Customer Reviews

Fatherless

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I could write a few thousand words about why I like this book. I lost sleep because I couldn't put it down. Here's my recommendation: Christmas is coming soon so if you are leading a ministry team at your parish that doesn't seem to have enough zeal, get them this book. If you know priests who are burned-out, get them this book. If you have family members who seem to be questioning, get them this book. If your kids are aged 15-35, get them this book. If you know anyone who is thinking about leaving the Church, get them this book. If you want to change someone's opinion about the Catholic Church, get them this book. Finally, if you just want an exciting read that captures the state of the Catholic Church in the US over the last two generations, get this book!

Before I'd even started reading this book, I thumbed through the back pages at Mr. Gail's fabulous bibliography. I was delighted to see a number of works and/or authors with which I am very familiar:
* Archbishop Chaput's "Render unto Caesar"
* Dr. Chris Kahlenborn's "Breast Cancer : Its Link to Abortion and the Birth Control Pill"
* Bogomir Kuhar, Pharm.D. - executive director of Pharmacists for Life
* William E. May, Ph.D.
* Leslie Woodcock Tentler's "Catholics and Contraception: An American History"
* George Weigel's "Witness to Hope"
* Christopher West (He has written and spoken extensively about Pope John Paul II's "The Theology of the Body." An updated translation of the late Holy Father's teaching has been released as "Man and Woman He Created Them.")

"Fatherless" is the tale of three Catholic families from a suburban Philadelphia parish, who turn to Father John Sweeney for spiritual guidance. While they do not use this terminology, they are each struggling with how to live out their "universal call to holiness." Though the novel's set in the first decade of the magnificent pontificate of John Paul the Great, Father Sweeney is initially unable to respond to his parishioners with the wisdom of spiritual treasures, such as Veritatis Splendor or Christifideles Laici. He tries to offer a "Catholicism Lite," when what is needed is the Truth which will set them free! We assume that he has failed to challenge himself and his congregation with such "hard sayings," as the evils of
* contraception,
* divorce/remarriage (without annullment),
* exploitation of workers,
* failing to bring the Truth into the political sphere,
* failing to treat nutrition/hydration as ordinary care,
* IVF,
* missing Sunday Mass,
* misuse of our sexuality (outside or inside marriage), and
* receiving Holy Communion outside the state of grace.

I would like to offer a teenie, tiny, minor criticism about a Church history, which is offered by "Father McManus" toward the latter part of this masterpiece. I think that this section would have been better served by using Thomas Woods, Ph.D.'s "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" as its primary reference (Though it is a difficult work, Eamon Duffy's "The Stripping Of The Altars" raises enormous questions about our assumptions about pre-Reformation Catholicism.).

Without question, this was one of the best books which I have EVER read!!!


MARCH 14, 2010 ADDENDUM
I just came across Adrian Ng's thought provoking review of 2/16/10, from which I quote:
* "First, the good news. This book presents the Pro-life message in a very readable way. Now, the bad news. It tries to cover the topic of exorcism but on that, it is an absolute disaster. Although there was an external insertion in my copy to clarify that the Catholic Church does not teach us to offer ourselves to receive demonic spirits from another person...." (If I understand correctly, Mr. Ng acknowledges that there was indeed an effort to provide a clarification/corrective.) Father Thomas Euteneuer is the president of Human Life International. Mr. Ng's review has reminded me of my desire to read Father Euteneuer's "Exorcism and the Church Militant" (which does not yet appear to be available through Amazon). I will take Mr. Ng's words to heart.

Be that said, to simply say that this "book presents the Pro-life message in a very readable way" does NOT do it justice. I wish to reiterate that the author masterfully tackles certain subject matter:
"* contraception,
* divorce/remarriage (without annullment),
* exploitation of workers,
* failing to bring the Truth into the political sphere,
* failing to treat nutrition/hydration as ordinary care,
* IVF,
* missing Sunday Mass,
* misuse of our sexuality (outside or inside marriage), and
* receiving Holy Communion outside the state of grace."

FATHERLESS is one of the best Catholic novels I have read in a long time. It focuses on the spiritual journey and personal purgation of Fr. John Sweeney--from being a "good" but mediocre priest to becoming the priest that God wants him to be. Along the way, Brian Gail interweaves the stories of several families in Fr. John's parish and--by doing so--captures what has happened to the Catholic Church in America since the 1960's and Vatican II.

If that sounds boring, I assure you, it ISN'T. Mr. Gail has a talent for bringing home the crises in American families through the description of their very personal battles...together with their failures and successes. The episodes that took place were so captivating that I found myself turning the pages quickly to find out what happened next--often well past my normal bedtime--thereby causing severe bouts of sleep deprivation.

FATHERLESS was not only thoroughly researched, it was a well-told tale that held my interest from the first page to its satisfying conclusion. Brian J. Gail is a very talented writer and an excellent story-teller. I hope to see more from his gifted pen.

I will begin with the positives. I really wanted to love this book, knowing ahead of time the important themes that the author planned to tackle. As far as the objective truths are concerned, the connection between sexual morality, the family and the decline of the American culture, the book is dead on. I congratulate him on his competent writing style, his research, and his ability to create interesting albeit inconsistent characters. That inconsistency is why I need to give this book such a low rating. The plotline, which pivots on the behaviors and attitudes of its main characters, is not credible. The level of faith the characters supposedly profess is inconsistent with their actions, decisions and resulting conundrums, leading to a hopelessness that make them unreasonably weak and ultimately unlikeable. It seems the author does not quite understand people as much as he understands the issues he is grappling with in this work.

