Customer Reviews

The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal Judge

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The writing was superb. But the life of Mychal Judge surpassed anything that I could have ever envisioned. This priest was the true definition of the word, Catholic, which means universal. His priesthood, his faith and his life were all embracing, all encompassing. He listened. He did not judge. He understood. As a Franciscan, he knew humility and poverty intimately and he owned them. The goodness of his life allowed him to interact with people of all faiths. He was as comfortable in the White House as he was in the slums of New York. All people were equal. He befriended and respected those of different faiths. He befriended those who were no longer practicing any religion. He did not judge them; he honored and treasured them for their own innate goodness.

He had trials and tribulations and he met them head-on while he monitored a flock that he adopted. Spending hours at the bedside of firemen, comforting their families, administering to the victims of AIDS when others shunned them, offering solace to strangers who became his friends, seeing goodness in others - these are just the highlights of this saintly man's life.

I cried and yet I was comforted. Michael Daly tells of the tragedy and he blends humor and laughter throughout the book. Father Judge always balanced his ministry with laughter.

Michael Daly is an excellent writer. However, his admiration for Father Mychal gave this book "heart."

If you do not read another book for the rest of the year, read this one. It will restore your faith, hope and charity towards one another.

I recommend this book highly.

That's what this book clearly is - a labor of love, a probing biography by a Daily News columnist. The author delves deeply into Judge's Irish upbringing, the Catholic church, the Fire Dept, and New York City politics. A Pulitzer-worthy book.

This book brought tears to my eyes. We know that Mychal Judge's life was tragically ended on September 11, 2001 but this book told his life's story in a very real and touching way. The lessons of Mychal Judge's life will stay with you for a lifetime.

I wasn't sure about this book because I had heard so many things about Mychal Judge, he's gay, he's not, he's a closet case, he's a showboat, he's a saint. Despite some critical review I read, I found this book to be beautiful, credible and powerful. It answered a number of questions I had and some I had not asked. I not only learned about Mychal Judge, I learned about the firefighters he loved to serve and I will never again take for granted the risks they make on behalf of the public as a routine part of their day. There were times when reading when I wanted things to move along, but the wonderful prose and the detailed descriptions of anguish, hope, faith and love among the firefighters and their families is not to be missed. Nor is the person of Mychal Judge himself; a wise, caring, flawed and complex person, who's defects of character he overcome by sheer love for those about him. The author's access to Mychal's personal materials - diaries, journals, calendars - gives both detail and credibility to his conclusions and builds to a the tragic, yes somehow redmptive, conclusion. Maybe the best thing I can say about Mychal is that reading of his life made me want to be a better person, more giving, more charitable to the dissenter, more willing to see the hurt behind the anger.

I found "The Book of Mychal" an interesting and informative book. In addition to that, it moved me. I felt that I understood probably to a small extent some of the situations in which firefighters find themselves. I also began to understand the connections that they feel. I think that Daly details the life of a chaplain also---at bedsides, with families, and with the church. It's one of the books that when I finished reading it, I felt, "I want to write the author and say 'good job'." In addition, I also wanted to say that to Mychal Judge.

This beautifully written book highlights Mychal Judge's ability to harness the power of human kindness and compassion, and reminds the reader of the frailty of human life. Despite being confronted with repeated tragedies as Fire Chaplain, Fr. Mychal Judge inspired others to appreciate even life's smallest miracles. This book offers an honest perspective on Mychal Judge, the man and priest, and reminds readers that the human spirit can triumph regardless of what life may have in store. An inspiring read.

I so enjoyed this book, found it hard to put down. I wish I had had the privilege of meeting Fr. Judge. Amazing man and a great story.

Well written and sensitive considering how Father Mychal lost his life.

Fascinating read about Father Mychal Judge and his life history. Another tragedy from 9/11


I don't mind the library binding on the book, it will last longer for me.

This book answers the question: What makes a man a man? Read the biography of a man who devoted his life to others and kept a part of himself secret, a secret that if revelaed may have isolated him from some of the very people he elected to help. How does one define a good man? Read the story of Mychal Judge and decide for yourself.

Daly is fairly.. lets call it, "imaginative", when it comes to writing about Fr. Judge - he spends an awful lot of time romanticizing about the man's hands, and a preposterous amount of time devoted to trying to develop a romantic subplot into Judge's life that stretches rather beyond believability.

I feel I know a lot less about Fr. Judge and a whole lot more about Michael Daly (and his odd, almost fetishistic preference of Judge over any and every other clergyman referenced in the book, all of whom are considered rather unfavorably) - which isn't what I'd hoped for out of this book at all.

I have no idea whether or not Judge was gay, but there's little evidence of it, even by this book's rather thin evidentiary standards. Daly as a narrator actually comes off as quite hostile to the Catholic Church underneath it all, and his reverence for Judge does little to reassure you about the veracity of the stories he's telling. They seem to be designed to admit only one possible (and hard-to-really-accept) notion about Mychal Judge: that he was a liberal gay activist and noble closet-case whose transcendental faith in Life (not Jesus?) was more important to him than the stuffy old Church he worked for and its silly, restrictive mysticism.

If you already find that easy to believe, you'll love the Fr. Mychal Judge that Daly's invented.

This is not the book on Judge you'll want to buy for your Catholic friends and family. This book really belongs more to the credulous among us, who like tabloid-sensational hero-stories about gay priests trapped in the so-called straight life, harbor some pretty deep-seated distortions about Catholic life and faith, or are otherwise into hyperbolic, revisionist narratives. "The Book of Mychal" reads like a "dramatic re-enactment" of some gay ghost story a la A&E, moreso than a careful, balanced biography of a guy who may get declared a saint sooner or later.

Weird stuff gets published all the time - if you really need to buy this, it belongs on your "homosexual priest fantasy-hagiography" shelf. There are better books out there on the guy, and some of them are actually biographical.