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Overview
"As a widow, Maureen McGirr has found excuse after excuse to put off the tour of Europe she has dreamed of for nearly forty years. When her son Michael arranges his first overseas vacation as a Jesuit, he invites her to leave Australia for the honeymoon she never got around to having. Maureen springs into action, boldly vowing to go "where millions have gone before" so she can be in Rome for the anniversary of her wedding." Things You Get for Free is a priest's hilarious and heartwarming account of six weeks spent discovering a continent - and so much more - in the company of his mum, who is as eccentric and strong-willed as she is utterly endearing. Along the way, Michael reflects on the figures who have shaped his special brand of faith, from Saint Augustine to Hemingway to Michelangelo. At the center of it all lies his own father, who died shortly before Michael joined the Jesuit order.Synopsis
Things You Get for Free is a travelogue rich with charm and wisdom and sparkling with its author's singular wit. As a priest, Michael McGirr decides to take his charming and inimitable mum on the honeymoon she and her late husband never got around to having. He uses his six-week vacation to take her on a tour of Europe. Between meditating on their hilarious and illuminating travels and on the historical figures who dot their voyage -- everyone from Hemingway to Michelangelo to the quietly heroic people who inspire Michael's special brand of faith -- McGirr plunges deep into his family history, unearthing sickness and instability but also moments of great love and perseverance. Things You Get for Free is a deeply moving spiritual and intellectual journey, proving the truth behind a mother's favorite saying: "I know more than you think I do."
Book Magazine
This memoir chronicles the travels of an Australian Jesuit priest who takes his widowed mother on the European vacation she always planned for but never went on. A wry observer of human behavior—his own and that of his often eccentric companions, particularly his mom ("a great believer in the Things You Get For Free")—McGirr records insights on home, spirituality and the baggage people carry with them. The pilgrimage becomes a personal catharsis, as the author confronts repressed emotions, particularly about sex and death. Having decided to become a priest in his last year of high school as a way of fleeing home and avoiding dealing with his father's death, he notes that "sex and grief are deeply intermeshed. I went through my [St.] Augustine period at the same time I was going through my AC/DC period." McGirr's prose is spare and occasionally touches the sublime. This wise, funny book is a celebration of traveling light.
—Eric Wargo
Editorials
From The Critics
This memoir chronicles the travels of an Australian Jesuit priest who takes his widowed mother on the European vacation she always planned for but never went on. A wry observer of human behavior—his own and that of his often eccentric companions, particularly his mom ("a great believer in the Things You Get For Free")—McGirr records insights on home, spirituality and the baggage people carry with them. The pilgrimage becomes a personal catharsis, as the author confronts repressed emotions, particularly about sex and death. Having decided to become a priest in his last year of high school as a way of fleeing home and avoiding dealing with his father's death, he notes that "sex and grief are deeply intermeshed. I went through my [St.] Augustine period at the same time I was going through my AC/DC period." McGirr's prose is spare and occasionally touches the sublime. This wise, funny book is a celebration of traveling light.—Eric Wargo