Wheat That Springeth Green

by J.F. Powers, Katherine A. Powers (Introduction)

Wheat That Springeth Green, J. F. Powers’s beautifully realized final work, is a comic foray into the commercialized wilderness of modern American life. Its hero, Joe Hackett, is a high school track star who sets out to be a saint. But seminary life and priestly apprenticeship soon damp his ardor, and by the time he has been given a parish of his own he has traded in his hair shirt for the consolations of baseball and beer. Meanwhile Joe’s higher-ups are pressing for an increase in profits from the collection plate, suburban Inglenook’s biggest business wants to launch its new line of missiles with a blessing, and not all that far away, in Vietnam, a war is going on. Joe wants to duck and cover, but in the end, almost in spite of himself, he is condemned to do something right.J. F. Powers was a virtuoso of the American language with a perfect ear for the telling clich? and an unfailing eye for the kitsch that clutters up our lives. This funny and very moving novel about the making and remaking of a priest is one of his finest achievements.

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Historical Fiction, American, 20th Century, Religion, Christianity

351 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

James Farl Powers was an American novelist and short-story writer who often drew his inspiration from developments in the Catholic Church, and was known for his studies of Catholic priests in the Midwest. Although not a priest himself, he is known for having captured a "clerical idiom" in postwar North America.

Powers was a conscientious objector during World War II, and went to prison for it. Later he worked as a hospital orderly. His first writing experiment began as a spiritual exercise during a religious retreat. His work has long been admired for its gentle satire and its astonishing ability to recreate with a few words the insular but gradually changing world of post-WWII American Catholicism. Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy praised his work, and Frank O'Connor spoke of him as "among the greatest living storytellers".

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Religion," she said, crossing her legs so he could see her garters but not very well in the dark. "It's like Santa Claus, only it's for old people afraid of dying."

So the impressionable Joe Hackett is told when still a kid. He becomes a priest anyway, but not before he learns the secrets hiding in the dark.

This turns him not quite jaded, not even entirely cynical. He's just a bit of a stinker, as priests go.

Midway through the book, this act was wearing thin. I didn't like Joe. Characters in the book seemed to have the same reaction too. But then something changed. It was before Barb and Brad's son, Greg, dropped out of school and got his induction notice. Would you please talk to him, Joe? By that time Joe was different. Subtly. And not for some obvious reason. He was, for lack of a better word, pastoral. In a shepherding sense. Characters came to like him. Readers, too.

I inherited, through marriage, an Aunt Frances. She was well into her nineties, but still with it, renowned for her precise handwriting and her piety. Sitting at a small family gathering, on a Sunday, Aunt Frances turned my way and asked if I missed Church that day. I answered her honestly, if literally, "No. I never miss Church." She was 'with it' enough to detect a whiff of stinker.

You have to read this book kind of that way, I think, to fully enjoy it.

Nan came out of the black house with drinks garnished with mint, which grew on the outer banks of the dump and had also, in the Gurriers' Holy Family period, cropped up in one of Joe's sermons--which Nan, it seemed, remembered. "Praised be God for green things," she said, improving on Joe and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Amen.

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not many books can straddle laugh out-loud funny and painfully sad at the same time. Wheat that Springeth Green follows the life of Fr. Joe Hackett from childhood, through seminary, early priesthood to late middle age and disillusionment. It is also eccentrically droll; I found myself rereading each section to pick up even most of the subtleties. It would take a couple more careful reads to get them all. The book is packed with clever detail, ironic and poignant.

Sadly this is one of those books which I cannot do justice to in a review, at least not yet. Maybe someday. It was Powers’ tour de force, his life’s work. Just read it. If you are mature enough to appreciate the wider and longer view, we are mere infants in God’s world.


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December 20, 2016: A GRs friend recommended this book and let me just say upfront that I do NOT take book recommendations anymore. But then what are rules without exceptions and when I read about this book, it made that very miniscule list. It is not that I don't value the many fine recommendations I get dear friends, but I am trying to 'be good' and finish books I already have, which FILL my house.

Anyway, so far, I'm not sorry for my decision. It is a booklady book about a young man who doesn't just want to be a priest, he wants to be a saintly priest. Then he goes to seminary. Then he gets ordained. Then he becomes an assistant at a parish. Then he gets his next assignment at Catholic Charities. For seven years.

