A key comic writer of the past three decades has created his most heartfelt and hard-hitting book. Father Joe is Tony Hendra’s inspiri...
read full description
reviews
Jan 09, 2008
Tung
rated it: 
Tony Hendra is a British satirist with a Forrest Gump-like lifetime. He performed in college with John Cleese and Graham Chapman (Monty Python fame); was editor of the National Lampoon; was in This is Spinal Tap; attended school with Stephen Hawking and other famous people. This memoir (supposedly) focuses on his spirituality: his early years when he wanted to become a monk, his lifetime straying from his faith; and his return to his faith in his later years – all as the direct result of knowing
More...
0 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Feb 05, 2009
"How I met Father Joe: I was fourteen and having an affair with a married woman." Thus opens Father Joe, a poignant, profound, and insightful memoir that surprised many critics. "How did a man known for left-wing screeds and biting satire come to write a book that _ń belongs in the first tier of spiritual memoirs ever written?" asked The New York Times. Reviews praised Hendra's honest and moving portrayal of a lifetime of "secular success and spiritual failure" and a
More...
Dec 07, 2011
George
rated it: 
Tony Hendra's first visit to Father Joe Warrilow, a Benedictine monk living on the Isle of Wight, is at the insistence of a man who walked in to find young Tony embracing his wife. It's an awkward beginning to any relationship, but Tony and Father Joe will remain close for decades, even as Tony pursues a career in comedy, moves to the U.S., and indulges in all manner of excess and bad behavior. The first half of the book is about Tony's childhood, the immediate effects of meeeting Father Joe, an
More...
May 19, 2011
Leroy
rated it: 
I found this to be a very interesting, moving book. Earlier this year I had read, and was greatly impressed by, Hendra's "The Messiah on Morris Avenue," so I was captivated by this book, which is Hendra's memoirs. I had not read the magazines he wrote for or watched the TV programs he was associated with. Still, it was interesting reading, and Father Joe was certainly a remarkable person.
After finishing the book, I had two thoughts: I wish I could have had a mentor such as Fa More...
After finishing the book, I had two thoughts: I wish I could have had a mentor such as Fa More...
Dec 22, 2010
Patricia
rated it: 
I listented to this book read by author Tony Hendra. I bought the book when it went on sale on Audible.com because I was curious about Hendra, having read George Carlin's memoir in which Hendra collaborated. I didn't know much more about Hendra except that he was a satirist and connected with the National Lampoon. I also like memoirs that explore spiritual questions, especially those by authors who were raised Catholic.
I have since purchased a hard copy of the book that will go on my More...
I have since purchased a hard copy of the book that will go on my More...
Sep 21, 2009
Istop4books
rated it:
I was fully prepared to go to battle with this book. I knew it was about a Catholic kid who found a mentor in a Benedictine (Catholic) monk.
I don’t like Catholics, I don’t like Benedictines and I don’t like monks.
I have to go back a few years. I was in a Methodist church. I had read some very good reviews on this book. I was less cynical. I started to read it and found out that our pastor had just finished it and loved it. That same week, I left the Methodist church i More...
I don’t like Catholics, I don’t like Benedictines and I don’t like monks.
I have to go back a few years. I was in a Methodist church. I had read some very good reviews on this book. I was less cynical. I started to read it and found out that our pastor had just finished it and loved it. That same week, I left the Methodist church i More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Oct 28, 2009
Emilia
rated it:
Apparently my papa read this book on a 3-day silent retreat and came home and raved about it. I vaguely remember this and thinking it sounded weird. So I am glad the book on CD found its way to me.
This book was pretty wonderful. It captured the potential for deep, serious, sincere religious reverence of youth in the person of the author as a teenager determined to be a monk, as well as the torture of loss of faith and continued need for penance and peace of the author as an adult. Wh More...
