The Messiah of Morris Avenue: A Novel [Hardcover]

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.

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