Ian Morgan Cron - Jesus, My Father, The CIA and Me [Book Review]

I was drawn first to ‘famous’ episcopal priest, Ian Morgan Cron’s book by the buzz about it. If it was intended, generated or genuine, I really can’t tell. So on starting the book, I had high hopes, very high ones. ‘Jesus, My Father, The CIA and me’ is a memoir and the thing about memoirs is that they are hard to critic. I mean it’s someone’s life story and telling someone one’s memoir is boring or bad is like saying ‘would you go get a more interesting life story please?’ But we can sure rest the boring case cause Ian’s got a very interesting one delivered in his memoir which reads like something Charles Dickens might have penned. Yes, truth be told, it reads like fiction, ‘Jesus, My Father, The CIA and me’ is unbelievable, Unbelievably good and true.

The book unfolds around Ian’s life story which includes his alcoholic father who worked for the CIA. The major theme is redemption and how God is faithful to father the fatherless. It’s artistic, very and well written. It’s gutsy. It’s honest. Reading ‘Jesus, My Father, The CIA and me’ is journey, you would laugh so hard at some lines, some would just make you keep nodding in agreement, others would make you close the book and go for a long walk to think about what you just read, and some would make you give up tears. Yes it’s that good and real. It reads like the life story of a person and may I add, unedited.

Apart from metaphors, unnecessary comparisons that would make you roll your eyes, clumsy and uncalled for use of the name of God in various parts while the author is trying to make a point or describe various scenarios, I think ‘Jesus, My Father, The CIA and me’ could just be one of the best memoirs ever written and a great work of reflection that would be remembered in times to come.

Book Synopsis

An entertaining, touching memoir of life with an alcoholic father who secretly works with the CIA, a dark pilgrimage through the valley of depression and addiction, and finding a faith to redeem and a strength to forgive.

At the age of sixteen, Ian Morgan Cron was told that his stockbroker father actually worked with the CIA. The story of this world-rocking discovery is the stepping-off point into a fascinating exploration of one man's alternately heartbreaking and humorous journey to faith and spiritual growth.
Born into a family of privilege and power, Ian's life is populated with colorful people and stories, including the account of an alcoholic father who takes his family on a wild roller-coaster ride through wealth and poverty and back again. Includes tales of a nearly blind English nanny who teaches him what love means, a famous New York radio personality who saves his life, a simple carpenter who leads him to faith in Jesus, and his own personal journey from addiction to twenty-three years of sobriety.

Believers and seekers alike will be moved by how Ian uncovers and honors what is sacred in his story, how he discovers God in the struggle to find redemption, and how the mysterious movement and presence of God is woven throughout the adventure of his life.