Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood is a unique comic memoir which recounts how the author was forced to moved back to Kansas City in her early thirties to live with her parents in their very conservative household along with her husband, Jason, while he recovered from major eye surgery. Her father is a Catholic priest – that fact alone needs some explanation, as he used to be a Lutheran pastor and later converted to Catholicism after marriage and required a special dispensation from the church. Moreover, he is also described in the blurb as a “gun-toting, guitar-riffing” priest who is an extreme right-wing Republican. The structure is non-chronological and fits well with the madcap eccentric tone of the book, even if it doesn’t have the clearest narrative arc as one might expect. Lockwood has also been through several traumatic events in her life, but her nuanced discussion of more serious matters doesn’t feel jarring alongside the descriptions of her father’s frivolous antics, ensuring that this excellent memoir effortlessly balances wit and compassion.
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood is a unique comic memoir which recounts how the author was forced to moved back to Kansas City in her early thirties to live with her parents in their very conservative household along with her husband, Jason, while he recovered from major eye surgery. Her father is a Catholic priest – that fact alone needs some explanation, as he used to be a Lutheran pastor and later converted to Catholicism after marriage and required a special dispensation from the church. Moreover, he is also described in the blurb as a “gun-toting, guitar-riffing” priest who is an extreme right-wing Republican. The structure is non-chronological and fits well with the madcap eccentric tone of the book, even if it doesn’t have the clearest narrative arc as one might expect. Lockwood has also been through several traumatic events in her life, but her nuanced discussion of more serious matters doesn’t feel jarring alongside the descriptions of her father’s frivolous antics, ensuring that this excellent memoir effortlessly balances wit and compassion.