This book was pretty wonderful. It captured the potential for deep, serious, sincere religious reverence of youth in the person of the author as a teenager determined to be a monk, as well as the torture of loss of faith and continued need for penance and peace of the author as an adult. Wh More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 17, 2008
Dan
rated it: 
So far, this is a very well written book. There's one scene in particular, in which the author starts feeling trapped within his own body and feels the entire world falling out from under him, that is one of the most well written accounts of existential angst I've read.
I'm still in the middle of the book; although I haven't been reading it diligently, since I've been working on school stuff as well. However, I hope to finish it by the end of this week and give it a rating.
More...
I'm still in the middle of the book; although I haven't been reading it diligently, since I've been working on school stuff as well. However, I hope to finish it by the end of this week and give it a rating.
More...
Nov 29, 2011
Gretchen
rated it:
I wasn't really sure exactly what to rate this book. I think I would give it 2 1/2 stars if I could. Some parts of the book I really liked, but others, not so much.
This book follows the spiritual journey of the author from almost-a-monk to atheist and back again. When he was a young teenager, Hendra met Father Joe, a Benedictine monk. Hendra was so taken by Father Joe that he decided that he also wanted to be a monk. The first part of the book details Hendra's early thoughts abo More...
This book follows the spiritual journey of the author from almost-a-monk to atheist and back again. When he was a young teenager, Hendra met Father Joe, a Benedictine monk. Hendra was so taken by Father Joe that he decided that he also wanted to be a monk. The first part of the book details Hendra's early thoughts abo More...
Nov 01, 2010
Callie
rated it:
Wow. So, I never had heard of this book and just stumbled upon it. Excellent writing + spiritual odyssey= I'm in love. The first half I listened to on CD, which I highly recommend b/c it's read by Tony Hendra himself, so you get a good idea of how Father Joe sounded, and the jokes Hendra inserts in the text are funnier when he reads them to you...So much loveliness here, so much wisdom. Hendra's journey from burning bright faith as a young boy who wants to be a priest to Cambridge youth who lose
More...
Mar 09, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
This was the best book I've ever read in my whole life. Okay, maybe not really, but it was stupendously awesomely fantastically beautifully relevantly perfectly exactly what I needed to read right not. Tony Hendra (probably most famous for his role as the Spinal Tap's Manager) writes a memoir about himself and his relationship with Father Joe, a benedictine monk. It starts when he is fourteen and visits him as a confessor after an affair with a married woman. His love and admiration for Fathe
More...
Oct 04, 2011
Skylar
rated it:
This book can’t quite seem to make up its mind as to whether it wants to be a spiritual autobiography or a spiritual biography, and thus it never quite satisfies as either. As the former, it’s a sort of spiritual autobiography in reverse, a story of losing, rather than gaining, faith. Or perhaps it’s more a story of gaining and then losing and then partially re-gaining faith, which is the pattern of most spiritual journeys, I suppose.
The author is not likeable, but nor does he take More...
The author is not likeable, but nor does he take More...
Sep 28, 2007
Cris
rated it:
I liked the book but not the author. It is spoken of as a book about Father Joe, and it is but it is even more about Tony Hedra who I don't find really likable. I do find Father Joe a fascinating and amazing person who I'd want to emulate in some fashion so I'm thankful to have been introduced to him.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 01, 2011
Dawn
rated it:
Honestly, I wasn't excited to read this when it was selected for my book club. I considered skipping it, but thought I'd give it a try...
The book is basically a rundown of Tony Hendra’s religious experiences. He begins when he was younger and he began down a path that was maybe not appropriate (I won't expand so as not to spoil it). As a punishment he was taken to a monastery and met Father Joe. The rest of the book explains his relationship with Joe with some of his life stories throw More...
The book is basically a rundown of Tony Hendra’s religious experiences. He begins when he was younger and he began down a path that was maybe not appropriate (I won't expand so as not to spoil it). As a punishment he was taken to a monastery and met Father Joe. The rest of the book explains his relationship with Joe with some of his life stories throw More...
