The Messiah of Morris Avenue, Tony Hendra
The Messiah of Morris Avenue, Tony Hendra
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The Messiah of Morris Avenue
A Novel

Author: Tony Hendra

Narrator: John Bedford Lloyd

Unabridged: 7 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/04/2006

Categories: Fiction, Dystopian, Religious


Synopsis

In The Messiah of Morris Avenue, Tony Hendra—the acclaimed satirist and New York Times bestselling author of Father Joe—poses the question: would we recognize the messiah if he appeared today? And delivers, in the words of Frank McCourt, “just what the country needs now—a good dose of merriment in the face of crawthumping righteousness.”

In the not so distant future, the tide of righteousness—in the form of executions, barking evangelists, tank-like SUVs, and a movie industry run entirely by the Christian right—has swept the nation. Aside from the non-white, the non-Christian, and the non-wealthy, all are believers.

Among the skeptics is a washed-up journalist named Johnny Greco, who hears of a media-shy young man known as “Jay” roaming through ghettos, healing the sick, and tossing off miracles. Soft-spoken and shabbily dressed, Jay is an unlikely savior for this anxious and intolerant America.

But as he makes his rounds, gathers followers, and makes furious enemies among the righteous powers that be, Johnny finds it harder and harder to doubt him.

About Tony Hendra

Tony Hendra (1941-2021) was a multimedia humorist and the New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, and the novel The Messiah of Morris Avenue.Educated at Cambridge in the early 1960s, Hendra developed his satirical style as a writer and performer with the university’s Footlights theatrical group alongside future Monty Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman. After stints in a comedy act in New York and as a television writer in Los Angeles, he joined the staff of Harvard’s National Lampoon from its inception in 1970. As a writer and managing editor, Hendra was instrumental in transforming the magazine into a popular media franchise.In 1984, he wrote for the BAFTA Award-winning Spitting Image television puppet program satirizing politics and pop culture, and portrayed heavy metal band manager Ian Faith in Rob Reiner’s mockumentary This is Spinal Tap. He also appeared on such television shows as Miami Vice and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and cowrote the film satire The Great White Hype starring Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx. A frequent contributor to New York, Harper’s, GQ, Vanity Fair, Men’s Journal, and Esquire, Hendra was the last editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Spy.


Reviews

This was SURPRISINGLY good - insightful, thoughtful, liberal, intuitive, subversive, and probably the first book I've ever read that made me think that someone REALLY has thought about life, the world, and Christianity and tried to figure out how they all fit together. Worth a read.......more

Set in a not-so-far dystopian Christian America, Hendra’s satirical speculations are often plausible, answering why God did not make any Christian theocratic states in history—and would not in the future. The synopsis is quite a misnomer. It seems to suggest that the setting is in jail. The story is......more

Goodreads review by Leroy

This was an intriguing book, one of the most thought-provoking novels I have read in a long time. I wish there was a way to give it at least 4.5 stars, for I thought it was that good. Rather than making comments on the plot or the contents, though, let me just share some of the noteworthy quotes: “Th......more


Quotes

“Extraordinay, luminescent, profound.... I beg you to read this book....we need Father Joe now.” —Andrew Sullivan, The New York Times Book Review on Father Joe

Father Joe is a many-layered memoir of a God-driven Englishman.... I could easiley have read the whole book in one sitting, but it's too rich, too powerful.... Like me, you might cherish this book so much you'll keep it on the shelf besides Saint Augustine, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Thomas Merton.” —Frank McCourt on Father Joe

“I picked up Father Joe intending to read just a couple of pages and found that I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it. The nature of a wise man, and the true nature of what wisdom feels like in action, are beautifully captured... The book's last episode brought unexpected tears to my weary eyes.” —Adam Gopnik on Father Joe