Dad Was a Carpenter: A Father, a Son, and the Blueprints for a Meaningful Life

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Summary: A Lasting Treasure!
Review: DAD WAS A CARPENTER is a small, quiet treasure. It's a true story written from a adult son's perspective as he looks back upon his father's life while raising a large family. We are privy to remembrances of a humble man who lived a modest, holy life without fanfare. If you really want to feel what a life lived by authentic faith and true moral belief is all about, take this in hand and read each chapter slowly, then stop and listen. The book's wisdom will reveal itself to you. If you don't find yourself sobbing in utter humility from the lessons of quiet love, patience and goodness learned, I will be very surprised. "Be a carpenter. Build something worthwhile. Start with yourself."

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Summary: A must read - you can't read this book just once OR twice!
Review: Dad was a Carpenter was written in a simple yet imaginative style. It is such an easy and pleasant reading experience. Kemp paints a picture of his father that is real-life. There is nothing flashy - but there is substance to this man. As I read, I could see the parallels between their relationship and that of myself and my own father. The world is full of "non-hero" type fathers who teach their children and just survive life and yet make it so full of memories for their families. When you have finished the book, you feel as if you personally know O.C. Kemp (the father) and have traveled through life with the Kemp family and have become a part of their family. As you read of the experiences in each chapter - you find yourself comparing your life's experiences with that of the author and his father and saying to yourself - "Hey, that's me and my Dad." Reading this book will make you want to share it with everyone. My wife and I have already decided what to give everyone for Christmas this year - "Dad was Carpenter."

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Summary: Perfect for gifts
Review: I have tears running down my face after reading the end, but this book also made me laugh. I'll be ordering an extra copy for my son-in-law as he and my daughter await the birth of their first child. This moving story would make a perfect Christmas or Father's Day gift.

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Summary: Could be me, could be you
Review: It would be hard to imagine anyone reading, "Dad was a Carpenter" without taking his, or her, own trip down memory lane. A quick and easy read, this book is a must for anyone who needs to do some closet cleaning to rid some old heartaches and get on with life.

Let's face it, being a kid can be as bitter sweet as life in general. In the end, most of us survive even our teenage years, though not enough of us reflect on the experiences and lessons of our fathers and mothers that molded us into what we ultimately became.

For some, those memories are too painful to recall. But like Kenny Kemp, some of us are able to look back and see that our parents were really all that we hope to be with our kids; loving, well meaning, imperfect, but basically decent and good.

Kemp's account about life with his dad written years after the funeral is a healing balm for the resentments built up during our teenage years and for too many us, carried on far too long and far to deeply into our adult lives. Through Kenny's eyes we learn that O.C. Kemp was probably much like our dad, a regular guy who loved his family and did his best to provide as well as he knew how.

A great book for sons, fathers, mothers and daughters alike. Inspiring, easy to complete in an hour if one can only read through the inevitable tears and many pauses for personal reflection.

If O.C. Kemp had read this book before his death it would have been as close as any man would ever come to what Jimmy Stewart saw in his own "Wonderful Life."

Rating:
Summary: Dad Was a Carpenter
Review: Kenny Kemp and I have been friends since we were 13 years old. I read Dad Was a Carpenter just after it's first printing in 1999 and I was touched, but not surprised, by Kenny's ability to grab hold of my heart with his words. Dad Was a Carpenter is the most wonderful little story you'll ever read.

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Summary: Dad Was a Carpenter
Review: Only one who has lost someone truly understands... Illness and Death are the refiner's fire which burn away the inconsequential and reveal what is important about someone's life, and what should be important in ours. Kemp's book helps one see and deal with the pain, the personal, and the precious in the lives of those we love...

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Summary: A journey worth taking...
Review: Slip behind the walls of a sons' reflection to reconcile the heart felt dissonance he feels between himself and his deceased father. A journey so well crafted that it is impossable to put down until his final words finish in a resolution of peace and love. Kenny Kemp leads us across the monumetal gulf that separates every child from his parental counter part and illuminates each step with insight and understanding. Can we know who our parents really are? Can we understand the world they passed through. Perhaps it's impossible. But Kemp gives us hope that just maybe we have a chance to get out of our own skin for a moment and look back to find that so much of what we must discover in ourselves is really uncovered in someone who came before us. If you have a sence for songs of the heart...then this is a journey worth taking.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: There are not many books out there that both look beautiful and have the capacity to move the reader. Kemp's Dad Was A Carpenter is one of those special books. From the first to the last word, the reader is spellbound by the powerful yet subtle storytelling. In the end, we realize that we are holding a book that has been carefully crafted -- a book that offers us an opportunity to look at all of our relationships in a different light.

This is not a book that is overly sentimental or cliched. It is a truly original and moving book and can and should be read and enjoyed by everyone.

If you liked Tuesdays With Morrie, you will love Dad Was A Carpenter. There is no question about it.

Rating:
Summary: Very highly recommended
Review: Writer and filmmaker Kenny Kemp won the Grand Prize in the prestigious Writer's Digest National Self-Published Book Awards for his memoir DAD WAS A CARPENTER: BLUEPRINTS FOR A MEANINGFUL LIFE, beating thousands of competing entries. The judges ruled well, for this beautifully written story of father, a son, and the meaning of life is must read.

Kemp begins his memoir with the words, "I lied--Dad was not really a carpenter. He didn't work in the trades at all. He was a pharmacist--an ordinary man with poor eyesight, gapped teeth, and no hearing in one ear..." Yet Kemp doesn't lie at all. For concealed beneath the ordinary veneer is an extraordinary father whose talented hands and imagination could see possibilities in the rejected, the mundane, and the discarded. Out of cast-off patent-room lamps, he created a chandelier. From equally simple materials, he created a go-cart. Out of an accident, he inspired a son to pay for damages and make the repairs himself. And the ability to see beyond the broken, the cracked and faded inspired a son's imagination with words and with film.

DAD WAS A CARPENTER: BLUEPRINTS FOR A MEANINGFUL LIFE will only take an hour or two to read, but the subtle life lessons shared within will remain with the reader for a lifetime. The son who learned the value of straightening nails has shared a profound philosophical view of life in the telling of his story. Indeed, the simple carpenter that lay beneath the skin of pharmacist will touch the heart of any that reads DAD WAS A CARPENTER: BLUEPRINTS FOR A MEANINGFUL LIFE. I very highly recommend it.