The sin of overidentification

We have in the past, along with other intrepid bloggers, noted Andrew Sullivan's fluctuating attachment to his English-Irish-Gay-Catholic identity, which is quite often deployed as a badge of distinctiveness from the Evangenical Protestant hordes of Bush and Rove when Sullivan is disillusioned with them, as he recently has been. We now find ourselves wondering if this led him to excessive gullibility in his recent New York Times book review of Tony Hendra's book Father Joe (anchor for cultural illiterates like us: Hendra was the manager in Spinal Tap). Hendra recounts how a sexual escapade with the neighbour's wife when he was 14 led, via his punishment for this episode, to a lifetime of spiritual ministering by the Catholic monk of the book's title. Sullivan gave the book a rave review from the prize pulpit of the lead review in the Sunday NYT book review a few weeks ago, which no doubt played some role in the book's excellent sales.

Subsequent revelations have not maintained the rapturous reception. First, Sullywatch highlighted a followup letter to the NYT from Tap's Lenny disputing Sullivan's unquestioned repetition of Hendra's claimed role in creating the movie. But now things are getting downright disturbing. Prompted by the supposed confessional tone of the book, Hendra's oldest daughter has come forward to complain that he molested her as a child, which is nowhere mentioned in the book.

So what's the Sully angle? Well, our view is that Sully's eagerness to find a fellow English self-styled non-conformist seeking refuge in the spirituality of the Catholic church led him to be too unquestioning about Hendra's story, right down to the claimed architecture of Spinal Tap. But more seriously, our first reaction upon reading the opening anecdote of the review was: he's 14 and he's about to have sex with the married woman next door? We know Ireland and England are different, but nothing about our own teenage years helped that story ring any more true. There's a field day of psychology here in how Sully may have projected his own turmoil onto Hendra's apparently redemptive tale, and it will be worth watching how he reacts as this surely messy controversy plays out over the next few days. We will update as necessary.