Recently I have been reviewing some of the works of Kevin O’Brien. Previously I have reviewed three books he narrated for Ignatius Press where I both enjoyed the books read and his voice talent. This time I am reviewing an audiobook, his own book, and a DVD from his show Theater of the Word.
As a Chesterton fan Manalive is one of my all time favorite novels of his and really one of my all time favorite novels. This story Innocent Smith seems to me to often be the story of G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton was a man deeply thankful for all things and would go beyond stopping and smelling the roses, but stopping and noticing he had two legs. This novel also reminds me of some aspects of his The Napoleon of Notting Hill in the court that occurs in the house. His idea of neighborhoods becoming sovereign translates in to the same for homes.
This is my second read of the novel and even though I was quite aware of how the plot would resolve itself, it was still great fun chocked full of Chesterton’s wisdom and his view of life. Innocent Smith is such an interesting character who shows that he is not the oddball and the one crazy, but ourselves as we settle down to life not seeing things afresh.
I listened to the just released Audiobook version of Manalive as put out by Ignatius Press. Chestertonian and actor Kevin O’Brien is wonderful as usual as once again he acts as a whole cast of players and gives us a version of Manalive I think Chesterton would have liked. Available here
“The Church of the Kevin” is a short book which uses material from his newsletter for his comedy murder mysteries he performed across the country along with some essays from his blog. Like most humor directed pieces it is hit and miss, but mostly hit. There is a lot of funny stuff contained. I especially liked his re-imagining of “It’s a wonderful life” where Clarence is a materialistic determinist with a major in moral relativism. Another funny bit was his take off on the million monkey-infinite time-Shakespeare meme that takes it in an interesting direction considering how inane the original meme is.
I really liked the essays in the section of the book “Trying to be serious” which combined both humor and critical content, a combination I especially enjoy and one in which Kevin O’Brien pulls off quite well. The Guide to Bad Homilies would have been especially funny if it wasn’t especially true – though we often laugh because something is true. His spending of a Christmas with relatives and the conversations that ensued considering that their points of view did not match Kevin’s in the realm of the Church and morality showed an issue we often come against ourselves along with some commentary on Seinfield and The Office. “How to make bad art” was an essay on the subject close to my heart considering just how much bad Christian/Catholic art there is out there from statues and paintings to film. What Christians are willing to accept as the height of art is quite depressing to me.
The last section included some poems. Now I generally have a poetic tin ear, but I enjoyed Kevin’s poems. Though that might not exactly be a ringing endorsement for him. Here is a sample of one that I really liked.
A Triolet for Pagan-Christians
Oh, come, oh come, enneagram
And save us from His precious love
We pimp ourselves for Fraud and Sham
Oh, come, oh come, enneagram
Who needs the Father, Son, and Dove?
Oh, come, oh come, enneagram
And save us from His precious love
“In 2007 Fr. Joseph Fessio of Ignatius Press and Archbishop Raymond Burke, then archbishop of St. Louis, teamed with actor and playwright Kevin O’Brien to launch a production company to spread the Gospel message through stage, film, television, audio recordings and the internet. Inspired by the clandestine theater company run by Karol Wojtyla in Nazi occupied Poland, also called the Theater of the Word, this traveling company seeks to evangelize through drama.”
As part of the Theater of the Word one of the shows they created is “The Honor of Israel Gow” which is one of the Father Brown mysteries from G.K. Chesterton. Kevin’s portray of Father Brown was quite inspired even if physically he doesn’t quite match the Father Brown I envisioned from the descriptions in the book. He does portray that spark and intensity of Father Brown quite well. Again as a critic of much of Catholic media I was happy to see that this show was well produced and the location shooting added to the story. Frank C. Turner who played Israel Gow was really perfect for the part. There is even an appearance from the great promoter of Chesterton – Dale Alquist. There was something missing though from the performance of the actor who played Flambeau though. Overall this was a solid performance of a Father Brown story. This can be obtained via EWTN Catalog.