Powers writes likes that. During his dialogue sequences, you get to sift through a page of very abrupt short sentences. Then there are the long complicated run-on descriptive paragraphs with references to unfamiliar past people and places. I find myself reading and rereading them to make sure I understand what he means. Do I? I don't know. I'm not finished yet.

But the dry humor and irony are unmistakable.

[Ben Loory · Rating 5 out of 5]

UPDATE: i have officially upgraded this book to 5 stars. it's been over a month since i read it and i just love it more and more. i feel like those priests are still out there living somewhere inside the world in my head, and that's usually not something that happens to me with books. i'm usually not even really into realistic character creation. but god damn these characters were good and god damn this book was good. READ IT!


ORIGINAL REVIEW: i don't really know how to describe what's so great about this book. so i won't. i give it four stars because it's "only" a perfect novel; powers is a beautiful writer but not a visionary and not interested in form. it'll probably go up to five stars in a few weeks when i forgive him that. in the meantime, this is a quiet, understated book which is very funny but never wacky or satirical (except in an all-embracing and -forgiving way), and it never takes on the big questions you might expect from a catholic writer, taking them instead as already solved. none of that graham greeny runnin' around freakin' out about the universe and the state of your soul business; father joe is just a man trying to do his job on a planet gone tasteless and mad...

[Chris Gager · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't QUITE started this yet. I'm still reading "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - a book also heavy with Catholic stuff, but with a decidedly more fraught edge to it. I've read a story or two from the author in a couple of story anthologies.

Finally got going with this one last night. The story of a priest, and very suggestive of "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" with its sketchy treatment of child and teenager-hood. The author's style is spare and direct and sort of impressionistic. Takes some getting used to.

Moving on as Joe is in the early part of his fraught career in the Roman Catholic church(he's a priest). The "money" side of the church, priesthood and parish life present challenges for Joe, whose inclination is toward the contemplative rather than the secular life of the church. Right now in the story he's finishing 7 years in Catholic Charities(the city is unspecified, almost certainly in the Midwest) and for the the first time will be taking over as a parish priest. He's in his 30's and dealing with the aforementioned challenges plus the allure of alcohol. Plenty of priests had/have problems on that score. Whiskey priests ... This book reminds one a lot of "Stoner," and might wind up a 5* book. We'll see ...

Joe settles in as a still-young and overworked parish priest. Now, however, he's getting a curate. I "confess" that I have no idea what that is, though I've certainly heard the term before. I'll have to look it up. Last night I was reading a Katherine Anne Porter story that featured a dude with a serious eating problem. The previous story I'd read(by Jean Stafford) in my rotating story routine was also about compulsive eating and now this book is focusing a bit on Joe's strengthening bad habits around food and drink. D'ya think someone's trying to send ME a message? At least the booze is no longer a problem for me(one day at a time, of course). Just ran into a fellow AA-er here in the local library.

- curate = a priest(in the RCC) who is an assistant to a higher ranking priest. In this case to a parish priest(Joe).

As the story enters the final 100 pages or so the focus settles on money matters and political "stuff." It can't come as surprise to the 40-something Joe that organized religion is regularly in spiritual peril from the steady need of $$ to prop up the human and physical infrastructure of the church, especially the RCC.

Finished up last night with this quiet and understated book, a portrait of a well-meaning but imperfect man who kind of hankered after perfection. The ending is perfect, though as in other parts of the book it took me some re-reading of Powers' cryptic prose to figure out what happened. Definitely a recommendation to members of the RCC.

- A reference to a Mr. Von Keillor. One of the nice cover blurbs is by Garrison K.

- It will help any reader to pay close attention and read slowly in an effort to retain seemingly minor plot points and characters. The author looks back frequently to such things and it can be frustrating to try to remember such as the book goes on.

- The impact of the book settles quietly at the end and I got a little choked up. Just sayin'

- And ... who was the passenger in Joe's car at the end? Does it matter?

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

"His vices, his eating and drinking, did tend to silence the prophet in him, but so did common sense."

