The Dark Path

Starred review from August 12, 2013
It’s no surprise when Schickler (Kissing in Manhattan) recounts his inner revelation— “You’ll never be a priest”—halfway through this memoir about his years in discernment, weighing whether to pursue the life of a Catholic priest or simply to pursue beautiful women. Yet Schickler’s “raw truth” narrative—which leaves no story untold, from poignant conversations with his hardy father to kinky behavior with a hotel concierge—never fails to keep the reader on the edge of his or her seat. His seamless weaving of storytelling, dialogue, and thoughts—funny one second and heart-wrenching the next—makes this journey of belief and nonbelief unforgettable and enjoyable. “Here’s what else is bullshit, Lack-of-God. It’s bullshit that priests always told me that celibate priesthood is Something Higher,” Schickler laments one evening. This tale contains equal amounts of irreverence and holiness, and their combination makes the narrative pure. Agent: Jennifer Carlson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.

May 15, 2013
A memoir focusing on the passage from boyhood to manhood and from confusion to understanding.Fiction author Schickler (Sweet and Vicious, 2004, etc.) tackles the truth of his own life and the path he traveled through religion, confusion, depression and women to accomplish his goals. From early childhood, the author felt a visceral pull to God and the religion with which he was raised, Catholicism. Even as a child, Schickler wanted to be a priest, to bring God to the world in a real way, but the church often felt too unrealistic and too "bubbly-safe." Then there were the girls. His adolescent desire for neighborhood beauties turned into a romantic, sexual longing for women everywhere he went. Schickler wrestled with the tension of his two desires all the way through college and into graduate school before he finally found his answer. It didn't come easily. Plagued by depression and injury, he continued his search for truth and for a life that could make sense for every part of his heart. He believed in a God within darkness, and he ably shows in his exploration how that dark edginess is mirrored in the human condition. In this memoir, it isn't the devil in the details, it's all the ways that Schickler understands or doesn't understand his God, the beauty of shadows on wooded paths and in human hearts. The author's struggle is at once universal and unique, gritty and holy. There is truth in Schickler's pain and happiness, which makes for an engaging, relatable story that is a pleasure to read. In giving him notes on his short fiction, a friend wrote the author, "Tell the raw truth." With this memoir, he does just that.

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September 1, 2013
Since he was a young boy, Schickler (Kissing in Manhattan, 2001) grappled with twin desires, to become a Catholic priest and to revel in the company of women. Raised in a staunch Catholic family in upstate New York, he first sensed God along the dark path that meandered through the woods behind his house. He posed many questions to Him/Her, often about the women he was dating. Dear God, will (insert current girlfriend's name here) be my wife? Schickler's conflict of conscience intensified in college, where he engaged in serious inquiry about becoming a Jesuit, all the while dating women with various degrees of faith. After graduation, he took a job teaching at a prep school in Vermont, where a troubled student and crippling leg pain only added to his malaise. He began seeing a psychiatrist but long resisted taking his prescribed antidepressants. As time went on, Schickler wondered if he would ever find the path, dark or light, that would be right for him. Full of pathos and humor, Schickler's memoir explores just what it means to feel love and have faith.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)