5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who says romance is dead? Not Father Greeley!, October 28, 1999
By A Customer
Okay, let's go through the Greeley Checklist; Irish Catholic family, Check. Strong female lead, check. Sweet romance with a touch of danger, check. Happy ending, check. Yep, looks like the old Greeley formula. But as usual, he pulls it off in fine style. Patrick and Sara Anne are as engaging as my favorite Greeley couple, Dermot and Nuala from IRISH GOLD. And Raphaella, the angel with an attitude, is a delightful companion. One cavaet; The thug who terrorizes our heroes. I think I saw this same guy in IRISH LACE. Greeley needs to come up with some new villians. All in all, formulatic but expertly handled. Andrew M. Greeley never fails to entertain with his warmth, wisdom and knowledge of the human heart. First-rate fun!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Trip to the Old Sod, With Angels, January 6, 2005
Ay and begorra, isn't it a book written in stereotype Irish dialect, now? And isn't near every declaration a question? and every use of "at all" doubled up, "at all, at all"? And can't you hear the lilt and the brogue, relentlessly? If it were not a Christian book, would you not expect a leprechaun to pop up here and there, instead of an angel?
Isn't our wee lad of a hero thrust into a quest for the fair maid, through the will of an unknown uncle? If he can woo and wed her within the month, will he not win an inheritance of ten million dollars (though must he never tell her so?)?
And isn't it the early 90's, and the internet just getting its start, and our hero Paddy (much to the dismay of his proper, lace-curtain family) a computer whiz, consulting instead of getting a "real" job, and working on an early (and magically effective) version of a search engine? Much as he initially hates the idea of jetting off to Eire to deliver an envelope to an estranged (and hitherto unkown) branch of the family, reconcile the two branches, and seek the hand of his eighth cousin, once removed, Sara Anne, doesn't he log on to his search engine and begin instant messaging with a mysterious travel agent, Rafe?
And doesn't Rafe encourage his trip, provide him with first class accomodations throughout, bureaucracy free arrangements, and wads of cash? And isn't it all free?
And don't Dei spring out of Machinae about every third page, except it's actually one Deus and not really a Deus but a mere angel, or more precisely a Seraph? And doesn't this take away from the plot and the character development, and the moral quandries those of us not so blessed experience, to know that at every turn Paddy has a very active guardian angel watching over him, to guide his suddenly-glib tongue and protect him from the forces of Evil? And doesn't it get a mite boring by about halfway through the book, to know the magic pop-goes-the-deus will show up to fix it all, or at least offer reassurances?
And doesn't it make things a wee tad less interesting that the fair maid Sara Anne falls immediately and hopelessly in love with our questing hero (after one very brief snark)? And that it takes so little effort for him to cure her moods (seemingly any little bit of flesh pawing, or a few minutes time)? Doesn't he cure her of the deep underlying trauma, or at least set her on the path, though one simple conversation? And don't her parents even want him for a son-in-law from the git-go?
And isn't every woman, or at least those on our side, a knock-out beauty, with gleefully described breasts and thighs, buttocks and torsos, intelligence and wit and a randy nature? And doesn't it get a bit tiresome about the thirty seventh time we are treated to a slightly varied description of extravagantly molded and displayed feminine flesh and our hero's questing hands and libido? And doesn't even the angel, who is better called Rae than Rafe, have the hottest of bods when she appears?
And isn't himself a Catholic priest? And for all of that, with his vows of chastity and poverty, doesn't the author tread a fine line between chaste appreciation of womanly quality and lascivious near occasion of sin? doesn't he slobber a bit too much over the wondrous Sara Anne and her ma, and the angel Rae, in all their abundant smoothness? And doesn't he seem awful familiar and comfortable with the life of the rich, and little concerned with the life of the poor, or even middle class, except perhaps in theory?
And yet despite it all, doesn't Father Greely write with wit and grace, sufficient to carry this reader through a good part of the book before it became repetitious and tiresome, enough to earn it three stars? and isn't it maybe enough for some throughout, for those who believe life happens to them through mysterious devine intervention and control, rather than that they live it themselves?
And despite it all, are not some of the characters rather engaging? isn't the seraph Rae a delightful concept? and wouldn't Sara Anne be quite a catch even with an accomplishment or two less, a less queenly wardrobe and country-club life, maybe even a nose out of place or an ounce or two extra? (And why do the characters have to be so uniquely perfect? and where does that leave the other 99.999% of us, in Father Greeley's eyes? are not mere mortals worthy of divine grace?)
But if you want a more satisfying bit of a quest for a fair maid, with truer difficulties and progression through stages of the relationship, and a good bit of travelogue to boot, would ye not be better off reading "OVER THE MOAT: love among the ruins of imperial vietnam" by James Sullivan? Ye would. Isn't it a true story of a young man (Irish-American, to boot), without angelic assistance, who spends a year in Hue wooing and winning his love and winning over the forces of evil (bureaucracy and vengeful suitors) through his own efforts?
(And shouldn't I be mentioning, in all fairness, that I came to this book by accident as one involving a computer hacker, in the real sense of the word, and not through some fascination with angelology or dime store theology or hackneyed romance?)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
