Move over, Jean Shepherd! Young Bridget in award winning Dodging Satan takes refuge in wacky misunderstandings of 1960s Bible Stories and Catholic iconography to avoid problems in her Irish/Italian family life. Her musings will have you in stitches. Get ready for glorious supernatural worlds–with exorcisms, bird relics, time travel, Biblical plagues, even the ‘holy’ in holy water–as Bridget … grapples with sadistic nuns, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, & God the Father’s romantic life!
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Shortlisted for the Rubery Book Award 2020
The story of a young girl’s attempts to navigate her way through a Catholic upbringing in mid-to-late twentieth century America. Bridget is the daughter of an Italian mother and an Irish father, who struggles to reconcile her religious education with the reality of family life. As she matures, she begins to notice that the patriarchal dictates of God-the-Father are replicated in life beyond the church, and her scepticism deepens to a point where the Virgin Mary comes to seem like the ultimate in oppressed women. It deals with huge topics with great poise: religion, the immigrant experience and women’s position in society. It’s a lovely book, teeming with great comic moments, vividly rendered characters, and razor sharp wit.
They say there’s no guilt quite like Catholic guilt – and as a lapsed Catholic myself, I can confirm that it runs deep. I absolutely loved this book. It’s hard to pin down what I enjoyed most, but I can honestly say that Bridget’s delving into the bible and her musings about God are definitely close to the top of the list. This isn’t your typical coming-of-age. It’s raw, real, and on some levels, relatable. There’s a few moments that will just tear at your heart, it’s impossible to not feel bad for what Bridget deals with, but I can’t help but admire her spunk and determination. An excellent book!
A poignant, but very hilarious look at a young girl who is imagination works overtime. She frightens her self with the crucifix and other things that I every day items to most people. This book is so funny I laughed so much and couldn’t put it down. This is a book I highly recommend to anyone who likes to laugh and coming-of-age stories. Not for the faint hearted it’s so funny!
This is an extremely well written book that drew me into the world of a young and impressionable teenager who is raised by her extremely religious parents who clash constantly on many different levels. One of which being the culture clash of her Irish / Italian upbringing, and the takes on religion and ideas on life being drilled into Bridgette. This is a really unique story that had me laughing out loud at times, while also saddened by other more tender moments as well. This book covers a variety of funny, sad, and common topics that teenagers have to deal with in their own unique way. A wonderful short read that I highly recommend.
Dodging Satan: My Irish/Italian, Sometimes Awesome, But Mostly Creepy, Childhood
by Kathleen Zamboni McCormick
I received a copy of the book and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
Bridget narrates her story being part of an Italian/Irish combined family mix and being raised very much Catholic. She is surrounded by family life being central to the Catholic faith,especially from her mother, attending a Catholic school etc, whilst encompassing the religious hypocrisies.
It’s a child’s viewpoint of the complicated rules and life in general and how as adullts we can twist things to adapt to a situation that children take on face value.
As she grows up, there is the realisation of what she is taught with the Catholic guilt, compared to stark reality. This is an entertaining look at faith, based on true stories that have been fictionalized. One of my favourite parts is the construction of the dress code of “ Mary the Mother of God “…aka BVM.
Having grown up myself attending a church complete with statues etc, I acknowledge Bridget’s acceptance of the graphic depictions on the stained glass and décor of what can be witnessed inside a catholic church, seen as “ normal “ but to others outside the faith can appear to be quite shocking. But the most dreadful is the fear of forgetting where you had been sitting after taking communion… I can still recall having to count the pews so I wouldn’t lose my place!
Hilarious “memoir” of growing up in an Irish Italian Catholic family. The author depicts her upbringing in a Catholic household, and attending Catholic schools in a funny way, with an over-the-top review of Bible stories, rosaries, the BVM, God the F, and holy cards. I had a similar upbringing, so I thought the book, including the stories of her family, the clergy, and the nuns, were quite funny.
The author does have a rebellious streak in understanding that women should not be subservient to men-and that the Bible was written by men. Good job!