Nov 04, 2011
Nancy
rated it:
A Benedictine monk’s day is divided between work and prayer. Dom Joseph Warrilow, who became a monk at nineteen and lived in seclusion at Quarr Abbey in the south of England until his death at age ninety, is described by his friend and follower Tony Hendra, as being as close to a cartoon monk as one can imagine. He was also a saint—a gentle, generous, creative, musical, artistic man and an engineer and architect of genius. He lived a cloistered life yet was able to grasp the essentials of the mo
More...
Oct 03, 2009
Tim
rated it:
How can a monk, living off the edge of England on an island in a cloistered monastary have impact on a young man over his lifetime who leaves his Catholic childhood, becomes a satirist in Hollywood and New York, lives the life of the rich and famous, and yet in the end must seek shelter from the monk in order to rebuild his shattered life? You'll have to read the book to find out.
Father Joe is wonderfully described and always portrayed as surprisingly in touch and pertinent. I was a More...
Father Joe is wonderfully described and always portrayed as surprisingly in touch and pertinent. I was a More...
Jan 25, 2011
Eva
rated it:
This was an interesting tale which started strong and ended rather weakly. The only constant source of engaging material was the bits which featured Fr Joe. Hendra himself has led a rather different lifestyle, and while I am glad that he had someone like Fr Joe who could help him through some of the rough spots, I just got more and more angry at him. In his credits, he mentions his second wife and their young children, but nothing about his two children from his first marriage. He is angry that
More...
Dec 16, 2009
Risa
rated it:
I enjoyed it, though I no longer know whether to believe it. (See How To Cook Your Daughter, ISBN 0060820993.)
Mar 05, 2009
bookczuk
rated it:
I heard Tony Hendra on NPR whenthe book came back and thought it sounded grand. I think that as a Catholic, it was particularly interesting to me to read his views on being a Catholic in England and then as a young adult in America, and part of the LA scene.
Father Joe sounds like a remarkable man. He didn't disapoint, although I did get a little miffed at Tony at times for being an idiot.
It's always interesting to read things like this to help you reevaluate your own fait More...
Father Joe sounds like a remarkable man. He didn't disapoint, although I did get a little miffed at Tony at times for being an idiot.
It's always interesting to read things like this to help you reevaluate your own fait More...
Nov 01, 2010
Linda
rated it:
***I am writing this review about the book itself, not the scandal that ensued after its publication. Memoirs must be read in light of a biased author; we all have selective memories.***
Father Joe is the older, gentler, kinder parent we all want. His wisdom and genuine affection for a extremely broken man touched me very deeply. I agree completely with Tony Henda that Father Joe was a saint. He had reached a place that not many people do. Here is an example of why I loved Father More...
Father Joe is the older, gentler, kinder parent we all want. His wisdom and genuine affection for a extremely broken man touched me very deeply. I agree completely with Tony Henda that Father Joe was a saint. He had reached a place that not many people do. Here is an example of why I loved Father More...
Jun 09, 2010
Persephone
rated it:
I decided to get this book out of the library after listening to Hendra's contribution to a MOTH story-telling contest -- a recounting of one of the incidents in this book when he stumbles from the despair of a failed suicide attempt into his first improvisation as the manager in the classic rock doc spoof Spinal Tap.
You know you're in for a strange ride when Hendra begins the book with a monk, then plunges into the farcical yet poignant tale of how he met said monk. Hendra, age 15, More...
You know you're in for a strange ride when Hendra begins the book with a monk, then plunges into the farcical yet poignant tale of how he met said monk. Hendra, age 15, More...
Jan 24, 2012
Maura
rated it:
I quite liked this one. Tony Hendra tells about his life in which he starts out as a young teenager getting into trouble, meeting Father Joe who helps straighten him out, and being convinced that he too will become a monk. That lasts until university where he meets up with folks like Graham Chapman and other comedians and realizes what he really wants to do is change the world thru comedy. He ends up in America, writing for National Lampoon and working on some movies (if you recognize him at all
More...