Powers fills a fine little niche in American literature, that of Upper Midwest Catholicism. Restoring to that noble swath of the American heartland its vagaries of faith, beer, and truculent massanthropy, Powers never wavered in his focus on what he knew best, and he always approached his favorite theme with gentle, understated lyricism and that sense of humor that you'll only recognize if you've ever spent more than a day in, say, Minnesota.
"Wheat" is about parish priest Joe Hackett and his troubles, which mostly center around a lifelong hatred for money-grubbing fundraising and the war going on in Vietnam. He crosses paths with both these things with mild-mannered aplomb. Joe likes to drink beer and watch the Twins. Joe wanders a path of shaky faith sometimes, hesitantly pokes his hands in thorny thickets at others, but armed with good sense and a good sense of humor always.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm not generally too excited about religious topics and stories, and even less about catholic ones, but this subtle, humorous, and ultimately real-world and profound, really struck me as masterful and hard hitting. yes, it;s a bit dated, talking about the start of the Vietnam war and the duty of the church to what? following orders vs conscientiousness (see German Catholics circa 1938), plus also money in usa vs christian charity, also sex vs celibacy, humor (dry, very very dry) vs literalesness (sp?), and an almost superhuman use of commas. i'
m a believer now in JF Powers, and his subtle philosophy within his fiction reminded me much of Hopeful Monsters nicholas mosley, another great novelist who is coming from christian/catholic viewpoint.

[Duke Haney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gist of this book -- and I feel a bit guilty, or idiotic, for reducing it to a gist -- can be summed up in this passage:

"The greatest job in the world, divinely instituted and so on, was that of the [Catholic] priest, and yet it was still a job -- a marrying, burying, sacrificing job, plus whatever good could be done on the side. It was not a crusade. Turn it into one, as some guys were trying to do, and you asked too much of it, of yourself, and of ordinary people, invited nervous breakdowns all around."

I feel guilty, or idiotic, for reducing this book to its gist because J. F. Powers is an absolute master of style. It's difficult for me to conceive of a better writer, style-wise, and this novel, the second of only two he wrote, begins with maybe the most warming and spot-on depiction of a very young child's perspective I've ever read:

"He got into bed again. Then he came down the front stairs again, but stayed behind the portieres, peeking out. He wanted the pretty black-haired lady in the pretty orange dress to see him. 'Oh oh,' she said. 'See Me's back again.' He came out from behind the portieres, saying to her (he didn't know why), 'I eat cheese.' She and the other party people, and even Mama and Daddy, laughed. It was a joke!"

Still, I later struggled with the book, unable at times to keep track of the characters, a number of whom are quickly introduced with little or no description, then quickly departing, only to return much later. Also, drive not being its strong suit, the novel is occasionally torpid, and it requires more than a passing understanding of the structure and doctrine of the Church, which I lack. But it's a one-of-a-kind take on the late sixties -- the era of youthful excess, protest, and revolution, as seen (with very little overt commentary about youthful excess, protest, and revolution) by a middle-aged, provincial priest -- and I can't emphasize enough how much I admire the style; and for that reason I feel guilty, or idiotic, for awarding it just four stars. But maybe in time I'll return to give it more, as did Ben Loory, a fellow writer who recommended Powers to me. The work of masters shouldn't be rated with stars, which reflect a consumerist mentality with decided limits.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel follows a young man through life, from early years growing up in an urban parish through to the priesthood and on into life in the ministry. It is a story told in three parts, but as a series of vignettes. Powers was a short story writer and even though both his novels won awards, they are really a collection of short stories, woven together.

Chapter 6 in this novel, Out in the World, was previously published in the New Yorker as The Warm Sand. A different variation on that same story appeared in the collection The Substance of Things Hoped For: Short Fiction By modern Catholic Authors and was my introduction to Powers' work. When I first read the story, I was drawn in by Joe's desire to be more religious, to wear a hair shirt, to use a prei-dieu, (and I have one to this day), and by his keen desire to serve the church and do so with integrity. Yet, what happens is, the day-to-day work of running a parish erodes his spiritual aspirations to the point that he is just doing the business of running a church. This is a man most of us can relate to; we desire to do good, to choose what is best, but often get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent.

Other parts of this book were previously published as short stories also, both more than once. Chapter 10 of the book Good News, was published in the New Yorker and also the collection of short stories Look How The Fish Live. And chapters 16-18 in the novel, Priestly Fellowship, were also published in both of those publications previously.

The three parts of this story or movements are first, from youth to a curate to his first church as rector. The second is his middle years of ministry, and the third act, three independent stories about later in life. These three stories have an unusual quality about them. In some ways they feel like the three teaching lessons tacked onto the end of Daniel in the Deuterocanonical version - three separate stories each told with a specific purpose and meaning. These three have more humor than the rest of the book, almost as if Powers wanted to lighten the load at the end of the story for the readers.

