Books › Priestdaddy
Priestdaddy
352 pages
A wildly poetic, laugh-out-loud descent into the absurdities of a deeply eccentric Catholic upbringing.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like being trapped in a chaotic, incense-filled funhouse with a narrator who is both a brilliant poet and a stand-up comedian. The pace is brisk, propelled by a relentless barrage of bizarre family anecdotes and startlingly beautiful metaphors. It is a book of extreme contrasts, pivoting effortlessly from raunchy, laugh-out-loud absurdity to moments of profound, lyrical tenderness. The mood is warm but surreal, capturing the specific claustrophobia and regression of moving back into a childhood home, especially one governed by a larger-than-life, guitar-shredding Catholic priest. It will absolutely delight readers who love their family memoirs served with a side of irreverence, deep weirdness, and prose so inventive it demands to be read aloud.
- Mood
- chaotic
- surreal
- nostalgic
- warm
- Tone
- irreverent
- hilarious
- lyrical
- absurd
- tender
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- family eccentricity · religious absurdity · artistic coming-of-age · father-daughter dynamics · loss of faith
- The writing
- Wildly inventive and exuberant, blending vulgar, laugh-out-loud comedy with startlingly beautiful, metaphor-rich poetry.
- The arc
- Moves from laugh-out-loud observations of parental absurdity to a tender, poignant reckoning with autonomy, faith, and familial love.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave memoirs that are simultaneously side-splittingly funny, deeply weird, and gorgeously written.
Content notes
- religious trauma
- abortion protests
- cult-like group dynamics
About the book
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met, a man who lounges in boxer shorts, 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.
Description from Open Library.
Books like Priestdaddy
See why they match
The Liars' ClubMary KarrA fiercely funny, unsentimental plunge into a chaotic Texas childhood where storytelling is the only survival skill.
No One Is Talking About ThisPatricia LockwoodA hyper-ironic scroll through the digital void that suddenly shatters into a profound meditation on embodied grief and love.
LitMary KarrA darkly hilarious, fiercely unsentimental plunge into the abyss of addiction and the messy, miraculous climb back out.
ShrillLindy WestA hilarious, battle-tested manifesto for taking up space and refusing to apologize for it.
The cost of livingDeborah LevyA vibrant, urgent reflection on dismantling the social hierarchies that diminish women, in pursuit of a life lived with meaning, pleasure, and ultimate freedom.
We are Never Meeting in Real LifeSamantha IrbyA wildly funny, unapologetically messy romp through the indignities of adulthood and the human body.