Overview

A young man struggles to reconcile God, faith, and sex as he stumbles toward finding his life in this frank and beautifully written memoir. Since childhood, David Schickler has been torn between his intense desire to become a Catholic priest and his equally fervent desire for the company of women. Growing up in a family of staunch Catholics in upstate New York, Schickler senses God along what he calls the dark path --a shadowy trail that winds through the woods behind his childhood home. On this path he begins his ongoing, frustratingly one-sided talks with God. Things don't get any clearer for Schickler at college, where he initiates serious conversations about becoming a Jesuit just as he enters a passionate relationship with a vivacious, agnostic young woman. He tries various obsessions--karate, beer, writing fiction--attempting to duck the mystical God he feels called to serve as a priest. His pursuits of these passions, and of the young woman, take him from Germany to New York City and eventually to New England, where he has a life-changing reckoning about whether he will end up wearing the clerical collar or getting the girl. Candid and funny, lyrical and blunt, The Dark Path is an evocative portrayal of one man's struggle with faith and women . . . both of which he tries to love with bold, bracing honesty.

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9781594486456

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Reviews

This is that rarest of memoirs: a smart, funny, and searingly honest journey that rings true on every page. Whether he's describing his devout Catholic upbringing or his misadventures with a nymphomaniac hotel concierge, Schickler chronicles every step of his epic quest to reconcile God, religion, sex, love, and family and does so with wit, grace, and a profound empathy for everyone he's met along the way. <br> --Jonathan Tropper<br><br> A bracingly original and fantastically entertaining page-turner. David Schickler's fiercely funny, wrenchingly dark, gorgeously written memoir of almost becoming a Catholic priest chronicles years of struggle and anguish, but it also illuminates what it means to stay true to yourself no matter what. <br> --Kate Christensen<br><br> A touching, truthful, and often harrowing journey into a young man's faith. The Dark Path is about what happens to one's relationship with God, when the off-the-shelf model stops working. <br> - Mishna Wolff<br><br> This book of religion and youth, of growing older and finding who you are, is funny and poignant, lyrical and hard-headed, and honest. David Schickler tells us not just what it's like to be a young man considering the priesthood; he tell us--with more insight and heart than almost anyone before him--what it's like to be a young man. <br> --Darin Strauss<br>

Author Information

David Schickler is the author of the bestselling story collection Kissing in Manhattan and the novel Sweet and Vicious. He has been published by Zoetrope, Tin House, and The New Yorker, among others. He is the co-creator and executive producer of the Cinemax action series Banshee. He lives in New York.

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