As a devout, JPII loving Catholic, I have to say that the catholicity of these couples is totally contrived. A Catholic couple, for example, who is devout enough to pray about family decisions and invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will not be confounded morally in the way one particular couple in the novel is. Also, the average Catholic (unfortunately) would not consult a pastor on work related dilemmas, which all three main male couples do. (Not that it would never happen, but it is atypical) Finally, although there are some pretty inadequate priests out there, I would bet money that you would not find one as woefully unaware of the teachings of the Church as the main character seems to be. Mediocrity among priests comes more from lack of faith than lack of knowledge. He's like a doctor who can't quite tell you where the appendix is.

Perhaps the author should write nonfiction instead of fiction.

Within this site there are a number of reviews that offer a great detail of information for both the story and for the facts that are shared with the reader. So I shall not reiterate much of what you find in those reviews. In summary, the book is outstanding.
The facts of using artifical birth control and its impact upon women is greatly documented. There is also a strong thread regarding the results that can logically (though subtley) occur when a person vacates their moral duty as they evaluate such decisions.
The author has obviously drawn upon substantial (and probably very painful) real life experience regarding the personal pain for a parent of a mentally ill child. Plus there is very believable portrayal of life in the fast lane of Madison Avenue, which again represents the experience(s) of the author. All of this lends credence and belief to the setting, the story and the facts contained therein.

You may be a person that does not agree with the information or of the moral responsibilities that the author clearly points to within his story. If you are however, an open-minded person of good will, then you will find this story compelling and the facts worthy of your consideration. In fact it may lead you to change your position on certain aspects of American life.
I greatly enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the story, and the opportunity it provides to absorb important information within a compelling plot. I greatly recommend that you read this book.

The title of this book is so appropriate and it speaks clearly to the importance of priestly or spiritual fatherhood. This novel also illustrates the essential role of fathers being physically present to their children, as well as being strong examples in character and virtue.

The setting is 1980's Philadelphia. The main character, Fr. John Sweeney, is an affable, down to earth, well-intentioned young priest who, at the beginning of the novel, is more concerned with being accepted and liked than telling his parishioners the "hard sayings." After Fr. John experiences a profound spiritual conversion in Rome, he returns home to his parish and gives an outstanding homily I wish every Catholic priest in the world would preach to his parishioners at least once. "The hard sayings" are not things that most Catholics wish to hear. Most Catholics in the pews every week do not want to hear that contraception is immoral. They do not want to hear that living together before marriage is wrong.

This was a challenging read mostly because the novel presents us with such dark situations: adultery, poor counsel by priests, consequences of contraception, priest sex abuse, possession and exorcism, mental illness, suicide, depression etc. Just about every kind of sin makes an appearance in this book. This is not a "light" read nor is this a book in which "everyone will live happily ever after." That being said, I applaud the author for tackling some very real, timely and important issues in a novel which often reads more like a non-fiction book.

There were a few anachronisms and some minor typos, but overall the author did an excellent job researching the information.

As the author of two novels which promote the Church's teachings on sex, I understand what Brian Gail and the publisher were trying to accomplish with this novel and I think they succeeded in many respects. Anyone who reads this book can only come away with increased awareness of why so many Catholics have turned away from faithful church teaching.

I recommend this novel to anyone who wishes to read an interesting and compelling story, but also to understand why so many Catholics have ignored the Church's teachings on sexuality and marriage and why obedience on these matters is essential for our spiritual well being. Because of the mature themes, I would recommend this book for ages 16 and up.

Ellen Gable Hrkach
award-winning author
In Name Only

My husband isn't a big reader, but I picked this out for him hoping it would capture his imagination and he stayed up late a few nights in a row to finish it and then so did I. It is an insightful, timely story weaving the weakening of a spiritual fatherhood and its consequences in the area of natural fatherhood. Heartwarming isn't a good description - it is a very real story that leaves you with hope, wonder but not without tears and helplessness as life can often do and for me it also leaves me looking forward to the next 2 in this series!

The book was hard to put down, so I didn't. The author wove several moral dilemmas of our current culture thoroughout the 500 plus pages that kept me at it until it was completed. It read like a much shorter novel. Even though the book was fiction, the problems and situations the main characters found themselves were for the most part believeable and in one way or another could and or have happened in real life.

The book speaks not only to Catholics but to any and all Christians and non-Christians. It leaves much for one to reflect upon and ponder.

I can't wait for the sequal to find the - "rest of the story."

If you're an avid reader, you may find the author's style a bit lacking, but if you can get past that, it's definitely a good read (similar to others, I too stayed up a bit late just to read a few more chapters). I'm not in the habit of giving away movie or book plots. But I will say, the book has some nice apologetics (explanations) about the Catholic faith on several different fronts that I think (hope) can actually benefit people in the midst of a good plot. I enjoyed the book!

Excellent book. Shows the modern ethical dilemnas and the bitter fruit of the culture of death. Also full of hope.