The lasting power of this story is that Joe is everyman, in that he has beliefs and he desires to live up to those beliefs. Yet he ends up settling for something far below his original goals. I know that I and many men my age feel the same way; we are not where we expected to be, or doing what we expected to be doing with our lives, either in ministry or out. As such, the story's impact is that even though it is about a priest living and working in the ministry, it can serve as a mirror for all of us who read it, thus causing us to remember our original goals and aspirations and maybe inspiring us to live up to them. This is accomplished primarily by how well-written Joe is as a character and how well-written the novel is. This story was the culmination of Powers' Literary output. Some of these stories have undergone years of revisions and were crafted together into the novel we have now. Powers shaped and reshaped the stories, individually and collectively, to give us this masterpiece presented in three movements.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2021 Catholic Reading Plan!

[Bart · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times this book treats religion with as little reverence as a novel possibly can. The rest of the time it exposes the many doors that can lead a Catholic priest to mediocrity.

Wheat That Springeth Green is a book that was featured in literary critic James Wood's first collected works of criticism. Wood began as a Catholic and then lost his way because of the Church's (and religions') philosophical inability with the question of evil.

This novel will certainly appeal to anyone who's traversed Wood's same path. It may also appeal to Catholics with a sense of humor and merry self-deprecation. It is unlikely to appeal to a group much wider than that.

Father Joe, the novel's driving force, begins his time in the seminary with genuine thoughts of sainthood and how it might best be achieved. He dons a hair shirt and goes about renouncing all earthly things. But soon enough, he becomes a pastor and an alcoholic.

What this novel does so marvelously well is present Catholic priests as men who are no better at their workaday jobs than you are at yours. Priests cut corners, gripe about their bosses (bishops), gripe about their customers (parishioners), gripe about their coworkers (curates), compete with other franchisees (parishes), find themselves preoccupied with petty monetary interests they once thought they were above, gamble on retreats and drink too much after work - usually while watching a baseball game.

They long for meaningful professional relationships with their peers (priestly fellowship) and try to meet the unrealistic fund-raising goals their corporation (archdiocese) gins up. Finally, and in some ways tragically, they are just men, barred from behaving as just men in front of the laity.

There are parts of this novel that are funny as can be. The visiting priest's sermons are thick with irony and great storytelling. The coverage of the annual pastoral retreat is fabulous.

But there are other times when J.F. Powers lets the story drag too long. He is seemingly too enchanted with the mundanity of priests' lives.

Finally, though, Father Joe is a fantastic literary creation, and one significantly more serious than most of his contemporaries.

[Justin Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powers' second and final novel, and much better than his pretty damn good Morte D'Durban. Wheat took forever to write, which is usually a very bad thing, but in this case Powers somehow makes it work, perhaps because the usual late style stuff (pessimism, grouchiness and so on) fits so well with the late stages of this book. Father Hackett watches his small world change with good humor and dismay; he might not admit it, but it's fairly clear that he himself is just as much to blame for those changes as anyone. The Walmart-style store takes over from the old mall, and takes over from the church as well. Everything centers more and more on money--which is precisely what Hackett's life has centered on. And his final pilgrimage is a beautiful end to the novel. As with all of Powers' work, it's exceptionally well written, funny and affecting. Is it innovative? No. Is it formally interesting? Not in the slightest. But it's exceptionally well done for all that.

[John Bellamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when it was published in 1988 and just finished reading it again after 23 years. I then thought it a near-great novel but now realize I was grossly mistaken: it is not only a truly great novel but one of the great American comic fiction masterpieces. A lot of contemporary readers have probably never heard of J. F. Powers (his National Book Award came back in 1963)and I suspect some who have might have been deterred from reading his work by its predominate subject: post-World War II American Catholicism as depicted in the lives of its male clergy. Suffice it to say that in treating such a deceptively parochial milieu Powers consistently exposes the sacred in the profane and the eternal in the mundane. All of his books are worth reading but this is a work of genius and I would give it six stars if I could.

[Harris]

It's been a while since I've read stuff like this, but I really love this American dialect. Somewhere between Updike and Carver, but it's all about priests. Short words and short sentences but he does some real fun stuff with the language.

