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The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal Judge | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Daly
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $18.45
You Save: $9.50 (34%)
New (1) Used (8) from $17.07
Rating:  5 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0312301502
Dewey Decimal Number: 282.092
EAN: 9780312301507
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
His death certificate bears the number one. He was a devout priest with a gift for the gabgregarious yet humble, a healer with the ability to wipe away a widows tears and put a smile on a firemans face.On September 11, 2001, Father Mychal Judge rushed to the fires as quickly as those who fought them, losing his own life while tirelessly ministering to New Yorks bravest.Father Mikerecounts the colorful, astonishing, and at times, troubled life of a priest who was ironically ordained on September 11, 1961. Michael Daly retraces the footsteps of Father Mike as his vocation takes readers inside the firehouse, his friary, and his church, and highlights the chaos that often befalls New York.This is the story of a larger-than-life priest who, in death, became a symbol of how much we truly lost that day.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Probably not the book you're expecting? December 5, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Daly is fairly.. lets call it, "imaginative", when it comes to writing about Fr. Judge - he spends an awful lot of time romanticizing about the man's hands, and a preposterous amount of time devoted to trying to develop a romantic subplot into Judge's life that stretches rather beyond believability.
I feel I know a lot less about Fr. Judge and a whole lot more about Michael Daly (and his odd, almost fetishistic preference of Judge over any and every other clergyman referenced in the book, all of whom are considered rather unfavorably) - which isn't what I'd hoped for out of this book at all.
I have no idea whether or not Judge was gay, but there's little evidence of it, even by this book's rather thin evidentiary standards. Daly as a narrator actually comes off as quite hostile to the Catholic Church underneath it all, and his reverence for Judge does little to reassure you about the veracity of the stories he's telling. They seem to be designed to admit only one possible (and hard-to-really-accept) notion about Mychal Judge: that he was a liberal gay activist and noble closet-case whose transcendental faith in Life (not Jesus?) was more important to him than the stuffy old Church he worked for and its silly, restrictive mysticism.
If you already find that easy to believe, you'll love the Fr. Mychal Judge that Daly's invented.
This is not the book on Judge you'll want to buy for your Catholic friends and family. This book really belongs more to the credulous among us, who like tabloid-sensational hero-stories about gay priests trapped in the so-called straight life, harbor some pretty deep-seated distortions about Catholic life and faith, or are otherwise into hyperbolic, revisionist narratives. "The Book of Mychal" reads like a "dramatic re-enactment" of some gay ghost story a la A&E, moreso than a careful, balanced biography of a guy who may get declared a saint sooner or later.
Weird stuff gets published all the time - if you really need to buy this, it belongs on your "homosexual priest fantasy-hagiography" shelf. There are better books out there on the guy, and some of them are actually biographical.
 A Life of Faith, Hope & Charity October 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The writing was superb. But the life of Mychal Judge surpassed anything that I could have ever envisioned. This priest was the true definition of the word, Catholic, which means universal. His priesthood, his faith and his life were all embracing, all encompassing. He listened. He did not judge. He understood. As a Franciscan, he knew humility and poverty intimately and he owned them. The goodness of his life allowed him to interact with people of all faiths. He was as comfortable in the White House as he was in the slums of New York. All people were equal. He befriended and respected those of different faiths. He befriended those who were no longer practicing any religion. He did not judge them; he honored and treasured them for their own innate goodness.
He had trials and tribulations and he met them head-on while he monitored a flock that he adopted. Spending hours at the bedside of firemen, comforting their families, administering to the victims of AIDS when others shunned them, offering solace to strangers who became his friends, seeing goodness in others - these are just the highlights of this saintly man's life.
I cried and yet I was comforted. Michael Daly tells of the tragedy and he blends humor and laughter throughout the book. Father Judge always balanced his ministry with laughter.
Michael Daly is an excellent writer. However, his admiration for Father Mychal gave this book "heart."
If you do not read another book for the rest of the year, read this one. It will restore your faith, hope and charity towards one another.
I recommend this book highly.
Beautiful story about an amazing man October 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book brought tears to my eyes. We know that Mychal Judge's life was tragically ended on September 11, 2001 but this book told his life's story in a very real and touching way. The lessons of Mychal Judge's life will stay with you for a lifetime.
A labour of love September 9, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
That's what this book clearly is - a labor of love, a probing biography by a Daily News columnist. The author delves deeply into Judge's Irish upbringing, the Catholic church, the Fire Dept, and New York City politics. A Pulitzer-worthy book.
A National Hero September 3, 2008
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Daly, Michael. "The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal Judge", Thomas Dunne Books, 2008.
A National Hero
Amos Lassen
Father Mychal Judge became a hero after his death. He died while he was helping victims at the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was the chaplain for the New York City Fire Department and he soon became the supreme symbol of those who put their lives at risk so they could help others and he paid the highest price. He was loved by his fireman and was always ready to listen to anyone who needed to talk. He not only was minister to firemen but to gay New Yorkers as well even though many of his firemen had no idea that he was gay and did not learn that until he was dead. Father Judge had problems with reconciling his private life with his public life and this was discovered in a journal he began keeping in 1999. We read that he yearned to speak out but he felt that coming out would cost him his ministry, his friends and his standing in the Catholic Church.
Michael Daly, who was Judge's friend and who wrote this book, had access to the journals and gives us the thoughts of Judge.
Judge's life was gripping from being a youth in Depression Brooklyn to his Catholic upbringing. The last section of the book hits hard as it deals with September 11 and the days following. I love the way we get to see Father Judge as he tries to balance his work with the fire department and his life as a gay man especially during the 1990's when New York City was engaged in a war between the church and the gay community. Daly gives us a peek into Judge's private life as well and with great sensitivity. We read of his involvement with the AIDS crisis, when he bucked his church's official policy on homosexuality. We also learn of the priest's ten year love affair with a much younger man but Daly says that it was never consummated because of the Church.
What makes the book so special is reading about Judge's inner thoughts and turmoils as well as the love his fireman felt for him. He was quite a man and Michael Daly has done both the man and his memory justice.
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