Priestdaddy

A Memoir

By: Patricia Lockwood

Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood

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)

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.

Favorite Memoir

Perfectly coded for the elder millennial who wishes they had the discipline for face yoga. You will use enough face muscles while laughing to put Botox off for just a little longer.

Irreverent humor. Loving heart

The writing Love books with such good writing .. and language OK now let’s try again original narrative, descriptive, focused storytelling with great syntax
Encouraged to read more of her book

Lovely language - disjointed

Would you try another book from Patricia Lockwood and/or Patricia Lockwood?

I am sorry, there is intriguing language and simile, very new prose. However, I found this lacking. A winding rant on upbringing, childhood disappointment, unilateral view of history. Did not draw me in to the story. Lacked development of characters. Hit and miss events of importance. Actually couldn't finish the book.

Would you be willing to try another book from Patricia Lockwood? Why or why not?

No.. This was not a worthy experience.

What three words best describe Patricia Lockwood’s voice?

self-centric, biased, unforgiving

Could you see Priestdaddy being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

N/A

so perfect

the narration is sublime the prose transcendent and the poetry in every line, bravo bravo

Divine, witty, delicious

Would you listen to Priestdaddy again? Why?

I absolutely LOVED this book, and unexpectedly so. To start, the writing is superb. Lockwood, a poet, paints such rich scenes and characters. Couple this with her unusual upbringing, and you get a sort of irreverent, tender, splendidly obscene book. Absolutely recommend.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Priestdaddy?

These absurd interactions with her father, her unequivocal mother, all of their interactions and influences and categorical statements.

What does Patricia Lockwood bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I admittedly didn't know much about Lockwood or the book itself when I picked it up. But hearing these stories read aloud by her brings to life all the moments of tenderness and terror.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Brilliant!

Simultaneously insightful and warped. Her vocal inflections, tone and timing are magic. I’m going to make her my next friend!

Patricia Lockwood is the writer we all needed

I live less than a mile from the famous rectory where Greg Lockwood preaches misogyny and is the most anti social guy around. That Lockwood could find a tender way to describe her life, her childhood and her father is a miracle all by itself. Her use of language approaches Joyce in her multilayered choice of words to describe a life. Her second book is as wonderful and perhaps much deeper. I do not think I have read two better books in my life filled with reading.

My daddy was a cleric too

As the daughter of a minister myself, I thought I would enjoy this book, but found I could not get into Patricia Lockwood's prose. My biggest takeaway though is that the author should have let a professional narrator read her book. I found Patricia Lockwood's writing style unappealing, but her narration was downright irritating

Wonderful Writing but not Much of a memioir

Read this book if you like wonderful use of the English language. It's really not much of memoir, i.e., anecdotes of one's life.