[Father Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Updike once said that a reviewer must never judge a book harshly for not doing what its author never set out to do. I had to keep this in the forefront of my mind as I read about the priestly formation and ministry of Father Joe.
As a priest myself, I found it interesting that Powers entirely neglects what every priest actually does most of his week: administer the sacraments, counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, and visit the sick. These things are more or less inescapable in the life of a priest, and they show up only in the most tangential fashion in this novel. I can only conclude that this was deliberate on the part of the author, and so I cannot fault him for not creating what I estimate to be a "realistic" portrait of the priesthood, or of one priest's ministry in particular.
One is left with the conclusion that Powers is exploring the tension between the sacred identity of the priest--presumably something most people, even non-Catholics would recognize intuitively--and the terribly mundane, even sickeningly mundane, circumstances in which that identity is lived out in the daily experiences and concerns of a Catholic boy growing up in the 60s and then as a pastor of a suburban parish in the late 20th century. Much like novels set in wartime but that aren't about war, Powers' concern isn't priesthood as such but he chooses priesthood as the setting for the larger artistic goal he has set for himself: the discovery of meaning within daily absurdity, the lived experience of meaninglessness.
Considered in this light, I think Powers' novel is valuable, though any benefit Catholic readers may accrue could be offset by the admittedly disappointing story of Father Joe (my own case is one I'm not entirely sure about yet). In fact, there's a lot here I'm not sure about; I don't have a prior work alongside of which I could evaluate Powers, and I'm having a hard time processing its effect on me personally.
Maybe I should come back and write this review after a gin & tonic... sure seemed to help Joe.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

J. F. Powers wrote only two novels in his life, this one in 1988 and a national book award winner in l960. I think this may be a better novel, but it covers the same ground - the conflicts between religious and secular concerns. In this novel, the protagonist is a Catholic priest who heads a large suburban church. He has to navigate a treacherous course between individual principles of what he considers "good" and organizational compromise, mostly revolving around money concerns. the novel transcends what might seem to be a narrow concern with priestly life.

[Jack Mullins]

I found this novel at a church book sale last Tuesday. I was unfamiliar with the title and author, but, after reading the description on the rear cover of a "sexual athlete" turned priest, I had to shell out the two bucks. LOL.

The novel tells the story of Fr Joe Hackett, a mid-century Minnesotan priest who goes from eager seminarian to spiritually lifeless pastor. At his suburban parish, he is aloof and self-centered. His biggest concern seems to be protecting his own image as an impressive pastor. To this end, he is desperate for a curate (an assistant priest). Once he is appointed a curate, after months of working and living alongside him, Joe slowly begins to awaken to his own mundanity.

This awakening shows itself poignantly in the novel's last chapters. It begins, I believe, with my favorite moment of the book: when Joe encourages a young parishioner to follow his conscience and evade the draft. After imparting this advice, he asks the boy to tie his shoes. As the boy kneels to do so, Joe gives a discreet blessing.

I loved reading about the minutiae of clerical life, even though Powers does anything but romanticize it. The clergy here are portrayed as (rather) fallible working men doing a job like any other. This portrayal aligns well with the general 20th-century deconstruction of clericalism, and, perhaps, with Powers' apparent views as a Catholic radical.

[Stephen Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't recall where I heard about this book or author, but I'm glad I did. J.F. Powers is an entertaining storyteller that uses a unique writing style, particularly sentence structure, to convey the mood of any situation, and the result is usually laughter. Wheat That Springeth Green is the chronicle of a man named Joe Hackett from boyhood to priesthood. It involves pursuits of righteous piety via hairshirts all the way to sipping aperitifs in the rectory barcalounger watching baseball. Powers seems to focus on the disillusionment of what it means to be a parish priest in the milieu of modern America, and he does this in a paradoxically light-hearted yet depressing way. It all makes for a very well written novel that seems to have faded from many literary circles.

[Ed Parke · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The trouble was, in Joe's view, that Bill's understanding of the Cross, like that of most young people today, was nominal, narrow, unapocalyptic, and so failure to him didn't, as it did to Joe, make much sense."

A very accessible read nonetheless replete with insight into American Catholicism immediately post-Vatican II. In navigating the changing world (and church) around him, Father Joe Hackett must also deal with the shortcomings within himself and the ever-looming threat of failure. A powerful yet utterly suburban story of grace amid disgrace and the quiet triumphs of that ultimate sign of contradiction, the Cross.

