Good Heavens [Paperback]

Margaret A. Graham (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: Fleming H. Revell Company (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800759389
• ISBN-13: 978-0800759384
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,099,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Engaging Plot with a Host of Interesting Characters, May 16, 2004

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Heavens (Paperback)

In this book's most mangled sentence --- on page 2, for shock value --- the main character says, "You know I have only went through the eighth grade." It's the voice of Esmeralda, the long-widowed, childless, past-retirement-age matron who narrates a spring and summer of her southern life --- seemingly in the year 2000, though the setting is reminiscent of an earlier decade, before instant communication and worries about bureaucracy and liability insurance. At the beginning of the book Esmeralda lives in Live Oaks, South Carolina, where the town's latest crime wave is "boys busting watermelons in a field."

In paragraph 1 of GOOD HEAVENS, a board member of Priscilla Home, a Christian halfway house for adult female addicts, asks Esmeralda to come on board as the resident manager, a "fancy name for housemother." By the end of chapter 1, Esmeralda is on the move --- driving her old Chevy toward her new responsibilities and home, on an isolated North Carolina hilltop. Why would anyone do this? Because God --- through Esmeralda's King James Bible bolstered by a "C. H. Splurgeon" motto and the fortuitous rental of her house --- has told her to trust and obey.

When she arrives at Priscilla Home, Esmeralda discovers it needs more than a housemother --- its bills are overdue, its larder is bare, and its young director, Ursula, is floundering, making little headway with donors or with the dozen residents in her care.

Plucky Esmeralda, armed with old-fashioned common sense, her marked-up King James Bible and a mind full of "Splurgeon" one-liners, comes to the rescue. As for that Bible, at one crisis point when Esmeralda, frustrated with Ursula, wonders if she herself has become the Ugly Christian, she turns to the Gospel of Matthew. "Good heavens," she says to herself, "there was so much in there that was hard to take. I had to get out of the Sermon on the Mount. Checking out the cross references, I turned to Ephesians. Well, lo and behold, the same kind of stuff was in Ephesians. At least the words weren't printed in red."

Margaret Graham lays out an engaging plot --- always one more hurdle to overcome --- reining in a host of characters. With little thanks to Ursula and her Group therapy sessions but, rather, through Esmeralda's one-on-one conversations and the larger context of her newly instituted Prayer and Praise sessions, we gradually get to know the driving "issues" in the lives of maybe six of the home residents; we meet local residents who are surprisingly supportive of a residential ministry in their neighborhood. And yes, toward the end, there's a romantic subplot.

This is Graham's second Esmeralda novel, but this book clearly stands on its own. Having not read the first book, MERCY ME, I did not feel at a disadvantage, though the cast of characters gets nearly out of hand when the home town women's group from the Apostolic Bible Church --- seemingly the focal characters of MERCY ME --- comes for a visit.

In this novel, I see shades of Jan Karon's Mitford series. But the voice and view is first person, not third; you see the world through Esmeralda's eyes only. And that worldview is not from a southern small-town main street (the origin of the phrase "mainline" churches), but from the back roads and fundamentalist rows. The Mitford series for the Bible Church set? Maybe that's what the Esmeralda series can be.

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Heavens, March 23, 2004

By 

Huntress Reviews (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Heavens (Paperback)

The Bible makes it clear, God does not take age as a good reason for retirement. Esmerelda (from Mercy Me), finds this out when she is called to be a house mother of sorts to a women's half way house. Although far past retirement age, she accepts the challenge and soon finds herself in a mission field where she'll need the full armor of God, especially the Sword that is the word of God.

Her boss will find out that book learning doesn't necessarily equate with wisdom as Miss E is able to handle situations with a homey wisdom that solves more problems than any more learned person can. The obstacles ahead include over doses, bleeding, explaining the really tough issues in the Bible, and how to handle two women living as a married couple. Yet, the light shines through.

*** Gentle and plain spoken, this book has a lot of truths in it. Christian books have grown up a lot in the last few years. The main lesson to be learned is a Christian can only do good if they are in the world, not isolated from it. ***

Reviewed by Amanda

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great Graham story filled with engaging characters., January 26, 2011

By 

Bonnie Engstrom "Christian Writer" (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Good Heavens (Paperback)

Margaret Graham keeps doing it. Her stories are filled with unique characters and fun plots. This one is special. Even if you are not retired, you will laugh, chuckle and be delighted by Esmerelda's antics.