Priestdaddy

A Memoir

By: Patricia Lockwood

Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

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.

Critic reviews

"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)

Terrible narration--read, don't listen

This is a great example of why authors should think long and hard before they narrate their own books. Few have the skill to do so. This narration emphasized the weak points of the writing and overwhelmed the good. The only word I can think of to describe the prose is "florid"...why use one metaphor when five in row might be better? (Because it makes you sound like the winner of the bad poetry/prose contest) Often the descriptions are hilariously overwrought. "The procession passed like a snake's lingerie". What? Still, there's a great story here, interesting characters, and thought provoking insights. It is truly unfortunate these are buried neck deep in downright annoying voices. All of the characters sound like they are coming out of the mouth of a middle school actress overplaying every line, trying to reach the back of the theatre. The mother's voice is a cross between the Wicked Witch and one of the Kardashian sisters. Priestdaddy's voice belongs in Wayne's World, a lunatic stoner. That guy is saying Mass? The main character's tone is so relentlessly snarky--insufferable,sneering adolescent--that you can't stand the girl. When the narrator occasionally dialed down her "performance" and spoke in a believable, authentic way, it was a beautiful calm in the middle of a storm of bad acting. This was a challenging book to narrate. The author wasn't up to the task and did her own writing a great disservice.

Holy Smutty Metaphors!

Lockwood is a new author to me. If I was hip, I'd have heard of Lockwood prior to buying this starred darling. I'd have known that the NY Times has crowned Lockwood the "smutty-metaphor queen." She has a big Twitter following and is the author of a book of poetry, "Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals." Lockwood is also a boundary pushing comic with an acerbic wit and a long windup into a delivery that packs a punch to your thinking process.

Lockwood as an author is a fantastic writer with a keen sense of observation. Her stories in this memoir are skillfully told with heart; her narrative smoothly slips from quirky hilarity into depths of sincere revelation. Daddy was a former Lutheran minister, married with children when he is compelled to convert to Catholicism. Granted a "dispensation" from Rome, he is "allowed to keep his wife....even allowed to keep his children, no matter how bad they might be." It is later revealed that his case was reviewed by Joseph Ratzinger, who we now know becomes Pope Benedict XVI. Living with a Catholic Priest, the family also shares the life of a priest and his flock from an intimate vantage point. Lockwood not only sees different lives and circumstances, she has a compassion that sees the perspectives.

The style reminded me of Mic Night at the local bookstore, where poets and storytellers get up and share their latest writings. The words weighted and paused for timing, the occasional interjection of a word or event meant to produce some level of shock in the listener, as you sip coffee or wine. You've no desire to attend the performance but you're dragged by a friend. It's good to get out, see friends, and somehow you end up enjoying the performances. That was this book for me. If I was more familiar with the work of Lockwood, I would have passed; NOT for any reason other than it is not a format or a genre I enjoy. Everything was top rate: the writing the content, the narration -- especially the narration by the author herself which adds another dimension -- it was not for me. I hope that my personal opinion doesn't dissuade anyone interested in this book.

Awful

The narrator/author’s habit of gleefully over-pronouncing all the sexual references and lewd words in an effort to sound edgy and provocative very quickly moved into nails/chalkboard-irritating territory. Abandoned book half-way in after realizing it was getting worse, not better.

Boring

With all these great reviews, I expected a great book. But, it just dragged on.... I kept listening until chapter 7..........Then, skipped to chapter 14............still boring. Skipped some more. Tried a little of chapter 18, then a little of chapter 19. Well maybe it gets good at the end? Nope. Just a preacher's daughter, telling her boring life story. Save your ears!!!

It would be better to read the book, not to listen

What made the experience of listening to Priestdaddy the most enjoyable?

nothing--the listening experience was poor

What didn’t you like about Patricia Lockwood’s performance?

It's often not good to have authors read their own work. In this case a very good memoir was destroyed by not being able to be understood. The author's voice is dull, gravelly, monotonous, depressing, whispery, and drifts off at the end of the sentences. There were whole chapters I could not understand. I was thinking of returning it and getting the hard copy instead. It's impossible to focus on what she's saying.

Any additional comments?

Read the book, forget about the audible one.

Jesus would dig.

You will too. If you're : an artist / remain perplexed by the mysteries of the Catholic Church / have become indifferent to the mysteries of the Catholic Church / have ever found yourself drawn to contemplative life while simultaneously being repelled religious doctrine / or simply have dark humors coursing though your bod that need to be let- this book is for you. P.L. shares scenes from her life behind the doors of the rectory-- yet remains generous and funny.

And the narration? C'mon! Only SHE could convey her gentleness, anger, and distinctively weird comic timing so perfectly. I think her voice is pure chrism.

An Original Voice. An Original Thinker.

