Father Joe

This book by humourist Tony Hendra is a real gem. Despite a few relatively minor hitches, Father Joe remains a ray of hope in a foundering genre. Spiritual memoirs are too often simpering, self-serving, schmaltzy, and freighted with deadly prose. But Father Joe is theologically and emotionally sophisticated, very funny, and very well written. Most books of this type are all heart and no head, or vice versa. Given the genre’s conventions, it’s a miracle that Hendra manages both. In the deadest of deadpan, Hendra declares Fr. Joe a saint. No punch line. No knee slap. No sarcasm. If you find that hard to believe at the book’s start, you won’t by the time you reach its end.
Hendra is a gifted writer, and this is a wonderfully composed, touching, humorous, and surprisingly intellectual volume. In the concluding sentences of the brief prologue, Hendra sets out the challenge: “How to make my dear, good friend live again? Roll back the rock... take him by the hand, and lead him into the light. See him laugh and teach and heal once more.” Turning the page to begin chapter 1, you know you are in the hands of a skilled storyteller: “How I met Father Joe: I was fourteen and having an affair with a married woman.” Commonweal : Father Joe