The Messiah of Morris Avenue: A Novel: Amazon.ca: Tony Hendra: Books

From Publishers Weekly

In the near future of this alternately cynical and rapturous fable, America is a theocracy where the Christian Right, empowered by laws against blasphemy and witchcraft, controls everything from Congress to "Holywood" and foments Armageddon. Christ chooses this time to return in the guise of José, the Bronx-bred son of a Guatemalan immigrant with a discipleship of drifters and crack whores. Charismatic, open about his divinity and obliging with miracles, José wins over even Johnny Grecco, the jaundiced reporter who writes his gospel. Journalist Hendra, author of the best-selling Catholic- mentorship memoir Father Joe and former editor in chief of Spy, makes José the savior of liberal Christianity. José's theology is vaguely feminist (it includes "God the Mother"), vaguely Gnostic and just plain vague ("Blessed are the doubters..."), but he's militantly for love and tolerance and against war and creationism. Hendra writes a heart-wrenching Passion story, but the novel's broad satire—of both the Christian Right and of spineless liberal appeasers—clashes with the reverence accorded José and his New Agey platitudes (his evasion of the problem of evil is particularly mealy-mouthed). This messiah is an awfully nice deity, but he doesn't give our formidable world its due. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Hendra, author of the very moving memoir Father Joe (2004), returns to his satiric roots in this offbeat novel about the Second Coming. Fruits from the author's stints as editor of Spy and National Lampoon fall plentifully throughout this madcap tale, set in a near-future America in which the religious Right has taken over the country. Hollywood is now Holywood. Presidents are elected--or, really, appointed--on the basis of their religious fervor. Sweeping new laws render anything even remotely critical of religion illegal. Into this sickly puritanical society comes Jose Francisco Lorcan Kennedy, in his scruffy hooded sweatshirt, claiming to be the Child of God. Is he crazy? Internet journalist (and disgraced Pulitzer Prize winner) Johnny Greco thinks so, at first. But soon he and a lot of other people are persuaded otherwise. This is satire with a thoughtful heart, comedy with a serious message (several of them, in fact). Many of the author's sly allusions to contemporary society may elude younger readers, but adults of the right political persuasion will get a Swiftian kick out of it all. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Messiah is just what this country needs right now - a good dose of merriment in the face of crawthumping righteousness. It's a romp of a book but (this is strange) the forgiving spirit of Father Joe hovers. It's hard to think of forgiveness in these rigid times but it's there in The Messiah of Morris Avenue. A rowdy book but, Lord, it's beautiful."--Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and Teacher Man

"I was prepared for my usual serving of sharp Tony Hendra satire; I was not prepared for his sensitive and highly convincing exposition of the true teachings of Jesus Christ. I love this book."--George Carlin

Book Description

From the bestselling author of Father Joe, a slyly comic, deeply spiritual novel that imagines the Second Coming--and an unlikely, lovably human new savior

Tony Hendra's Father Joe became a new classic of faith and spirituality--even for those not usually inclined. Now Hendra is back with a novel set in a very reverent future where church and state walk hand in hand. Fade-in as Johnny Greco--a fallen journalist who nurses a few grudges along with his cocktails--stumbles onto the story of a young man named Jay who's driving around New Jersey preaching radical notions (kindness, generosity) and tossing off miracles. How better, Johnny schemes, to stick it to the Reverend Sabbath, America's #1 Holy Warrior, than to write a headline-making story announcing Jay as the Second Coming? Then something strange happens. Died-in-the-wool skeptic Johnny actually finds his own life being transformed by the new messiah.

Alternately hilarious and genuinely moving, The Messiah of Morris Avenue brings to life a savior who reminds the world of what Jesus actually taught and wittily skewers all sorts of sanctimoniousness on both sides of the political spectrum. Writing with heart, a sharp eye, and a passionate frustration with those who feel they hold a monopoly on God, Tony Hendra has created a delightful entertainment that reminds us of the unfailing power of genuine faith.

About the Author

Tony Hendra attended Cambridge University, where he performed frequently with friends and future Monty Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman. He was editor in chief of Spy, an original editor of National Lampoon, and he played Ian Faith in This Is Spinal Tap. He has written frequently for New York, Harper's, GQ, Vanity Fair, Men's Journal, and Esquire. Father Joe, was a New York Times Bestseller. He lives in New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Prologue

Fort Oswald, Texas. An early summer storm roils the sky. Lightning crackles between fat thunderheads. They lurch over the flat plain, roly-poly gun-metal-gray giants, thousands of feet tall, occasionally spitting thin streams of dazzling light at the ground.

Abutting the vast air base’s southern boundary is a brand-new maximum security prison, one of thousands that dot the Lone Star landscape, as familiar a sight as forests of oil rigs once were, back in the bad old days before God returned to America.

The prison is a sprawling complex covering dozens of acres. It consists of identical rectangular compounds, each formed by three rows of titanium-reinforced twenty-foot chain-link fence, topped with dense rolls of razor wire. The gap between each row is packed with more razor wire. The wire bristles with countless thousands of tiny blades. When lightning flashes overhead, they flash too.

The prison’s full name is the Risen Lamb Correctional Facility. Its directors call it a Christian prison, one that respects the retributive power of Church and State: the right of the judiciary to exact punishment, the right of the Lord to vengeance. The men and women incarcerated here aren’t “inmates” or “prisoners” but “sinners.” Those convicted of capital crimes are called “cardinal sinners.” But the God of vengeance is also the God of forgiveness. This prison differs from all others in the fervent efforts that are made to help cardinal sinners repent before they’re terminated; to be born again before they die.

At the center of the complex is its spiritual heart: a circular two-story rotunda containing ten lethal-injection chambers. No other facility in the world has such multiple capability. If necessary, ten cardinal sinners can be terminated simultaneously.

From the center of the rotunda rises a colossal 150-foot rotating crucifix: one full rotation every sixty seconds. Front and back, the arms of the cross bear a scrolling LED readout. On one side the legend reads christ died for your sins! When the opposite side comes around, it reads now it’s your turn!

It’s been an auspicious morning for the new facility. At noon it executed its very first cardinal sinner, a young non-Caucasian male, and for an unusual crime: treason. Every effort was made to bring him to the Lord before he went to the execution chamber. Alas, he was unrepentant.

Owing to the inexperience of the staff, he underwent considerable trauma: The lethal drugs took some time to effectuate termination.

But all is well. At 12:45 p.m. he was declared dead and his remains were cremated. The ashes will be placed in a simple container and, before nightfall, delivered to his mother.

The years haven’t softened the image of him, lying dead on the gurney. The memory is as raw as the long bloody gashes the IVs had opened in his arms. Each time I see him there, the pain still roils me, as the storm did the sky.

I put him on that gurney. I was his Judas.

From AudioFile

John Bedford Lloyd gets Hendra's darkly satirical Swiftian send-up of religious fundamentalism just right. What if America were a theocracy dominated by the Christian Right? What if televangelists and charismatic clergymen were more powerful than elected politicians, if Hollywood were "Holywood," and blasphemy were a crime? And, what if the Messiah came back as Jay, an Irish-Guatemalan kid from the Bronx whose "apostle posse" is made up of ex-gang-bangers and crack whores? Lloyd is wonderfully ironic as the disenchanted Johnny Greco, a nonbeliever and self-alleged Judas figure. As Jay, his voice is steady, quiet, reassuring, and as Jay's nemesis, Reverend Sabbath, Lloyd is sanctimoniously oily. Lloyd's performance offers an absorbing tale, right to its powerful, inevitable conclusion. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Messiah of Morris Avenue: A Novel [Hardcover]