I want to be careful about the way in which I write about this book. Not because the subject matter is scandalous (it's not), but because, like all beautifully complex things, it'd be easy to mislabel or to put Lockwood's memoir in a box; to diminish its magnificence and, ultimately, the spell it cast over me. It deserves more than that. So, I'll say this: great writers are often lauded for having an original voice. Well, Lockwood has that and then some (including an amazing and amazingly absurd sense of humor). More importantly, she's an original thinker whose devotion to language and words and poetry - her primary trade - can be felt in every line, every turn of phrase, and every bit of confounding imagery that seems to reveal some hidden, intangible truth that normally exists just outside of fingertips' reach.

This book is so bad, I couldn’t finish it! Just a bunch of whining and complaining about the Catholic Church in a most irr

This book is so bad, I couldn’t finish it! Just a bunch of whining and complaining about the Catholic Church in a most irreverent way. About a girl who liked to write about disgusting images while laughing at her father who somehow became a priest yet likes parading around the Home naked, likes guns and (HORRORS) supports the republicans! The author reads her book in a similar whining voice. Even the writing itself is boring. All sentences are the same length and emotion. Ugh!

Buy.This.Book!!

If you love bigger-than-life characters, read this book. If you love the Midwest, read this book. But most of all, if you love stunning and evocative combinations of words that create vivid settings, feelings and people, read this book. Patricia Lockwood's memoir blows the roof off the genre, super-charged by her ability to see in metaphor, to hear in color. She's a poet first, and she's wickedly funny as well - although in my opinion, her observations on women and Catholicism are even better then her hilarious captures of her strange family. The best book I've read in a long, long time.

Lockwood herself is the narrator, a fey voice for a fresh literary voice. Her performance is a superb match for her words.

Not great; likely just not my cup of tea.

I struggled to CH 3. Simply could not go on. The characters are boring and not likeable. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, so stumbled thru the 3rd chapter but that was all I could take.

The eccentric and quirky life of a Catholic family

This is an intriguing memoir about the author's experiences of living in an unconventional, but highly religious family, with a Catholic gun-toting priest for a father. It is highly sarcastic, and hilarious at times, reading about Patricia Lockwood's family antics. When I first began this autobiography, I honestly believed it was set in the 1960s as her father disallows the sisters to go to college, instead spending money on guitars, and describing the effects of living next to a radioactive plant. But lo and behold, Lockwood is writing about only a decade ago.

She leads an eccentric lifestyle, following in her family's footsteps, writing poetry and travelling across the US after a marrying a man off the internet. But it also reveals her doubts about their customs and practices, and how she questions the function of the church - especially with claims of molestation. An interesting and enjoyable listen.

So funny

One of the best audiobooks I've listened to. Author's narration is hilarious and brilliant. Makes this even better than the book!

Disappointed

I only got to chapter 4 before I gave up. It’s a memoir and a detailed one about absolutely nothing. The narrator sounds as she wants to be somewhere else.
Maybe it gets better but I think that after four chapters the story should be able to hold you

Hilarious - both warm hearted and irreverent

Beautifully written and performed. It had me laughing out loud a lot of the time and at other times it was incredibly moving. Her portrayals of her parents are hilarious, especially her mother who surely deserves her own show!

Funny?

Well humour is not universal but given it’s the author who narrates I have to say it’s not funny. Book club choice but ......won’t be recommending

surprising, moving and original

I loved hearing the author read her own work and give voice to the characters. This made the experience so complete. She plays with language and confidently dives into lyrical asides sometimes just for the pleasure of it. This book feels raw and honest and beautiful ... and very funny too.

Comedic releaf for the unbelonging

She manages to take cues from her life and exploit them into sentence structures that whip, jolt, ease and transfer your energy, into an orbit of the reality we live in to survive, and the ones we create, to make life more manageable. She tricks her presence with beastly wit and unarmoured intimacy. The book left me feeling so intrigued into the family dynamics that hold and push and send us into the world, as kids and as adults.

Funny and Poetic

I wasn't sure about this and followed positive reviews to find that it is a story that is beautifully crafted and at the same time many good laughs through acute and astute observance. warmly recommended.

Really wanted to love it but didn’t

The first half of this book is great, funny and entertaining, but found the narrators voice grating and couldn’t finish it. The story also gets a bit lost towards the end. As a wayward daughter of a preacher I really wanted to love this but didn’t unfortunately

Fabulous audiobook!

I chose this on impulse, having enjoyed the author's No One Is Talking About This, but was unsure how I would feel about a 'memoir'. I'm so glad I went for it - it showcases her writing even better than the other book and is a wonderful story not just about herself but also about her extraordinary parents. It's a real rollercoaster ride, by turns funny, filthy, and genuinely thoughtful and moving. It's also read to great effect by the writer herself, so well that I now can't imagine anyone else doing it.

Highly recommended - though I suspect the hangover from it will ruin my next book . . .