Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Gregory Boyle (Audiobook Review)

Audiobook Reviews from Audiobook-Heaven

Title: Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
Author: Gregory Boyle
Narrator: Gregory Boyle
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Duration: 7 hours, 39 minutes
Copyright: 2011
Genres: non fiction, inspirational, religion
Filed in: Audiobook Reviews
Review copy provided by HighBridge Audio

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: As a pastor working in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of murderous gang activity in Los Angeles, Gregory Boyle created an organization to provide jobs, job training, and encouragement so that young people could work together and learn the mutual respect that comes from collaboration.
Tattoos on the Heart is a breathtaking series of parables distilled from his 20 years in the barrio. Arranged by theme and filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our lives could be if we practiced compassion.
Erudite, down-to-earth, and utterly heartening, these essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love in difficult times and the importance of fighting despair. With Gregory Boyle's guidance, we can recognize our own wounds in the broken lives and daunting struggles of the men and women in these parables and learn to find joy in all of the people around us. Tattoos on the Heart reminds us that no life is less valuable than another.
©2010 Gregory Boyle. Recorded by arrangement with Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: One of my favorite books is Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. It’s a story of World War I told from the perspective of a front-line German soldier. The thing that I value the most in that book is the reminder that people are people, no matter where you are. Growing up in America, I learned that the Germans were the bad guys in both of the great wars, but after reading Remarque’s book, I realized that those German soldiers, the ones who actually did the fighting, were no different than the American soldiers, or the British, or the French. Someone told them to fight for their country, and so they fought with all of the courage and bravery they possessed. They were just people.
Tattoo’s on the Heart reminded me of that in a big way. For more than twenty years, Gregory Boyle lived and worked in what is probably the most dangerous neighborhood in America. He seemed to know that these people needed more than just someone to preach the word to them, although he provided that as well during his regular mass services. Rather, he simply got to know them, and in sharing their stories, he reminds us that they are just people, not much different than you or me. They join gangs and do the things that gang members do because it is all they know. No one has ever given them an alternative.
Boyle set up his ministry in Los Angeles county, home to 1,100 individual gangs, and some 86,000 members. Using donated money, he opened up the Homeboy Bakery, and hired gang members to work in it. It was simply overwhelming how many people jumped at the opportunity to change their lives for the better. The Homeboy Bakery soon became Homeboy Industries, an entire network of businesses and placement organizations, all for gang members who wanted nothing more than a way out.
These stories of the Barrio are sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and always enlightening. He challenges us to assume that the answer to every question is compassion. He reminds us that people are people, no matter where you are, and that love never fails. Above all, he puts names and faces to those violent thousands, and shows us that they are people, real live human beings who only want the same things that we all do, love and compassion.
Gregory Boyle narrated Tattoos on the Heart himself. I’ve commented a few times before that authors rarely make good narrators, but Boyle is the exception that proves the rule. I found his narration simply and utterly appropriate. His style is very natural and conversational, and after hearing him read, it becomes a little easier to see why people are so drawn to him: he doesn’t put on airs, he just tells it like it is.
Tattoos on the Heart is a shining example of what can be accomplished in this world if we can only turn our lives over to Christ and let Him take the lead. Listening to this audiobook has been a humbling experience for me, and God knows I can use more humbling experiences. I highly recommend this audiobook.

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

----------dotted line----------

If you like this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion” by Gregory Boyle (Unabridged Audiobook) from HighBridge Audio.

This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
Come back soon for more audiobook reviews from AudioBook-Heaven