[Dar Vig · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's nice to feel the sand between my toes

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an oddball book. Towards the end I pressed on the Kindle screen to go the next page and discovered it had finished. Just like that.
But that was only one of its oddities. It's less of a story than a series of chapters over the forty-plus years of Joe Hackett's life, from his appearance as a toddler at an adult's party, where he's seen as cute, to his unexpected isolation - once again -when he's moved from a parish where he's been working with a curate (a man he's had to work hard to get to like, and vice versa) to one where he's on his own again. We don't find out anything about this parish, but it's plain it's like he's once again been thrust into his own soul without any companion.
Hackett becomes a priest (after a Rabelaisian chapter in which he's having sex with two young girls at the same time, as it were), and we journey with him through his hair-shirt days at the Seminary, where he's only marginally popular, through his administration work and his parish work. He never seems to want to enjoy any of these things, though he's good at them all, and known to be by the other priests. Sometimes he's plain obtuse, and refuses to help himself. Sometimes he's right on the button spiritually when no one else seems to be. He's a curious and not altogether likeable character.
I couldn't figure out where Powers was going with it all, for quite some time. Got to about 40% of the way through and considered giving up. And yet Powers' writing is such that when he does get going, you can't put the book down.
One of the saving graces of the book is the wry, understated humour. It's often satirical, but mostly in the subtlest way. It doesn't take Joe as seriously as he takes himself, which is a gift. And between the humour is the yearning by the reader (and author) for this character to ease up a bit on himself. Not that you want him to be any less spiritual than he is, but you want him to give himself a break. Sainthood isn't achieved by endlessly beating yourself around the head - Joe's equivalent in the later parts of the book of his wearing of the hair-shirt in the earlier parts.
He's surrounded by men who are doing their best in a difficult job, and by men who seem just plain gnarly in their approach to the priesthood. And he's concerned about the faith - or lack of it - of many of his parishioners (and some of the priests), and about his own drinking problems (not over the top, but sometimes close to it). And about his loneliness, which he tries to ride roughshod over.
I can't say I enjoyed all of it, or found myself at home in it (though, having been brought up as a Catholic, it had a kind of familiarity about it). But it has more depth than it seems, and makes you think more than you realise. I'm not entirely sure, always, about what...there's quite a lot of stuff worth thinking about here!

[Mmars · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 stars rounded up to 3.Here's a conversation I had trying to convince someone they would like this book.
"You might like this. It's about a priest."
"What's it about?"
"A priest. it's funny."
"Yeah. But what's is about?"
"It's about being a priest in the 70s. It's funny."

I can't give him an exciting plot (It's about a priest, for Crissake!) so needless to say, he wasn't interested. But he should have been. He loved the Confederacy of Dunces and the 1970s send-up humor is quite similar. He also grew up in a large Catholic family. He would have GOT this book. I didn't. That is, I didn't REALLY get it - the heirarchy, the grudges, the disgruntled attitude - especially that. Priests are men. They live with other men. They live without sex, basically. But, many do drink, understandably. And, as in this book, they worry about money and how to acquire it from their parishoners.

Things I learned:
1) Don't ever let the priest buy furniture for the rectory.
2) Don't let them have too large a personal budget, they'll just spend it at the liquor store.
3) Don't go to them for advice on whether your sons should sign up for war.
4) Don't expect them to be straight-laced with the media.

5) Do treat them as what they are - human.
6) I'm so glad the 70s are over.

Personally, I'd give this book 2 stars. By the end, I could have cared less - about anything it it. Stock characters faded and then popped back in later - a personal irritant. But, there is merit - it's a unique view of a lifestyle, and in light of the scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in the 00s, the roots of the church's systemic dysfunction are here. And, it is funny.

[Jesse Kraai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admire the intention of this book. As I conceive it: 'Where does the youthful intention of sanctity lead?'

But I couldn't follow the evolution of the protagonist. We get some childhood scenes. How do these connect with the teenager and his dreams of sex? In the book these are painted as real, but please, that was an adolescent fantasy. And how do get from the sex scenes to the self-afflicted religion and the hair shirt. Does he feel a deep remorse and shame? We never get to know. The most incredible jump comes when we meet him again as a boozing overweight priest.