Oct 17, 2008
Richard
rated it:
An autobiography of Hendra’s life and how an English Benedictine Monk, Father Joe, influenced him through out his life. I liked the book but there was too much autobiography about Hendra and not enough about Father Joe. The parts he did write about Father Joe were wonderful, capturing the character and bearing of this kindly aging Monk. Father Joe really listened to people and did not judge them in any sense. He knew that with enough love anyone could turn around, no matter what that perso
More...
Apr 03, 2008
Sylvia
rated it:
I'm about halfway and I really like this so far. I'm not sure yet what the overall goal / objective of the book is (why did the author write it? what was his point?) but I'm really enjoying the narrative about himself at 14 meeting Father Joe, getting a new perspective on church, religion, the bible, etc. I consider myself agnostic and very curious about different faiths and religions, have a variety of experiences I'm working with, and this book gave me new insight as well. I remember friends i
More...
Feb 06, 2008
Eli
rated it:
Interesting read,
Hendra is a unique sort with a thoroughly unique story.
His writing style is a bit choppy and sometimes borders on incoherent, but the feelings run deep in this account of his personal road to salvation, his relationship with Father Joe, and his many extremes along the way.
Hendra has led a very interesting life. The book touches on many personalities and accomplishments in his many years as a satirist and quasi-humorist. He is clearly a t More...
Hendra is a unique sort with a thoroughly unique story.
His writing style is a bit choppy and sometimes borders on incoherent, but the feelings run deep in this account of his personal road to salvation, his relationship with Father Joe, and his many extremes along the way.
Hendra has led a very interesting life. The book touches on many personalities and accomplishments in his many years as a satirist and quasi-humorist. He is clearly a t More...
May 03, 2007
Hunter
rated it:
Despite the fact that Father Joe is a Catholic monk, this book is not a book about Catholicism or even Christianity. It is a story of finding faith, losing it, and finding it again. More than that, it is about relationships. Hendra details his deeply personal relationship with Father Joe as it grew and changed over the course of decades and he talks about how that single friendship shaped his relationships with himself and everyone else in his life.
Tony Hendra is a good writer and th More...
Tony Hendra is a good writer and th More...
Dec 23, 2011
Colleen
rated it:
A good 70 pages too long and definitely a bit windy around the dig-me sections, this is still a fairly well-told tale of a kind, interesting and very patient man. I wish Father Joe had had a better—and, from what I've heard since finishing the book, more reliable—narrator. But Hendra is a clever fellow; when he's not *too* clever for his own good, or, I suspect, to obfuscate certain rather dismal truths, this is a terrific read.
Apr 10, 2010
Although I gave up my own faith, (insert gasp here), I still find this book intriguing. Just the idea fascinates me. A man finds his wife cheating on him with a fourteen year old boy. What does he do?! He calmly sends the boy to a priest, believing his soul needs to be saved. I honestly can't say I can imagine being that God-loving. But, while I can't say I envy him his faith, I certainly envy him his serenity.
Aug 24, 2010
Carol
rated it:
This was a very well written book that had me crying at the end! It wasn't quite what I expected - it is really more about the life of Tony Hendra, the author. for me, it bogged down a little in the details of his life. I much more enjoyed the parts when he was with Father Joe. Hendra credits Joe with the the life saving changes he made just before he turned fifty. It has caused me to do additional research about both author and priest.
Jul 31, 2010
Brian
rated it:
This book was interesting but not riveting. Hendra's return to the Catholic faith of his English boyhood is assisted by his confessor, Father Joe, a monk living in England. While away from practicing his faith, I felt that Hendra missed the ceremony of the Catholic services as much as anything else about Catholicism, and I don't think that's a good motive for returning to the church.
