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Priestdaddy

Written by: Patricia Lockwood
Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
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Publisher's Summary

From Patricia Lockwood - a writer acclaimed for her wildly original voice - a vivid, heartbreakingly funny memoir about having a married Catholic priest for a father.

Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.

In Priestdaddy, Lockwood interweaves emblematic moments from her childhood and adolescence - from an ill-fated family hunting trip and an abortion clinic sit-in where her father was arrested to her involvement in a cultlike Catholic youth group - with scenes that chronicle the eight-month adventure she and her husband had in her parents' household after a decade of living on their own. Lockwood details her education of a seminarian who is also living at the rectory, tries to explain Catholicism to her husband, who is mystified by its bloodthirstiness and arcane laws, and encounters a mysterious substance on a hotel bed with her mother.

Lockwood pivots from the raunchy to the sublime, from the comic to the deeply serious, exploring issues of belief, belonging, and personhood. Priestdaddy is an entertaining, unforgettable portrait of a deeply odd religious upbringing and how one balances a hard-won identity with the weight of family and tradition.

©2017 Patricia Lockwood (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What the critics say

"Patricia Lockwood's side-splitting Priestdaddy puts the poetry back in memoir. Her verbal verve creates a reading experience of effervescent joy, even as Lockwood takes you through some of her life's darker passages. Destined to be a classic, Priestdaddy is this year's must-read memoir." (Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club)
"Beautiful, funny and poignant. I wish I'd written this book." (Jenny Lawson, author of Furiously Happy)
" Priestdaddy is a revelatory debut, a meditation on family and art that finds poetry in the unlikeliest things, including poetry. Patricia Lockwood's prose is nothing short of ecstatic; every sentence hums with vibrant, anarchic delight, and her portrait of her epically eccentric family life is funny, warm, and stuffed to bursting with emotional insight. If I could write like this, I would." (Joss Whedon)

What listeners say about Priestdaddy

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life changing

A work of true genius - I loved the language, the storytelling, the openness. Funny, at times sad and maddening, but always insightful.

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Sarcastic delight

Took me a while to get used to her sarcastic narration, but once I did, it was hilarious!

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  • Tom
  • 2019-07-24

Not a bad read

A bit of aish mash. a bit hard to connect with the characters as they had trouble emerging from the dysfunctional muddle they were inserted into. Not anyplace to learn anything about Catholicism. Did get a sense in the end that the author was trying to find a way to connect with her father, which I hope she does do someday. one can only hope that God will figure out a way for them to meet each other someday

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  • LM
  • 2018-02-25

great book, sub par nararratot

really enjoyed the book, also raised by a religious leader and some parallels are quite funny! not a fan of Patricia's take on a few of the voices. took away from the book for me personally.

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