2006-07-23 - 6:06 a.m.
Listen to the cat.
The heat has broken, at last. For a while there it was only getting down to 85 or so, At night.
The kitchen cabinets are hung, I�m building the rest of the bases now, just a corner cabinet to go.
Listening to �Father Joe, the man who saved my soul� I can�t decide whether to recommend it or not. The title character is well worth the time, unfortunately, this book is primarily about the �my� in the title. And the �my� (author Tony Hendra) is an unfortunately unlikable character, and Father Joe, who is a remarkable individual, is only seen in glimpses.
One problem I have is the long accounts of dialog the author recounts, some conversations taking place decades in the past. It is possible that the author has an exceptional memory for conversation, but he admits more than once that he does not.
Sitting here, I�m thinking of conversations that I�ve had with remarkable people, people who I have vivid memories of. But there is no way I could give an accurate description, much less a verbatim account of the conversation we had. Perhaps I am just not gifted in this area.
There is also the troubling allegations of sexual abuse from the author�s daughter that surfaced after the book was published. I always try to not prejudge someone�s character based on the word of others, but, since I am reading a book where that someone is giving a more or less detailed view of his character, it is too easy for me to believe that the allegations are true. In the end the author is a terribly selfish person, and it is easy to do harm to others when it never occurs to you that other people might have more purpose in the world than what they can do for you.
But, I�m not finished with it yet, perhaps there is some bettering of his character to come�
-Justus
