Started off very promising, then just slowed to a crawl. It appears the author had a good 200 page in her but decided to stretch it a bit. She should have stopped at 200. I got bored and just stop caring about her father, mother and even her. ( )

Recommended by my daughter, PRIESTDADDY is a winner. Patricia Lockwood's memoir ranges from moving to hilarious to profound, as she tells of growing up, the second of five children, in various rectories around the Midwest and south. It is also a meticulously recorded look at her parents' life and marriage. Greg and Karen married young, and he did a hitch in the navy as a submariner. He told of how, deep in the ocean, he and his crewmates watched THE EXORCIST numerous times, which he said prompted a religious vocation. Initially he was a Lutheran minister, then he converted to Catholicism and, under a little known papal loophole, was ordained a priest. Yes, a married priest with five kids!

Lockwood, who is a poet (and it shows, and to her advantage) frames her story in a year in which she and her husband, flat broke, were forced to move back in with her parents, not always a comfortable fit. They also shared the house with "the seminarian," who is something of a character himself. But not nearly as much as the titular character, who is something of a family despot, a loud "blusterer" who blasts - "shreds?" - electric guitar riffs from his room, and enjoys lounging around the house clad only in his boxers watching violent action-thrillers on TV. To his credit, he is always available to his parishioners in times of need or trouble. He is also of a very conservative, right-leaning bent, even to picketing abortion clinics (with wife and children in tow) and supporting a disgraced bishop who for years shifted and hid priests guilty of sexual abuse of children. The author herself remembers a priest who was a frequent visitor to their house, who held her on his lap and stroked her hair, "mansplaining" to her uncomfortable mother that "children need to be touched." (Her mother finally banned the priest from their home.)

I haven't even begun to touch the surface of all that Patricia Lockwood covers in this marvelous memoir of her unusual Catholic childhood, her long suffering mother and her domineering PRIESTDADDY. But take my word for it. It's a real winner. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

"When we came home later, my father was wearing his most transparent pair of boxer shorts, to show us he was angry, and drinking Baileys Irish Cream liqueur out of a miniature crystal glass, to show us his heart was broken."

This may be my favorite sentence in all of writing.

What makes that sentence good is what makes the whole book good: a comical situation described in the evocative language of a poet. The contradiction that that creates is delightful. And really, it's the larger contradictions that draw you in and hold you. That a priest is married and has lots of children. That a priest likes to play down and dirty metal-hair-band-esque licks on the electric guitar. That a priest would blow his child's college funds for a guitar pre-owned by a rock legend, and truly believe that it couldn't be helped.

That last situation occurs at the start of the book, when everything is still very very funny. But it does presage a seriousness that takes hold 2/3 of the way through the book. The recounting of childhood experiences become more lonesome, the view of her parents' world becomes bleaker. You can really feel the despair of the author as she sees her father act incredibly selfishly towards her mother, towards her siblings, really towards anyone who isn't a priest. He clearly is the most important person in the family, knows it, and acts accordingly.

The change from hilarious to bitingly sad is disappointing because I was having such a good time - I love to laugh. It's also disappointing on purpose, because the author wants us to feel how it was to go back into that toxic environment as an adult, to relive with her the memories in their proper context. The journey is a good one, go ahead and take it. ( )

Best for:
Those who enjoy well-written memoirs that involve a religious upbringing.

In a nutshell:
Author Lockwood was raised by her father, a Catholic priest. Unusual, no?

Worth quoting:
“I know all women are supposed to be strong enough now to strangle presidents and patriarchies between their powerful thighs, but it doesn’t work that way. Many of us were actually affected, by male systems and male anger, in ways we cannot always articulate or overcome.”

Why I chose it:
This was recommended to me at a bookstore after a discussion of the types of books I enjoy.

What it left me feeling:
Vaguely annoyed.

Review:
On paper (heh) this is the type of book I enjoy. It is extraordinarily well-written; Lockwood has a talent with words. It involves someone who has rebelled against the expectations put on them. But something about this book just wasn’t for me.

Lockwood’s father started out as a member of clergy of a different religion, one that allows the church leaders to be married. He then decided to convert to Catholicism, when he already had a wife and some kids. Apparently if one converts and passes some tests, one can be a married Catholic priest.

Obviously, there aren’t many people like Lockwood’s father, so her experience isn’t one people can necessarily directly relate to. However, as someone who is no longer a part of the faith that her family practices, I’m sure her story is relateable to many. And it is impressive that despite not sharing some many strong beliefs with her father, mother, and siblings, her family is still supportive of her. So supportive, in fact, that the majority of this book is written while Lockwood is living with her husband at her parent’s home after some back luck with employment.

I think the challenge I had with this book is that Lockwood’s father is not someone I can like or support. He’s misogynistic and just strikes me a deeply unpleasant and destructive person. He doesn’t treat his wife well, and it turns out he was publicly supportive of a Bishop who moved sexual predators around diocese. To Lockwood’s credit, she discusses this, but that doesn’t make it any more understandable as a reader.

I also don’t believe I had the same reading experience as those who provided some of the blurbs - I did not weep with laughter, though I did chuckle. I’m not sure I’d call this a ‘comic memoir;’ I think it’s more a lyrical memoir with some funny moment but also some deeply disturbing ones.

I’m not disappointed I read this book - as I said, the writing is fantastic - but it just wasn’t for me.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it. ( )

There is beautiful writing in this book, and moving thoughts and words. I didn't find much humor in it. I know that the author needs to distance herself to survive; I know that people are complicated and multi-faceted. I felt I had to keep a distance as well. That's easier with an e-book I think. I don't know that I would recommend this book to anyone.