Customer Reviews

The Messiah of Morris Avenue

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Film and music buffs know right off who Tony Hendra is --- he played "Ian Faith," manager of the band in the immortal mockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap. Readers in the millions know him by a more recent hit, his bestselling spiritual memoir, FATHER JOE.

Forgiveness --- complete, soul-filling, heavenly forgiveness --- is at the heart of FATHER JOE. It is also the soul-satisfying centerpiece of THE MESSIAH OF MORRIS AVENUE. It couldn't be any other way. This novel is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I mean, literally.

This time around, He is Jose Francisco Lorcan Kennedy --- known as Jay. He's an immigrant's son from the Bronx. He wears a hooded sweatshirt. He's not handsome in any conventional way.

His story, this time around, is told by an unbeliever, Johnny Greco. Back in the day, Johnny won the Pulitzer Prize; now he's a tabloid hack on the lookout for a good story about a freak. And in America in the not-so-distant future, the Second Coming could be Johnny's ticket to ride.

Consider: America is now a full-blown theocracy. There's a "Chaplain-in-Chief" of the Armed Forces. The second "L" has been removed from the Hollywood sign, and the country's most successful evangelist hosts the Academy Awards. Here's a hit movie: Sophie's Free Choice, in which "a young mother pregnant with twins, is told by her (feminist) doctor that she must abort one of them or die." (Luckily, she finds Jesus and "becomes an instrument of divine retribution.") Sex is for child creation only. Gay sex is a felony --- TV sports no longer shows close-ups of the snap in pro football. BMW makes a car called the Babylon. There is a Great Wall of Trump Towers.

In this mindlessly happy culture, who cares --- really cares --- about the poor? Jay. He uses the language of the street, but in every other way, this is the Gospel we know. And the same mission: "to reveal the God in humanity and the humanity in God, by teaching, healing, and, if necessary, dying."

Needless to say, Jay is not exactly on the same page as the American Church, which endorses all wars, is excited by the death penalty and has long forgotten that every soul is equally precious to God. As Jay says, "I come, first and foremost, for the losers."

Hendra stacks the deck against his satiric version of the evangelical Christian movement in America. He gives Jay all the good lines --- "There's no more convincing argument for intelligent design than evolution" --- and all of the miracles. Which is just as well: We all know the story, especially the ending. The success of a book like this lies entirely in the execution.

THE MESSIAH OF MORRIS AVENUE is exciting reading because Hendra knows where satire ends and tedium begins. His novel is a hybrid: partly comic, partly dead-serious. In other hands, that formula could have all the allure of a cold souffle. Hendra, luckily for us, is a master --- for a serious book, it has you laughing out loud all the way through. Well, until the climax, anyway.

God so loved Jose Francisco Lorcan Kennedy that He sent Him to save His children. You'll love Jay too. And think about Jay long after The End. (Or is it, as Hendra wonders, The Beginning?)

--- Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth

As with all brilliant satire, there is a fine line between reality and the satirical version of events which unfolds in The Messiah of Morris Avenue, which is a rollicking read. In the U.S. today, that line seems to be getting finer every day, when lawmakers routinely take Christian teaching, revise it according to their own religious beliefs (which are often anything but Christian) and then put it all to work for the greater glory of the politician.

Whether you are a believer that Jesus is God, or not, this book is important for every thinking American. Because Jesus was a historical figure who said some very important things about love, hope, charity, and forgiveness that an awful lot of people seemed to find true. These truths have been perverted for political gain by some of the most un-Christian people on the planet. While the story lets us laugh at that, it also forces us to think about the deadly serious notion that we are being run by people who stop at nothing -- they certainly don't stop at co-opting the true teaching of Christ. I guess we have to try and forgive them....but we certainly don't have to blindly accept their behavior.

A great book on an important subject.

I just finished this wonderful book and am a little too overwhelmed to really write what I would like. For anyone who has felt a spiritual touch that changed his life, it will bring memories and reinforcement. For those who just hate the way wealth and power ignore the poor, it will be a tonic (but not a cure). For those who love humanity but cannot yet believe in miracles (like the narrator), it will warm their hearts and maybe bring a tear. For those who, like me, agree that Jesus did not approve of killing, read chapter 24. I don't know Mr. Hendras' religious beliefs and respect the fact that each person must make his own relationship with God. However, as a previously relunctant, but now fervent, believer myself, I think he has got it very close to right; and it is beautiful.

Welcome to the satirical warmth and bite of Tony Hendra's fiction. Does modern Christianity seem more like a political party than a call to love and grace? Do open-minded liberals often seem closed to issues of faith? Hendra covers these issues and more in his ribald retelling of the Gospel story.

"The Messiah of Morris Avenue" is told through the eyes of a cynical reporter, Johnny Greco. When Johnny hears that another self-proclaimed messiah is pounding the streets of America's northeastern states, he hopes to use this popular figure as a thorn in the side of the self-righteous religious/political leaders. What he doesn't know is that Jose Francisco, the Jesus wannabe, will turn his thinking upside down and shake him to the core.

Along the way, Hendra gives us wonderful moments of insight about modern culture, spirituality, and politics. He also--intentionally--pushes buttons and challenges viewpoints. Although I don't agree with every iota of his modern-day Jesus, the story pinpoints the core problems with cultural Christianity in America. In so doing, it makes us laugh, ponder, fume, and maybe even soften in all the right spots.

