AmosL
05-20-2008, 10:35 PM
Pomfret, Scott. “Since My Last Confession: A Gay Catholic Memoir”, Arcade Books, 2008.
The Humor of Being Gay and Catholic
Amos Lassen
I have read and reviewed other books by Scott Pomfret but as one of the Scotts of Scott and Scott, Usually the books I read by the two Scotts were erotic sizzlers so I was quite surprised when I got “Since My Last Confession” as this is not the kind of book that I expected him to write. The same humor of the other books is there and there is some of the playful eroticism that I have grown to love in the other books. Yet even with the humor this book deals with the very serious issue of sexuality and organized religion.
So let’s meet Scott Pomfret. He is a lector at Saint Anthony Shrine and he also writes (for lack of better words) gay porn. He has a boyfriend whose name is also Scott who is a total non-believer, an atheist (Sacre Bleu). The boyfriend’s grandmother considers Catholicism to be a crime worse than sodomy.
Pomfret pokes fun at the entire Catholic experience and he says so with great humor and possible excommunication from Mother Church. The cast of characters in this novel fills three and one-half pages and their names are wonderful—Father Bear-Daddy, Father McSlutty, three females with the initials of “MF” and who all share the first name of Mary, Thelma and Louise, Ward and June, to name a few.
Before I continue, let me give a quote from the author’s note: “This is not an attack on the Church. It’s an invitation to laugh”. And laugh you will—in fact, I am still laughing as I type this.
However there is a great deal of pain here. As Pomfret attempts to make sense of the way the Church regards the GLBT community, he sees a humor in the pain it has caused. He points out of the irony of the church in that many issues of anti-gay policy are mouthed by sexually active gay priests. Pomfret really tries to give a religious relationship to the church and in this lies the humor of the book. By using satire, he considers the role of the church in modern life.
The book looks at all of the important topics with which a gay Catholic is faced—excommunication (and how to achieve it), Catechism (and its many uses), faith (and its uses and merits), the role of priests (in and out of the closet). Does this sound sacrilegious? It probably is but how would I know? I don’t have these problems—I’m Jewish and I have headaches of my own.
It is the wit, the humor and the truth beneath it that makes “Since My Last Confession” such a good read, if you can stop laughing long enough to turn the pages.
One reviewer has dubbed Scott Pomfret as the “patron saint of devilish wit” and I have to agree. This is quite a book and quite a read.
The Humor of Being Gay and Catholic
Amos Lassen
I have read and reviewed other books by Scott Pomfret but as one of the Scotts of Scott and Scott, Usually the books I read by the two Scotts were erotic sizzlers so I was quite surprised when I got “Since My Last Confession” as this is not the kind of book that I expected him to write. The same humor of the other books is there and there is some of the playful eroticism that I have grown to love in the other books. Yet even with the humor this book deals with the very serious issue of sexuality and organized religion.
So let’s meet Scott Pomfret. He is a lector at Saint Anthony Shrine and he also writes (for lack of better words) gay porn. He has a boyfriend whose name is also Scott who is a total non-believer, an atheist (Sacre Bleu). The boyfriend’s grandmother considers Catholicism to be a crime worse than sodomy.
Pomfret pokes fun at the entire Catholic experience and he says so with great humor and possible excommunication from Mother Church. The cast of characters in this novel fills three and one-half pages and their names are wonderful—Father Bear-Daddy, Father McSlutty, three females with the initials of “MF” and who all share the first name of Mary, Thelma and Louise, Ward and June, to name a few.
Before I continue, let me give a quote from the author’s note: “This is not an attack on the Church. It’s an invitation to laugh”. And laugh you will—in fact, I am still laughing as I type this.
However there is a great deal of pain here. As Pomfret attempts to make sense of the way the Church regards the GLBT community, he sees a humor in the pain it has caused. He points out of the irony of the church in that many issues of anti-gay policy are mouthed by sexually active gay priests. Pomfret really tries to give a religious relationship to the church and in this lies the humor of the book. By using satire, he considers the role of the church in modern life.
The book looks at all of the important topics with which a gay Catholic is faced—excommunication (and how to achieve it), Catechism (and its many uses), faith (and its uses and merits), the role of priests (in and out of the closet). Does this sound sacrilegious? It probably is but how would I know? I don’t have these problems—I’m Jewish and I have headaches of my own.
It is the wit, the humor and the truth beneath it that makes “Since My Last Confession” such a good read, if you can stop laughing long enough to turn the pages.
One reviewer has dubbed Scott Pomfret as the “patron saint of devilish wit” and I have to agree. This is quite a book and quite a read.