stages in his life. There's the horny and hyper-pious 14-year-old, the college student bowled over by his first taste of satire, the hedonistic, ambitious 30-something and the burned-out middle-ager reaching for comfort, forgiveness and stability. Hendra is unflinching in his depiction of others and of himself. He is an absentee father; a brilliant if lacerating satirist with unyielding standards; an attention-seeking perfectionist who seeks idealistically and naively to change the world. Hendra's memories of his talks with Father Joe are full of meaningful detail -- probably reconstructed -- that show the older man to be wise, kind and even occasionally irreverent. Father Joe was way ahead of his time. In an era when churchmen regularly resorted to threatening hellfire on miscreants, Father Joe reached back to gospel images of a God of inexhaustible love and second chances. Hendra's critical eye falters only when discussing changes in the Church that began in the 1960s. Like many who left the Church before the reforms and returned afterward, he confuses nostalgia for the old Latin rite with worthwhile worship. In this, Hendra betrays a lingering selfishness that was always his trademark. Strange that an unorthodox believer like Hendra would pass judgment on a liturgical form whose underlying reality (the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, even the Resurrection of Jesus) he is far from accepting. Like St. Augustine's "Confessions," Hendra's "Father Joe" is an unsparing review of a man's quest toward the eternal. Though Augustine went considerably further in this journey does not diminish the value of Hendra's work, especially for this generation of skeptics and self-appointed spiritual authorities. Whatever his faults, Hendra is honest about his failings as Father Joe is unselfish with his love and support. A wonderful book for those who love spiritual quests and who appreciate the snarky humor and commentary of one who was in the middle of it all.

If you've been raised Catholic...

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...you'll relate to this book in a truly personal and humorous way. But even if not, or if you have no religious affiliation at all, this is a fantastic personal journey to experience. I listened to it on audiobook, and found the act of listening to the author himself (it is his own voice on the recording) reveal his life, with all its ups, downs, triumphs, and failures, to be refreshing and touching. Well written, witty, but not arrogant, this book is worth picking up.