God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth (Paperback)

~ Christopher Buckley (Author), John Tierney (Author), Random House Inc. (Author) "HE DAY BEGAN, AS ALL DAYS at the Monastery of Cana began, with the tolling of the bells and the shuffling of sandaled feet across..." (more)
Key Phrases: Brother Bob, Saint Thad, Mount Cana (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The whole point of a monastic existence is to put aside worldly things. Brother Ty, the narrator of God Is My Broker, has put them aside with a vengeance, and his task is all the more impressive when you consider just how many he used to possess. "I had traded the life of a Wall Street trader," he tells us, "for the contemplative life, my briefcase for a rosary, the roar of the trading floor for Gregorian chant." Hunkered down in a rural monastery, he seems finally to have escaped the iniquities of Mammon, along with rush-hour traffic and a major drinking problem.

A vow of poverty, however, isn't what it used to be. The monastery of Cana is falling to pieces. And Cana Nouveau--the wine the brothers have always produced to sustain themselves--has hit a new, undrinkable low. As the desperate abbot looks to Deepak Chopra and Anthony Robbins for advice, Brother Ty begins to get financial tips from the Supreme Insider: "That day God had revealed Himself to be our broker." Sometimes, of course, the Lord speaks in mysterious ways. Even a stray line from the Song of Solomon may encourage the narrator to take a flier on Apple Computer stock: "Comfort me with apples. It sounded like a 'buy' recommendation to me." By heeding his divine broker at every turn, however, Brother Ty manages to transform the monastery into a financial powerhouse. His story amounts to the funniest bit of ecclesiastical satire since J. F. Powers's Morte D'Urban. What's more, the authors send up the entire self-help industry with hilarious expertise, concluding God Is My Broker with what even Deepak Chopra would recognize as a home truth: "The only way to get rich from get-rich books is to write one." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Billed as a self-help novel, this satire features Brother Ty (for Tycoon) and his wondrous advice for getting rich with God's approval. Optioned by New Line Pictures.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (March 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060977612
• ISBN-13: 978-0060977610
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #443,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The secrets of self help books revealed., August 4, 2000

By	taking a rest - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: God Is My Broker : A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth (Hardcover)

Christopher Buckley is an accomplished writer of several genres, although his humor and wit when committed to paper are very special, and at times especially sharp edged. Sharp, as only a quick intellect, a novel view on life, and a willingness to bring humor where others fear to tread can be. As the Son of one of the most accomplished men of letters, he has created a style that is all his own, and which frequently, one imagines, causes Buckley The Elder to wince.

The photo on the inside of the jacket is a good visual summary of Mr. Buckley and John Tierney as could be staged. Taken, I believe, in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral a monk enigmatically robed and seated in the back of a limo, resembles one of the cloaked Jedi Knights of Star Wars fame. No Jedi he, as this is the Brother Ty that will lead you, the reader, to riches. Bracketed on either side of the Monk, stand the authors; both nattily dressed, raising their glasses of wine, more as a challenge than a salute. I am not familiar with Mr. Tierney's work, but whatever he contributed to this book is very well done.

Divine inspiration guides Brother Ty as he seeks to replenish the coffers of the Monastery he has joined, after alcohol and his failure as a stockbroker brought him to a contemplative life. However what he finds is an Order that is rapidly becoming extinct, the Monks are on food stamps, the treasury depleted, and it falls to him to save it.

What follows is a wickedly written satire on self-help books in general, and those that concentrate on business in particular. But this book is different, for it is infused with the divine, and as He created the world in 6 days and then rested, His picking of stocks and commodities not only is a sure play, it is here for all to learn.

Another great work from Mr. Buckley, this time with his co-conspirator, Mr. Tierney.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buckley Effectively Punctures Self Help Balloon, May 14, 1998

By	Robert Derenthal "bucherwurm" (California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: God Is My Broker : A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth (Hardcover)

A few years ago Wendy Kaminer wrote a book, I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, that took on self help books and programs. Now Christopher Buckley assigns himself the same task writing a fictional account of a monastery headed by an abbot who is a devotee of Deepak Chopra. It's a fluffy, hilarious, yet incisive probe that makes a lot of self help writers and their readers look silly. Its a slim book, but with about 3 laughs per page you get you're money's worth. Don't read it if you are a fan of Chopra, Robbins or Covey though, as I'm sure it will stunt your spiritual growth, and set you back on your path to make millions of dollars in this lifetime.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the bleating of sheep!, June 9, 2004

By	Inchoatus.com "Inchoatus.com" (Greeley, CO United States) - See all my reviews

If you're at this site, then chances are you're sort of sick of business books. Probably, that's a kind way of saying it. Seeing another book by Stephen Covey or some other idiot spouting out laws, truths, and platitudes in big print, wide-margined, brightly colored business books inscribed with fulsome praise from every other author of big print, wide-margined, brightly colored business books probably makes you ill like you just ate something slimy that fell out of the nostril of a leprous hippopotamus.

Or else it makes you so angry that the rest of the business world (that is to say, all those bleating sheep that come up with words like "consens" and "mute points") expects you to converse in this stuff that you have to read it and be able to remember authors when you could be using your time more wisely like beating your head over and over and over again with bowling pin.

If that's the case, this is the book for you.

Buckley and Tierney have written the book that everyone who ever wanted to scream in despair and fury at The Oz Principle can worship. It is an excoriation of all the senseless business books that infect our lives.

It is the story of a group of monks who begin to become wealthy by pure happenstance (or perhaps through miracles) and find themselves suddenly regarded as business men. So, to run their business they hire marketing people, public relations people, and all begin to read books by Deepak Chopra and the like.

The result, as you might imagine, is not a very sound fiscal enterprise.

The wit is sharp and biting. It is required reading for anyone who ever read one of the 7 habits and thought that their life was changed.

It's an amazingly fresh example of why acumen, expertise, and intelligence can never be truly replaced.

It teaches the businessman to ignore the bleating of sheep.

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