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Title: God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth by Christopher Buckley, John Tierney ISBN: 0-06-097761-2 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (52 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Entertaining Audio Book
Comment: "God Is My Broker", by Brother Ty, with Christopher Buckley and John Tierney, Audio Cassette, Bantam Doubleday, 1998.
This is a funny tape recording of the supposed self-help book, with "...the 7 ½ Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth", as written by a monk and previous Wall Street Stock Trader. Brother Ty cannot help his clients (or himself) to make any money on the market, so, he enters a monastery, where the claim to fame is making wine. Brother Ty wanted to conquer his drinking habit! When the Cana Monastery falls on hard financial times, Brother Ty turns to God and the monk's breviary to determine money-winning tips on the market. This is the first sub-plot in this complicated but funny book.
The second sub-plot is based upon the first Miracle of our Lord at the Wedding Feast of Cana, where He changed water into wine at the request of His Mother, Mary. Since the monastery is called Cana, you can bet that someone (?Brother Abbot?) will be attempting his own version of the wine-making miracle: this time to keep Federal Agents happy. Then, there's the investigating Italian Monsignor, representing the Vatican and Cardinal "Blutspieler"; this urbane Italian, interested in soccer (at least when Milan is playing), is also a wine connoisseur. He really does not like his German boss, the Cardinal "Blood-player", and therefore the Italian settles in for a long stay at the Cana Monastery, which by now has hired a good-looking lady to deal with the necessary television advertising. Of course, the wine is not being made at the Cana Monastery, but being imported from Chile, which means that Brother Ty has to continuously check with his "broker" to get tips to pay for the imported wine, and the improvements at the monastery, and so on.
The two, three, perhaps four sub-plots are tied together by the intermittent announcement of a pertinent law of "spiritual and financial" growth. One of the authors, or both, must have had training in the Catholic school system, since their comic references to Church affairs and internal politics, given with great reverence, are fairly accurate. This six hours tape recording helped me during many hours of heavy traffic on 495, the ring road around Boston.
Rating: 4
Summary: Masterful send-up of the whole self-help genre
Comment: When I first saw this book displayed, my interest was piqued - it is highly unusual for a true Christian monk to be engaging in the whole business of financial advice, yet given the slew of books from the Chopras, Beardstown ladies, and other unlikely characters in the market today, I wasn't totally surprised. I bought it without my usual survey, and set down to reading it. It was apparent that after the first couple of chapters that this was fiction, and that Brother Ty was not who he says he is. I suspect that if he is that oxymoronic combination, a "monk-tycoon", if indeed he really exists at all, his collaboration with Buckly and Tierney is in the spirit of Anonymous and "Primary Colors". Yet, sadly, I saw elements of the truth in this whole novel - it takes very little to derail ones spiritual journey given the overwhelming temptations of the marketplace, and there are quite a few examples (too many) of this even in the religious community, although not often as egregious as the events in this book. God help us if this isn't fiction.
I truly struggled in the first couple of chapters in trying to determine whether this was a true story or fiction, as the authors masterfully build farce upon farce, skewering everything and everyone (a la Monty Python's "Life of Brian") until the final chapter, when the one all important truth is revealed - you can only get rich from a self-help book by writing one. Maybe "Brother Ty" can be coaxed into a sequel on a related topic, or an entirely different one.
Rating: 4
Summary: Help yourself
Comment: I guess I'm firmly in the growing Christopher Buckley fan base, and so I'm not sure how objective I am when I write a review of one of his books. Suffice it to say that this one -- written with collaborator John Tierney-- has the same crisp writing, the same kinds of unusual story lines and plot twists, the same kinds of colorful characters that made Mr. Buckley's other novels wonderful examples of worthwhile light reading.
In this story, a failed investment banker becomes a monk and in the incarnation of Brother Ty, he somehow becomes a catalyst in the ethically flawed rebirth of the monastery's wine. The story is a satire that takes aim at self-help books, but as someone raised Catholic (and practically living in the shadow of the Vatican), a former financial journalist, and a wine lover ... well, a story line that among other things takes aim at the Holy See, Wall Street, and Napa Valley hit close to home in too many ways for me not to love it.
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Title: No Way to Treat a First Lady : A Novel by CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY ISBN: 0375758755 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley ISBN: 0060976624 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The White House Mess by Christopher Buckley ISBN: 0140249281 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Wry Martinis by Christopher Buckley ISBN: 0060977426 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Little Green Men : A Novel by Christopher Buckley, Random House Inc. ISBN: 0060955570 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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