|
|
Tony Hendra ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
|
|
|
|
1 |
Tony Hendra The Messiah of Morris Avenue: A Novel
Picador 2007 0312425392 / 9780312425395 Paperback New
0312425392 0312425392 From Publishers Weekly In the near future of this alternately cynical and rapturous fable, America is a theocracy where the Christian Right, empowered by laws against blasphemy and witchcraft, controls everything from Congress to "Holywood" and foments Armageddon. Christ chooses this time to return in the guise of Jos?, the Bronx-bred son of a Guatemalan immigrant with a discipleship of drifters and crack whores. Charismatic, open about his divinity and obliging with miracles, Jos? wins over even Johnny Grecco, the jaundiced reporter who writes his gospel. Journalist Hendra, author of the best-selling Catholic- mentorship memoir Father Joe and former editor in chief of Spy, makes Jos? the savior of liberal Christianity. Jos?'s theology is vaguely feminist (it includes "God the Mother"), vaguely Gnostic and just plain vague ("Blessed are the doubters..."), but he's militantly for love and tolerance and against war and creationism. Hendra writes a heart-wrenching Passion story, but the novel's broad satire--of both the Christian Right and of spineless liberal appeasers--clashes with the reverence accorded Jos? and his New Agey platitudes (his evasion of the problem of evil is particularly mealy-mouthed). This messiah is an awfully nice deity, but he doesn't give our formidable world its due. (Apr.) Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist Hendra, author of the very moving memoir Father Joe (2004), returns to his satiric roots in this offbeat novel about the Second Coming. Fruits from the author's stints as editor of Spy and National Lampoon fall plentifully throughout this madcap tale, set in a near-future America in which the religious Right has taken over the country. Hollywood is now Holywood. Presidents are elected--or, really, appointed--on the basis of their religious fervor. Sweeping new laws render anything even remotely critical of religion illegal. Into this sickly puritanical society comes Jose Francisco Lorcan Kennedy, in his scruffy hooded sweatshirt, claiming to be the Child of God. Is he crazy? Internet journalist (and disgraced Pulitzer Prize winner) Johnny Greco thinks so, at first. But soon he and a lot of other people are persuaded otherwise. This is satire with a thoughtful heart, comedy with a serious message (several of them, in fact). Many of the author's sly allusions to contemporary society may elude younger readers, but adults of the right political persuasion will get a Swiftian kick out of it all. David Pitt Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Price:
5.26 USD
|
|
Add to Shopping Cart |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
