Overview
Religious fanaticism and intolerance are perhaps the greatest evils afflicting the human race. Most of the violence in the world today and throughout history has been caused by major religions trying to exterminate those who don’t share the same beliefs. In this eye-opening memoir, author Jerome Tuccille shares the story of his intensely personal struggle with the Roman Catholic Church.After turning in an essay on the Virgin Birth that claimed the Catholic Church dehumanized women, Tuccille is denounced as a heretic by the dean of a Catholic college. As a result, he abandons the religion of his youth and embarks on a global odyssey through Australia, Singapore, India, Europe, and the United States. Tuccille’s adventures lead to a life of decadence and transcendental discovery.
HERETIC dramatizes a tug-of-war between the sensual and the divine, revealing the constant struggle with spiritual questions that have stirred the minds and hearts of thoughtful people since time began.
A would-be Hemingway traces the spiritual and sexual odyssey of his early years. Tuccille (Trump, 1985), denounced as a heretic by the dean of a Catholic college, skillfully weaves together details from his Italian-American upbringing in the Bronx with his globetrotting in the late 1950s and early '60s. The author renounces Catholicism and its educational institutions, "presided over by social misfits, sexual deviants, and intellectual dullards in long, black dresses."
This autobiography claims to recount a spiritual quest, yet it has much more to say about matters of the flesh, often related in spicy detail. Tuccille does mention his journey through atheism, agnosticism, Eastern mysticism, the occult and the radical individualism espoused by Ayn Rand.
Because Tuccille's style emphasizes telling details and clever turns of phrase, however, the narrative never lags. Generally skillful and engagingly detailed.
—(Kirkus Discoveries)
Synopsis
Religious fanaticism and intolerance are perhaps the greatest evils afflicting the human race. Most of the violence in the world today and throughout history has been caused by major religions trying to exterminate those who don t share the same beliefs. In this eye-opening memoir, author Jerome Tuccille shares the story of his intensely personal struggle with the Roman Catholic Church.
After turning in an essay on the Virgin Birth that claimed the Catholic Church dehumanized women, Tuccille is denounced as a heretic by the dean of a Catholic college. As a result, he abandons the religion of his youth and embarks on a global odyssey through Australia, Singapore, India, Europe, and the United States. Tuccille s adventures lead to a life of decadence and transcendental discovery.
HERETIC dramatizes a tug-of-war between the sensual and the divine, revealing the constant struggle with spiritual questions that have stirred the minds and hearts of thoughtful people since time began.
A would-be Hemingway traces the spiritual and sexual odyssey of his early years. Tuccille (Trump, 1985), denounced as a heretic by the dean of a Catholic college, skillfully weaves together details from his Italian-American upbringing in the Bronx with his globetrotting in the late 1950s and early '60s. The author renounces Catholicism and its educational institutions, "presided over by social misfits, sexual deviants, and intellectual dullards in long, black dresses."
This autobiography claims to recount a spiritual quest, yet it has much more to say about matters of the flesh, often related in spicy detail. Tuccille does mention his journey through atheism, agnosticism, Eastern mysticism, the occult and the radical individualism espoused by Ayn Rand.
Because Tuccille's style emphasizes telling details and clever turns of phrase, however, the narrative never lags. Generally skillful and engagingly detailed.
—(Kirkus Discoveries)