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Priestdaddy

By: Patricia Lockwood
Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
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Editorial reviews

Editors Select, May 2017

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. —Doug, Audible Editor

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)

What listeners say about Priestdaddy

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Funny, poignant, and beautifully read

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

The fact that the author narrated it.

What did you like best about this story?

The unaffected presentation

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Difficult to chose. So many great scenes

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ending where the author feels cut adrift from her father

Any additional comments?

I loved her poetic style and the way she made her family funny without making fun of them.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • RCF
  • 13-08-2017

Loquacious but enjoyable story about family

There's a strong voice in the author's writing with flashes of poetic beauty, and authenticity. But it's stuffed to the gills with similes and adjectives, and would have benefited from some paring back at times. She writes best when trying to articulate her father, and the culture of the church. But there's much meandering into self examination and lofty air filled descriptions of not much. Definitely worthwhile hearing the author read her words however as her voice gives the tale a lot of richness. Award for best voice when quoting her father!

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant

This was such an immersive read. If only all memoirs could be like this- I was very much in it, rather than feeling like I was looking in the rear view mirror. Lockwood had me cringing, crying and kacking my pants. She’s a great writer, a sharp descriptive story teller, bringing to life her family with much love, understanding, and endearment.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Priestdaddy

The whole thing. Not sure this should have be men read by the author, someone else reading it may have given the book more life. Was a bookclub choice so would not have chosen by choice. Listened to the whole book, but very hard to follow. It was like it jumped back and forth through time but you had to guess that from the paragraph at the time.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Dragged

So it started well and was ok I found the reader ok, then the second half of the book just dragged on and on, not great flow. Some really interesting parts were just skimmed over when more boring sections dragged on

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Priestdaddy

Wonderful narration generally. The story is at its best to start, when it’s more autobiographical and less philosophical. Ends very breathily and wafting both in narration and content. Overall very enjoyable and laugh out loud funny at points.

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