Things You Get for Free

by Michael McGirr

Things You Get for Free is a travelogue rich with charm and wisdom and sparkling with its author's singular wit. As a priest, Michael McGirr decides to take his charming and inimitable mum on the honeymoon she and her late husband never got around to having. He uses his six-week vacation to take her on a tour of Europe. Between meditating on their hilarious and illuminating travels and on the historical figures who dot their voyage -- everyone from Hemingway to Michelangelo to the quietly heroic people who inspire Michael's special brand of faith -- McGirr plunges deep into his family history, unearthing sickness and instability but also moments of great love and perseverance. Things You Get for Free is a deeply moving spiritual and intellectual journey, proving the truth behind a mother's favorite saying: "I know more than you think I do."

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Biography

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Michael McGirr is the author of Things You Get for Free and The Lost Art of Sleep. His book Bypass: The Story of a Road has been a popular Year 12 English text in Victoria. He has reviewed over 900 books for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is currently dean of faith at St Kevin’s College in Melbourne.

Reviews

[Nell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am SO HAPPY that I have finished this book so that now I can read some books I actually want to read. I blame my dad for forcing me to read this dull and rambly travelogue/memoir, because this week he gave me an e-reader as an early Christmas/graduation gift, which was awesome, and then I found out that I can BORROW BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY ONTO MY MAGICAL DEVICE, which was AWESOME. So I borrowed this book pretty much at random just to see if it would work, and it did work, which was SUPER MAXIMUM AWESOME. Unfortunately I then felt compelled to read the book. Here is a conversation which occurred more than once while I was reading this book:

Me: Oh wow this book is pretty bad, I can't wait to finish it. I am going to have to READ HARD to get this over with quickly.
Ben: Why are you reading it if you don't like it?
Me: IT IS ON MY E-READER AND I LOVE MY E-READER.
Ben: But doesn't your e-reader also have like a million other books that you actually do want to read?
Me: Yes, but I only have this one from the library for two weeks.

Anyway, this book is not offensively terrible but if you feel like reading it I would recommend that you consider reading something else instead, like maybe The Dirt: Confessions Of The World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Motley Crue or some poetry or something.

[Jane Routley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely warm-hearted book about a gentle warm hearted man with a fine eye for the eccentric. Lovely piece of memoir. Read it as an audio book.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly entertaining, moving, informative and interesting memoir of a trip to Europe, made by McGirr and his elderly mother, to re-create the honeymoon his parents planned but never went on. It's so much more than a highly entertaining travelogue: it wanders through family history, literary and historical figures, faith/religion (he's a former Jesuit priest), and reflections on (amongst a great many other subjects) depression, heroism, travel brochures and whingeing fellow travellers. Excellent!

[Tina T.]

Things You Get for Free is a tender, quietly humorous memoir that finds grace in the ordinary and meaning in the moments money can’t buy. Michael McGirr’s reflections woven through travel, faith, and his deeply human relationship with his mother offer readers warmth without sentimentality and insight without preaching.

With wit and gentle wisdom, this book reminds us that love, presence, and shared experience are the true souvenirs of any journey. It’s a reflective, life affirming read for anyone who believes the most valuable gifts are often the ones we don’t plan for

[Tc · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a well written story of a former Jesuit priest's journey with his mother across Europe. A little Jesuit history thrown in, with travel stories, tracing family history, and nothing to ostentatious or pretentious about it. The title had me thinking at the end. Thank you Mr McGirr for sharing your story.

[Hilda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading this book about Fr. Michael and his life adventures. Very inspirational and he was pretty comical in writing about his life.

[Kathi Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so fun!!!

