The Church of 80% Sincerity
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
The Church of 80% Sincerity shares the inspiring, poignant, wickedly funny, and sometimes heartbreaking story of David Roche's journey from shame to self-acceptance. Born with a severe facial deformity, David has learned to accept his gifts as well as his flaws, and to see that, sometimes, they are one and the same.
In this compelling book, he shares his hard-earned lessons, providing an irresistible and unforgettable glimpse of his (and everyone's) inner beauty and worth, and offers profound encouragement in dealing with whatever life brings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The church of the title is not a formal organization but a concept "the church of choice for recovering perfectionists," Roche writes in a powerful little book that's part memoir, part inspirational handbook. "You can be 80 percent sincere 100 percent of the time, or 100 percent sincere 80 percent of the time. It's in that 20 percent area where you get some slack and you can be yourself." For Roche (now in his 60s), being himself has meant coming to terms with a face so severely disfigured by a benign congenital tumor that he's been spat at and called a monster. He was rejected from a seminary because, he was told, his appearance meant "people would not respect you as a priest." The loss of the fathers of the Holy Cross is the general public's gain. A performer and motivational speaker, Roche is frank and witty and incapable of resorting to sentimental pap. He's used to people staring at him, and he admits he's been tempted to respond to pestering, obnoxious boys by saying, "Well, my face is like this because when I was a little boy like you, I touched my wee-wee." He's well aware that people find him inspiring, but he doesn't try to hide his flaws, and that makes him more inspiring.
Customer Reviews
Many reasons to enjoy this book
As a big fan of David Roche's one-man show of the same name, I was thrilled to learn that he has authored a book. The Church of 80% Sincerity lives up to all expectations - it's smart, funny, honest, inspiring, tough, touching and powerful. A line in the Publisher's Weekly review says it well: 'Roche is frank and witty and incapable of resorting to sentimental pap.'
This book is both personal and universal. For those of us who sometimes feel that we don't fit in or struggle with self-acceptance, Roche's take on living with a severely disfigured face is heartening, hopeful and, oddly enough, offers real, practical guidance. And in the process of sharing his slightly skewed perspective on what it means to be human, Roche completely reframes the disability paradigm. He doesn't 'overcome' his challenge, living with a non-conforming face, instead he integrates the experience into his larger human self, and gets on with life.