The Messiah of Morris Avenue: A Novel

Tony Hendra

Apr 2007 · Sold by Henry Holt and Company

About this ebook

In The Messiah of Morris Avenue, Tony Hendra—the acclaimed satirist and New York Times bestselling author of Father Joe—poses the question: would we recognize the messiah if he appeared today? And delivers, in the words of Frank McCourt, “just what the country needs now—a good dose of merriment in the face of crawthumping righteousness.”

In the not so distant future, the tide of righteousness—in the form of executions, barking evangelists, tank-like SUVs, and a movie industry run entirely by the Christian right—has swept the nation. Aside from the non-white, the non-Christian, and the non-wealthy, all are believers.

Among the skeptics is a washed-up journalist named Johnny Greco, who hears of a media-shy young man known as “Jay” roaming through ghettos, healing the sick, and tossing off miracles. Soft-spoken and shabbily dressed, Jay is an unlikely savior for this anxious and intolerant America.

But as he makes his rounds, gathers followers, and makes furious enemies among the righteous powers that be, Johnny finds it harder and harder to doubt him.

About the author

Tony Hendra (1941-2021) was a multimedia humorist and the New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, and the novel The Messiah of Morris Avenue.

Educated at Cambridge in the early 1960s, Hendra developed his satirical style as a writer and performer with the university’s Footlights theatrical group alongside future Monty Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman. After stints in a comedy act in New York and as a television writer in Los Angeles, he joined the staff of Harvard’s National Lampoon from its inception in 1970. As a writer and managing editor, Hendra was instrumental in transforming the magazine into a popular media franchise.

In 1984, he wrote for the BAFTA Award-winning Spitting Image television puppet program satirizing politics and pop culture, and portrayed heavy metal band manager Ian Faith in Rob Reiner’s mockumentary This is Spinal Tap. He also appeared on such television shows as Miami Vice and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and cowrote the film satire The Great White Hype starring Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx.

A frequent contributor to New York, Harper’s, GQ, Vanity Fair, Men’s Journal, and Esquire, Hendra was the last editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Spy.