What a wonderful reminder of helpful human interactions!

The book is dull, hard to follow and fairly self grandising. I purchased it because I was looking for a good spiritual journey, this isn't it. He overlooks his own glaring flaws and the horrible things he's done to his own daughter.

This is a wonderful story about a spiritual man; a man who lives his religion. I found it very moving; and would like to hear some more Father Joe stories; Perhaps the critcisms about Tony Hendra are true, but that does not detract from this story; it certainly gives the hope of redemption to those who may not think they need it. Well worth a listen.

I was about half-way through listening to "Father Joe" when I learned of the accusation made by Tony Hendra's daughter from his first marriage that Hendra had left one important transgression out of this confessional auto-biography. The daughter maintains that Hendra sexually abused her when she was a child. This accusation, which Hendra denies, is unproved legally, though the daughter has written her own book ("How to Cook your Daughter," its title derived from an article Hendra wrote for the "National Lampoon") giving a detailed account of the alleged abuse.

Learning of that accusation, however, did not color my consideration of "Father Joe" overly much, because I had already come to the conclusion that, while Father Joe, the monk who befriends Hendra as a teenager and provides spiritual guidance to him throughout his adult life (and, as it turns out, many, many others), is a fascinating character, this story is really about Hendra and his supposed redemption. The problem is, it is quite clear that Hendra is not truly redeemed, or at least that he doesn't fully "get" what being redeemed means.

Despite the fact that this book is written retrospectively at a time when Hendra supposedly had re-embraced his Catholic faith and learned to take responsibility for his own life, Hendra repeatedly lapses into self-pity and vitriolic recriminations against those who have "wronged" him. His attacks on those who followed him at the "National Lampoon," his co-workers on "Spitting Image," conservative politicians (which borders on the paranoid), and, ironically, liberal theologians and the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, all belie his claim of redemption. Clearly, Hendra still has "contempt for the world," and not the selfless detachment of "contemptus mundi," despite Father Joe's painstaking efforts to teach him the difference.

That having been said, Hendra's narration style is excellent. The book, if ultimately unsatisfying, is nonetheless a good listen.

the first review I have been compelled to write and done through tears upon finishing this book. If only I had a father Joe. A must to hear, read with love about a man of love