#DodgingSatan #KathleenZamboniMcCormick
Kathleen McCormick has done a fantastic job with this book. I loved the way the book started from a young child’s perspective and the writing developed to show the ageing of Bridget. The humour almost seemed accidental in the child like style of writing which just made it more enjoyable. The unravelling of Bridget’s beliefs as she grew up and discovered that nothing is black and white made the book so interesting to read and highlights the problematic nature of religion on young minds whilst being very entertaining.
This book is so different from what I usually read; however, I took the risk and I am glad I did it. The book is about a girl with Irish and Italian heritage; with such a strong believes in God and in the church, Bridget is trying to find meaning in life and in the Bible all that while attending a Catholic School, she tries to find meaning in all those things she thought were sacred.
This story is really told from the point of view of a teenage girl, so there are pretty funny moments along the book but there is the hidden truth also; there are sensitive topics, like puberty, the church nuns that made little girls afraid of everything they consider a sin, domestic violence, how her mother was raised to stay in a marriage where the husband is abusive. This is mostly an eye opener for Bridget, everything that her family cherishes and believes in is questioned by her and who she tries to find her own self.
Dodging Satan gives a funny and equally disturbing account of life in a very religiously dedicated family. The interpretation of rules and consequence by a child is comical and concerning. The attempt to understand life’s complications and going through the standard motions of becoming a teenager and then a young adult is already hugely challenging but even more so when Catholicism (or any religion) is applied. Kathleen’s attempts to navigate life, love, adult relationships and a new found sexuality while dealing with fear inducing nuns, indifferent family members and fun loving friends makes the book one of my favourites I’ve read in a long time.
This book is very well-written and it drew me into Bridget’s world of two different faiths pretty quickly. It is a lot more whimsical than I’d first thought it might be, but I quickly adapted and had so much fun reading. Bridget doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere and is trying to make sense of the two cultures/faiths that she finds herself being raised in.
Through the paradoxes and conundrums I found this book to be both laugh out loud funny, and also sad at times. A brilliant story with larger than life characters. I highly recommend for anyone able to read a book based around religion but not take themselves too seriously.
Bridget, in Dodging Satan, maintains a playful personality even though the main topic is quite serious – her strict Catholic upbringing. I did not grow up having religion in my life, but we do have beliefs in God and spirituality, so it is interesting to me to read about the lives of others who had childhoods/families who were so tightly bound to their religion. Her parents are strict Catholics and try to instill these same beliefs in their daughter as she begins questioning certain Bible passages and the temptation of Satan. I found myself agreeing with her and finding her questions sensible. It is easy to understand her need to use wit, charm, and humor, I think it’s a useful tool in this interesting and engaging story. This is the kind of story that you can take in in one sitting, taking parts of it with you to chew on for a while.
Dodging Satan by Kathleen McCormick is a brilliant coming of age tale that is not only provoking but also incredibly daring and original.
Full of meditations on the nature of growing up and the role that religion can play in our lives, Dodging Satan is both hilarious and heartbreaking, often, both at the same time. It is also a fascinating study on the nature of being young and the impact that your parents and our surroundings can have on our life.
Kathleen McCormick manages to take what could have been a tricky subject and injected with plenty of wit and humor, so much so that you won’t want to put the book down.
If there is one major criticism to be leveled at Dodging Satan, its that the book it too short and it leaves you wanting even more. Due to its length, though, it is the perfect fast read for a weekend away.
I found Dodging Satan by Kathleen to be an excellent read. It had me laughing out loud for a good part of the novel, The greatest thing about the way this book has been written is that Kathleen has written it from a child’s point of view. Being raised in a catholic household myself I could easily relate throughout. This book brings humour and sadness but overall is a great read. Dodging Satan will take you to another world and learn you about different religions and cultures, you wont be able to stop reading once you start! Well done Kathleen.