[Highlyeccentric · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had been on my TBR list for a few years: I think I kept putting it off because closer inspection reminded me it was by a Jesuit priest. At any rate I was craving travel books recently, and ordered a copy. It made *excellent* plane reading, but was not actually a very good travel book. The tour of Europe was pretty standard and not the focus of the book: rather it ranged over McGirr's family and his early experiences in the priesthood. In that respect, I liked it a lot: he was surprisingly honest about the mix of noble and unhealthy drives that sent him into the priesthood in the first place. His narrative is not shy of his faith but not preachy, either, and when it comes to Europe and the places he and his mother went, it's massively nerdy. McGirr was a Jesuit, they tend to be nerds. It was like talking to the best kind of minister: yeah, a bit uncomfortable in places because we no longer share certain common assumptions of christianity, but also fascinating.

I left my copy with my Mum, who will probably puzzle over the religiosity, and it might also have been terrible timing, since it deals with the death of parents in some depth. Still, it's a book about a bloke who loves his mum, she ought to like it.

[Cat. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is from my Books to Read list, and I can't remember where I heard about it. It is the story of the author and his mom traveling to Europe, but also the story of his relationship with his father, who died when he was 12.

McGirr was, at the time of the trip, a Australian Jesuit priest, and that colors some of his comments about the trip in a way I hadn't considered, especially in England. Ostensibly, this is a travel book. In reality, however, it is about traveling one's own history, and that of one's parents. It's not a particularly deep book, but it has a few insights, and the reader gets to know and appreciate the author. His mom is finely drawn primarily because of the amusing comments she makes. She is at once fiercely practical and daringly satiric.

The book ends with McGirr's return to regular life, but the flap says he's a "former priest" so I'd like to know what happened between the trip and the publication date. Time to do some research.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things You get For Free 13 Michael McGirr - Things You Get for Free is a travelogue rich with charm and wisdom and sparkling with its author's singular wit. As a priest, Michael McGirr decides to take his charming and inimitable mum on the honeymoon she and her late husband never got around to having. He uses his six-week vacation to take her on a tour of Europe. Between meditating on their hilarious and illuminating travels and on the historical figures who dot their voyage -- everyone from Hemingway to Michelangelo to the quietly heroic people who inspire Michael's special brand of faith.

McGirr plunges deep into his family history, unearthing sickness and instability but also moments of great love and perseverance. Things You Get for Free is a deeply moving spiritual and intellectual journey, proving the truth behind a mother's favorite saying: "I know more than you think I do."

[Ana Rebelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

O título do livro acaba por revelar muito do seu conteúdo. Things You Get For Free retrata a história de uma família, o seu passado, presente e futuro. Esta história é narrada ao mesmo tempo que se desvenda a viagem de Michael e a sua mãe pela Europa, uma viagem planeado há mais de 40 anos pelos pais do autor e que ele finalmente decide tornar realidade quando o seu pai morre e a sua mãe vê esse sonho por concretizar.
É uma história real, da realidade da vida do autor, e vale a pena ler porque acabamos por nos identificar com muitos momentos retratados. Mostra-nos que a vida é finita e devemos aproveitá-la ao máximo, especialmente com aqueles que amamos.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was disappointed as the book wasn’t at all what I expected. I think the title is misleading or maybe I just didn’t get it. I felt like I was supposed to read between the lines. He’s traveling with his mother, but his thoughts always go back to his father as he remembers him from his childhood, as though he’s trying to enlighten us, but can’t come right out and say it. Although there are some quotable moments in the book, I generally found it to be boring. It seems like he just skimmed the surface but never got to the heart of anything, as though he wanted to keep the reader guessing.

[Gillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that defies easy description - part memoir, part travel narrative and partly a walk through a family's history. The writing style is easily digestible and often quite touching but there is also enough humour thrown in to balance out the inevitable sadness that comes through in any family's story. Not sure it's one I'll read again but it is worth a first read.

[David Barney · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting book. The author tells his experiences of traveling around Europe with his mum and coming to terms with his father's death. The things you get for free, can sometimes be the best things you get.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

McGirr uses a trip to Europe with his mother to examine his parents' lives and his own faith in the context of the sites he sees and he does none of them justice.

[Foxtrot · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yawn! Read about half, hoping it would get better. It didn't.

[Jacinta Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the slow and true development of relationship.