Verdict: The author is sarcastic and misanthropic enough to please any Woody Allen fan, but he is also compassionate and careful to point out his own deficiencies.

Growing Up Irish Catholic is comprised of a series of frequently humorous stories about the author’s Massachusetts-based Irish Catholic family and his experiences growing up with them. 

It plays on a common theme of a generational divide, with the author, a male, seeking to constantly push the boundaries of what his “old-school” family finds acceptable. The book’s tagline may as well be “boys will be boys.” 

Pat Carey is an honest and unafraid author, not only daring to recount many humiliating tales from his adolescence, but taking great joy in telling them. He fuses the actions of a young boy with the wisdom of his older self and creates many deliciously funny vignettes. Carey is sarcastic and misanthropic enough to please any Woody Allen fan, but he is also compassionate and careful to point out his own deficiencies.

He’s the “everyman”; he’s simply voicing what everyone is thinking but nobody has the gumption to say out loud. Growing Up Irish Catholic is primarily aimed at men, but anyone with a quirky or exotic family will find it resonant.

Reviewed by Will Stewart