The assumption, I guess, is that it was his destiny to be a boozer. But the reader wants more, tell me how it happened.

Then we jump to some kind of inspiring end. It's not quite clear what it is. But some kind of redemption seems intended.

By not helping the reader to follow his thoughts, Powers ultimately hinders himself in expressing what his own thoughts are.

More grief: unclear modifiers, acronyms that are hard to decipher, sentences with more than 10 commas. It's like I'm trying to read through a glaucoma.

The forward says that the book was written over a vast time. This partly explains how the sections are so different, as if written by different people who couldn't make up their mind what they wanted the story to be.

[DROPPING OUT · Rating 5 out of 5]

J.F. Powers did not write much, but what he did was filled with great perception into the human condition, phrased in brilliant dialogue.

Again I am grateful to Seth for recommending Powers to me. His books are, in my opinion, "keepers."

(Will he ever be so recognized as being worthy of inclusion in The Library of America? I certainly hope so, and herewith place my order whenever it appears.)

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to feel less ambivalent about this book. It is indeed humorous, but sometimes the characters are caricatures, so much so that the humor becomes less witty. Joe's early days in seminary are a study in the comedy of youthful bravado, poking fun at the earnestness of a sometimes misplaced faith.

While the comedy does at times seem forced, Powers' satirical observations are unmistakable and unapologetic. Ironies come out of hiding, like the dustbunnies underneath Joe's Barcalounger.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a foray into the world of priests, curates, and Catholic fundraising. The conversations are droll and the personalities of the priests are as different as those you might find in a public restaurant. I felt somewhat that the book ended abruptly - I had realized suddenly that I was close to finishing it and that it must have some cataclysmic ending, but ... no, it just ended. So -- 3 stars.

[Geoff Wyss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this, as I did Morte D'Urban and Powers's collected stories. So wry and funny and smart and subtle.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

J.F. Powers's sentences are so good as to immediately explain why he wrote so few of them in his life.

[Conor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, wonderful book. Powers is amazing.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually read this book twice. The principle character is Joe Hackett, who from a young age wants to become a priest. One of the themes of the book is the contrast between the contemplative and pastoral lives of the clergy. In Seminary, Joe pursues the contemplative life. When he is assigned to a contemplative priest and discovers he has to serve the flock while the lead pastor prayers, his thoughts and habits begin to change. Over time, he gets bogged down in the business of the church. When a young pastor is assigned as his new assistant, he brings another set of ideas into Joe's life on what pastorship should look like. This storyline is presented with humorous situations . J.F. Powers is an excellent writer. Yet there were parts of the book that confused me, and I couldn't pinpoint what the author was trying to say. So I read it again, and while some points became clearer, I am not sure where Joe ended up, but I am sure he continued to evolve. There are stylistic discrepancies which may have added to my confusion.

[Michael Purcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t be downhearted Joe, don’t despair. Be on your guard there. Despairs really presumption you know. Expecting too much. We can’t change the world Joe. Our blessed lord couldn’t do it Joe. But we can change ourselves. That’s enough. Sometimes it’s too much - 104

“What happened to your hair shirt?
I buried it.
Joe, where do you stand on all that now?
I’m sitting down.
That’s how you look at it?
Yes, because that’s how it is.” - 233

Duke was in uranium, joe in life insurance. “What company?” “Eternal” 318

Just a delight. The minutiae of life in the priesthood. Growing up, deciding what path you want to live, fully committing as a young professional filled with the spirit of the Lord and your mission, slowly becoming disillusioned yet still doing what you can for those around you, even if it doesn’t seem like much. There is so much subtlety here it would take multiple close reads of this to pick up even half of the undertones. Not a word is wasted. What a splendid piece of fiction

[Elizabeth Mcguirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is hard to describe, and I am not sure I fully understood it. I think I would get more out of a second reading. It is the story of the youth to middle age of a Catholic priest in the 1960's era. The writing is dense, darkly satirical, and surprisingly explicit. But it is at its core a story of the humanity, earthiness, and earthliness of the priesthood. The main character is a very flawed ordinary man who is called to this higher vocation. And he perseveres in it to it despite his flaws.

I think as Catholics we tend to either put all priests on a pedestal or harshly criticize them when they don't meet our expectations. This book is a reminder that they are people just like us, trying to live out their vocations in this world.