Paxton


 * __ Father Joe __**         ** Summary~ **    The creative nonfiction novel //Father Joe//, written by [|Tony Hendra], is about Tony and basically his life from age 14 to about 50. The story takes place in England. As a 14 year old adolescent, he decides to explore a forest and finds a small house that two people live in: Lily and Ben Bootle. This family considered themselves catholic, even though they didn’t really act it       Later on, Tony did something bad so Ben told him he was going to have to go to Quarr Abbey- a catholic church where monks live and talk to ‘sinners’ about what they have done. There he meets Father Joe. He teaches Tony a bunch of life lessons. Tony then       [[image:http://www.thecommentary.ca/images/books/Hendra.jpg width="120" height="186" align="left" caption="Book Cover"]]       decides he would like to become a monk.    So now he has his heart set on becoming a monk at age 16. He tells Father Joe that he will skip the high school tests and only do the ones needed to become a monk. But then he got a full scholarship to Cambridge University. His English teacher thought he would be a great writer. Of course he doesn’t want to go because he wants to be a monk; not a writer. Father Joe persuades him to go because it was a very good opportunity and he couldn't turn it down.

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After a couple years of going to Cambridge, Tony decides he doesn’t want to be a monk anymore; he wants to be a writer (go figure!). He now wants to save the world through laughter instead of through prayer. Eventually, he starts a business that fails and gets married. The marriage didn’t last. About ten years later he married again and it is pretty rocky. He keeps in touch with Father Joe and talks to him about what’s going on in his life. His dad dies and he is surprisingly not that sad since Father Joe was kind of like his //real// dad. =====

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Tony visits Father Joe for the last time and talks to him about a ton of different things; his marriage, what he would’ve been if he were a monk, things he wishes he wouldn’t have done. Father Joe gives him advice on how to save his marriage (which works) and he tells Tony that he knew he wasn’t ever going to be a monk. It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in him; he just thought he would go on to do something else- and he was right. In the end Father Joe dies but the morals and lessons he taught lived on. =====

**Theme~** Strength is the theme in //Father Joe// because Tony had to go through with going to [|Quarr Abbey]and St. Albans School (Quarr is where he went before he went to St. Albans with the ‘getting back on the right track’, ‘get rid of what you’ve done bad’ things). He says that if you do some bad things in your life, you can fix them; even if it’s doing something really small or very big. Tony   was really brave to go to confession with a monk that he didn’t know. But luckily, he became friends with this monk, Father Joe, and they kept in touch throughout Father Joe’s entire life. He decided he wanted to become a monk in the beginning like Father Joe but when he gets accepted into Cambridge without even applying to get in, Father Joe persuades him to go. He had to have the courage to leave Father Joe and live out in the real world and go to college without him. **Opinion~** I didn’t really like the book //Father Joe//. It wasn’t the kind of book I’d normally read. I like more action then that and it was really boring. I didn’t find myself wanting to read more after the chapters; I just wanted to set it down and not read anymore. It wasn’t interesting enough. People who like nonfiction might like //Father Joe// but if somebody doesn’t like true stories and stuff about religion, I don’t think they would enjoy this either. I think the reason I didn’t like this was because it might not have been meant for my age cluster. Maybe older people would relate to the problems presented in it and enjoy it more. Some parts were good and made me want to see what happened next but then when I kept reading, it was a disappointment to see that the things leading up to what I wanted to know were just as dreary as the rest of the book. One of the things I //did// like was Father Joe’s personality. He was very optimistic and always looked at the good side of life. He taught Tony to not be selfish and do stuff that not only you want to do, but other people around you want to do, too. He coached Tony on very important life lessons like to not only think of himself. If you read the book, you will see that Tony doesn’t really love anybody or anything. In the end, he learns how to love. This was all because of Father Joe. I was really sad when Father Joe died in the very end. =(

[|Link to Quarr Abbey and Father Joe]