Eight Whopping Lies and Other Stories of Bruised Grace

By: Brian Doyle

Narrated by: Douglas James

Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

“Brian Doyle is an extraordinary writer whose tales will endure.” (Cynthia Ozick, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Quarrel and Quandary)

This is a guided tour through the mind of one of the most acclaimed voices in contemporary Catholic writing. Brian Doyle effortlessly connects the everyday with the inexpressible and consistently marries searingly honest prose with interruptions of humor and humanity.

These essays bear Doyle’s trademark depth and deliver with eloquence his piercing observations on mohawks and miracles, vigils and velociraptors, syntax and scapulars, jail and jihad, and mercy beyond sense.

©2017 Brian Doyle (P)2018 Franciscan Media

Critic reviews

"Brian Doyle wrote more powerfully about faith than anyone in his generation. In the literary climate of the present time, to write about faith is a brave and original and contrary thing to do. Never didactic or overbearing, he showed us occurrences in life that burst with radiance— small epiphanies with enormous implications. And best of all, he could sneak up on you and really make you laugh. These are wonderful essays by a writer whose work will last and whose reputation will grow." (Ian Frazier, author of Great Plains and Lamentations of the Father)

"If a life can be said to be a collection of moments, then Brian Doyle’s life is right here, glowing between the covers of this book. Each of these thirty-eight essays presents a little moment that, upon reflection, is everything but little. They are the memories and thoughts of a man who made it his purpose in life to recognize kindness, humor, grace, and beauty whenever he saw it. Bruised Grace will make you a better person." (Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See)

"Almost nobody has written with the joy, the galloping energy, the quiet love of conscience and family and what's best in us, the living optimism of Brian Doyle. He was one of the most generous and imaginative editors in America for decades, helping to fashion a magazine that was uniquely elegant and transformative. But he was also a writer - on faith and life and Van Morrison and fathers and sons and everything essential - it's hard to imagine our seeing again. What a gift to have his beautiful and refulgent spirit with us again between the covers of a new book! (Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road and The Art of Stillness)

Thoughtful, honest prose

I first discovered Brian Doyle at a writer’s conference in Wyoming where he was a featured speaker. I was hooked by his passion and openness and sense of duty to examine truths we take for granted. This is a wonderful collection that does just that.

8 Whopping Lies

There are a couple of gems folded into a well-written collection of essays. He pulls on the heart-strings through nostalgia, but introduces his personal political and religious views periodically without backup. The arguments are full of fallacy, but one cannot fault the quality of the writing. As an audiobook it was sleepy and overall was just worthy of 2 stars to me. But when you come across a winner, he hits it out of the park.