In the future, America is a theocracy run by fundamentalist Christians who passed laws outlawing everything under God. Meanwhile Christ returns, but not in the acceptable way the ruling theocrats demanded. Instead he does so in the South Bronx where he wears the human garb of the son of a female Guatemalan immigrant and an Irish father who is never around. Jos begins to obtain a street following.

Jos performs miracles including one that leads to jail time in Connecticut for curing a leukemia victim without a medical license. He quickly persuades cynical journalist Johnny Grecco that he is the savior though his name is anglicized to Jay. . Shockingly Jay insists that all we need is love and tolerance for others to live a holy existence as expected by God the mother. On the other hand he detests war and could not care less about intelligent design, creationism or any other label.

Meanwhile the renowned Reverend detests such blasphemy and wants Jay stopped. The Reverend seeks a modern day Judas to betray Jay. He thinks he found his silver lining with Grecco's desire for Pulitzer level fame and employs Texas style justice when Jay commits treason by preaching blasphemous pacifism when this country is about to invade Israel.

This sharp satirical tale rips up the fundamentalist right by tearing away the veneer of euphemistic 3 second bite labels and shreds even more the afraid to say the L word liberals. The irony of this cautionary futuristic tale is that the satirical elements seem light when compared with Jay's message of give peace a chance in a world in which war is the solution (by macho bring em on armchair generals). Tony Hendra provides a thought provoking thriller that warns that if unchecked, America could turn into an intolerant United States of Theocracy.

Harriet Klausner

This book ambushed me.

It starts as a satire of the religious right, consumerism, militarism, Big Oil, the Bushes, etc. by positing an America a few decades from now that has continued and even accelerated its hard turn to the right of the past 20 years.

Then when you're reading along, smiling at the elegant turns of phrase and scathing picture of an America only Pat Robertson could love, you suddenly come face to face with Jesus. Only it's the real Jesus, not the one that George Bush leans on to justify destroying Social Security or attacking Saddam Hussein.

I have to say I was deeply moved--even to the point of a few tears welling up while reading it on an airplane.

As a long lapsed Catholic and ex-altar boy, I thought I was done with Christianity. But this book made me think about it once again.

I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.

If you want a reminder of what real spirituality looks like served up with some fun and laughs, read this book. I guarantee you'll still be thinking about it months from now.

that's pretty much it - this absolutely brilliant satirical parable brings to life kevin phillips equally brilliant 'american theocracy' by creating a real christ figure, charismatic, gentle, loving, funny and uncomprising, who completely exposes the sadistic genocidal caricature the so-called christian right promises its followers. if you care at all about religion - christian or not - get this book.

This book truly give a new meaning to WWJD and in fact provokes much though as to What Would I Do? if in fact Jesus came back again. This is a wonderful wonderful book and has truly refreshed my soul! I recommend it to anyone needing a boost in their spirituality a well as their humanity.

Suppose there really were a "Second Coming", an authentic new Messiah, in the midst of a self-righteous, politicized, and commercialized Christianity. It's not an entirely new idea, but Tony Hendra gives it real life. He doesn't stop with the obvious. No, the Messiah does not approve. But there's more to it.

Hendra's Messiah is "Jay" ("Jose" or even "Hay-soos"). But the contrast between Jay and establishment Christianity that left an impression on me was not that the Messiah isn't a well-dressed white guy. It's that his Christianity is simple. It's not an ideology, a way to claim superiority over other people, or a badge of righteousness. It's a way to live moment by moment and a way to treat other people, moment by moment. There's very little of "God said this" or "God said that" -- Jay wants us to treat each other well. He won't use television, movies, or other electronic media to spread his message -- it's spread person to person, face to face, live. "The Revelation," he says, "will not be televised."

Hendra's narrator, Johnny Greco, is an "unbeliever." But what he doesn't quite believe is that Jay is truly the Messiah; what I think he does believe is the simple message that Jay brings. That seems fine with Jay, but the problem is that not everyone reacts that way. They want proof that he is the Messiah. Heal people, perform miracles. Jay heals. But it never ends. That person may have been a plant. Heal somebody else. Prove yourself.

Nothing will be sufficient -- faith is an action, not the consequence of a demonstration of proof. The message is lost. It's not Jay's authenticity, it's just his message that really matters. Do we really need a Messiah to prove himself to us before we can accept that we should treat each other well?

Tony Hendra may not be a familiar name, but he's been around. He played the band manager in Spinal Tap, and he's an accomplished satirist. I haven't mentioned his farcical depictions of Christian leaders and politicians -- but this is a fun read. I sailed through it -- it's written with both humor and substance. It's a good book.

What would Jesus be? Not what would he do so much, but what would he say, were he to return today? Tony Hendra brings heart, wit, insight and prose to this quick, quirky and strangely moving tale of faith, religion, politics and spirituality. Hendra puts a Latino Jesus born in the Bronx who job is get the word out that his words from 2000 years ago were a bit misunderstood. His aura of presence, his miracles, his words and his actions reflect the spiritual stories as we have them only, in the mouth of Jose, they inspire a freshness of love by God of all God's children of very creed and race and nationality. Nothing is unforgivable because God is love. It's a book that might tick-off a few people, too, which means maybe you ought to read it.