You know at once with a title like ‘Dodging Satan: My Irish/Italian, Sometimes Awesome, But Mostly Creepy, Childhood’ that you’re in for – may I say it? – one hell of a ride! The story begins with scenes of a young girl at Catholic school and is told from the questioning, sceptical and amusing perspective of the girl herself. From the main character, Bridget,’s thoughts regarding the gift of a glow-in-the-dark crucifix prior to her first Holy Communion and learning that phosphorous, and not God, makes things glow, to figurines of the Blessed Virgin Mary that she considers inauthentic due to Mary sporting make-up, this girl has opinions about everything and everyone. Bridget has nightmares about Satan that the family GP blames on anxiety and the family priest blames on guilt. She spends her childhood having to work out for herself how to make sense of the world around her, especially religion. You can easily loose yourself in Bridget’s life and the entertaining way it’s expressed.
Bridgette (Bridgie) is a naive 7-year-old girl of Italian-Irish descent, born into a very Catholic American family (and also very chaotic, words that sometimes seemed to be directly related). She is excited because she will soon make her first holy communion, but evil Satan harasses her, and Bridgette feels guilty for the terrible things that happen to Jesus and the children of Africa every time she sins. From her particular childish logic, Bridgette tries to understand how she, the multitude of people around her, her creed, her concerns, sexuality and God herself, fit in a world whose rules seem to involve a secret code that adults seem to follow very closely but never understanding it at all.
The book narrates, with a good dose of humor, little more than five years in the life of an innocent girl who, little by little, has to find her own spiritual path in a macho, dishonest and incomprehensive world which tries to bury her joy and spontaneity under the weight of fear, guilt, silence, abandonment and renunciation. Among Greek myths, the lives of the holy virgins, patriotic males and warriors, coordinated clothes, a ruined Christmas and delicious artichoke hearts, Bridgette manages to grow as a person and as a woman, reinterpreting things in a modern, feminist, critical and unorthodox way; which is much more useful, positive and free than most of his large family’s.
Dodging Satan turned out to be an agile, spontaneous, very funny and quite bold book. The Catholic background might seem, in a first approach, a limitation that would lead readers from other creeds (or from no creed at all) to refrain from reading this book, but the book is not doctrinal at all; on the contrary, I find that its critical, humorous and innocent character is fresh, natural, free, sincere and even universal.
New York author Kathleen Zamboni McCormick grew up in Cambridge, MA, in a tense Irish/Italian Catholic family whose contradictions were both hilarious (in retrospect) and frightening and form the nidus for her debut novel, ‘Dodging Satan: My Irish/Italian Sometimes Awesome But Mostly Creepy Childhood.‘ She has authored and coauthored books on reading and teaching world literature. Her educational background is both Boston College and the University of Connecticut and she now is a professor of Literature at SUNY Purchase, and has won national awards for her academic work–about innovative ways to teach writing and (no surprise!) Irish and Italian literature. In addition to her writing and teaching, she finds pleasure in arts & crafts, sewing, knitting, crewel work, and embroidery, claiming that ‘if I weren’t a writer and an academic, I’d have become a weaver. The pleasure I take in fabrics is something that certainly comes through in Dodging Satan. The weaver in me I hope is also evident in the ways in which I write digressively and then work every detail back into the main fabric of the story.’
Kathleen has that style of writing that is both hilarious and poignant simultaneously. How? By creating a fictional novel that closely parallels her childhood experiences and while being a coming of age story it goes beyond just that as a dissection of Catholicism and its influences on children and adults who act like children! Read simple the titles to the chapters of her book offers a fine glance at the jewels within, but getting a taste of the manner in which she places words on the page is a better introduction to her gifts. She opens ‘Why is God in daddy’s slippers?’ with ‘The Italian and Irish sides of our family can argue about almost anything— the thickness of porridge, how much people can drink before they’re officially alcoholics, and which side acts more like “bloody foreigners.” But they all agree on the sacredness of the crucifix. An uncle on each side survived an attack in WWII that killed the rest of their platoons— all because they were wearing their crucifixes. I volunteer to tell the story of the miracle of my uncles’ salvation to my second grade class. The bombs were bursting in air. My uncles, years before my birth, were staring at the rockets’ red glare. The rockets were about to come down on them when they touched their crosses around their necks, and God touched them back. A heavenly host of angels singing alleluia held up American flags against our enemies who didn’t believe in God. And all of this to save my two uncles, Johnny Flaherty and Tony Alonzo. God is Italian. Or Irish. Either way, He was on our side. That’s why we won.’ And it just gets better!
The synopsis provides a map of the tale: ‘Bridget Flagherty, a student at St. Michael’s Catholic school outside Boston in the 60s and 70s, takes refuge in her wacky misunderstandings of Bible Stories and Catholic beliefs to avoid the problems of her Irish/Italian family life. Her musings on sadistic nuns, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, and God the Father’s romantic life will delight readers. Bridget creates glorious supernatural worlds—with exorcisms, bird relics, Virgin Martyrs, time travel, Biblical plagues, even the ‘holy’ in holy water—to cope with a family where leather handbags and even garlic can cause explosions. An avid Bible reader who innocently believes everything the nuns tell her, Bridget’s saints, martyrs, and boney Christs become alive and audible within her. While the nuns chide her sinful ‘mathematical pride’ and slow eating habits, God answers her prayers instantly by day, but the devil visits nightly in the dark. Scenes run the gamut from laugh-out-loud Catholic brainwashing of children, to heart-wrenching abuse, to riveting teenage excursions toward sex. Young Bridget tries to make sense of a world of raging men and domestically subjugated women and carve a future for herself, wrestling with how God and men treat women. Her Italian female relatives—glamorous Santa Anna, black-and-blue Aunt Maria, sophisticated Eleanor with a New York ‘Fellini pageboy’—offer sensual alternatives to the repression of her immediate family. She prays fervently that “despite God’s bizarre treatment of married women… some [girls] might still discover ways to have a great time without being a nun.”
Kathleen Zamboni McCormick, welcome to the arena of the finest in contemporary comedic writing. Her future is assured.
Written by author Kathleen McCormick, this book is a fascinating look at Catholicism, religion, and what happens when things are taken too far. The book plays with good and evil in a truly unique and interesting way as the main character of the book struggles with how to take in all the information she is being given. This book also delves into brainwashing, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, familial divide, culture, and the supernatural. I thought that this story did a great job of balancing the plot and characters intrigue and journey with the deeper exploration of themes. This book takes the reader on an incredible journey of the mind. It is inside the characters head where we see just how much the clash of family and faith have disrupted her reality. I found this book to be a fascinating read and interesting take on religion when it is taken too far and without its true morals. This book is wonderfully written; full of creative imagery, in-depth characters, and a story that will hold you captivated from the beginning until the very end. I was astonished by just how much I enjoyed reading this book. I was very impressed with this author and hope to see more from her in the future.
Don’t let the title fool you, ‘Dodging Satan’ is seriously funny, Catholicism has never been as hilarious as when seen through the eyes of teenager Bridget, experiencing her formative years in a home full of strict Irish/Italian Catholics.
Trying to figure out your own path when growing up is hard enough without being preached to on a daily basis by a family that doesn’t exactly hold the moral high ground. As a result a stressed out Bridget starts experiencing nightmares she thinks have been sent by the Satan himself and let’s just say, telling her family about them probably wasn’t the best idea.
Funny, troubling, creepy, and entertaining ‘Dodging Satan’ is a coming of age tale with a difference and made me thankful of my atheist upbringing.
Dodging Satan- what a title! Very intriguing to me even though I am not a very religious person and I have never read Christian literature. I got Kathleen McCormick’s novel as a gift and I must admit she does a great job! The author tells the story from child’s a perspective, which was unusual to me as normally the books I read are from the perspective of adults.
The book is thought-provoking, humorous, and at times tender as well. Finally a fresh, original take on religion, and about time too. Read it! You wont regret it!
Laugh-out-loud, and challenging the Irish Catholic system in both a theological and an entirely comedic way. This mash-up of style works particularly well, and I found it’s tone to be refreshing. It’s told from a child’s perspective, Bridget, who is finding ways to deal with her strict upbringing. Echoing the socio-politics of the time, the subject of Catholicism and religion in the 60’s and 70’s, McCormick brings a gritty realism to her story, as she does a great job at animating recollections of a child growing up with her mad-cap household. Although to be expected, some of the topics covered were serious, and rather sad, it is the writers light-hearted and quirky manner which kept me enthralled throughout.