Grandmother and the Priests [Mass Market Paperback]

Taylor Caldwell (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett (December 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449213870
• ISBN-13: 978-0449213872
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 3.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #739,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A master storyteller amazes with her tales of unsung heroes, May 30, 2000

By 

Robert E. Henry (Hopewell, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grandmother and the Priests (Mass Market Paperback)

"Grandmother and the Priests" must rate as the all-time sleeper in modern fiction. Never has storytelling magic so outstripped a novel's title. For if the title conjurs up images of old-fashioned yarns carefully constructed to avoid upsetting the reader, then the very first section of this incredible work will dispel all notions of ennui.

It is tempting to find another term besides "spellbinding" to describe "Grandmother and the Priests" -- if only because the term is generally overused/misapplied and so sends the reader running for cover. Here it is the only apt adjective, for Taylor Caldwell has put together a novel unlike any other I have encountered, and every tale within the main plot is fresh and so exciting as to be cause for many sleepless nights while one continues to read it.

"Grandmother and the Priests" is actually a compendium of short stories skillfully collected into a single plot pretext. A group of traveling priests from the Victorian-age British Isles meet around the fireside of a wealthy grandmother to a young girl visiting her. There they tell their colleagues their most remarkable test of their vocation. This amounts to an encounter with life, the most extreme test ever put to their faith in God and in themselves -- if you will, their rite of passage through life, their existential moment where they turn back defeat. The young girl listens spellbound to these stories -- all of them too earnest to suggest exaggeration, for such is the author's skill -- and recounts them in this book.

If you ever yearned for real adventure, and for a book like no other you have read, then you will want to follow these very different priests throughout a land hostile to themselves and their flock, and watch in awe as they make sense of the overwhelming odds they face. The priests could not be more dissimilar, from elegant, highborn English aristocracy to scrappy Welshmen. Each has a special encounter awaiting their strength of mind, body and love of God and neighbor -- an encounter one immediately senses could only have been devised by a loving-yet-challenging God.

This book convinced me that the most thrilling journey is not to the center of the earth, nor to the furthest limits of space, but to an unblinking fight to awaken one's sleeping soul, adrift in its comfortable, rote rituals, customs and prefudices, afraid to live out under the stars and "go for broke".

"Grandmother and the Priests" is a definitive profile of everyday heroes. You feel larger in your life's outlook after reading this collection, and you wish more authors would apply themselves to chronicling the heroic in mankind, and to expressing their thoughts with such elegance and wit. Thank you, Taylor Caldwell, for standing up for the greatness of the human spirit in this great work that -- who knows, perhaps for its quaint title --has yet to receive the acclaim it deserves.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A facinating collection of short stories with a common plot., April 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Grandmother and the Priests (Mass Market Paperback)

A little girl is sent to live with her grandmother, a rather unconventional lady. She is wealthy, and although not overly religious, she frequently has dinner parties with priests as her guests. The book is a memory of the stories the little girl heard at the table. Tales of sin and sacrifice, cowardice and bravery, pettiness and nobility. This is a book that can be powerful and moving. I have read it several times over the years and find it fresh every time. It is excellent.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ditto to Mr. Henry's review., December 13, 2004

By 

Carol "carol852" (Runnemede, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grandmother and the Priests (Mass Market Paperback)

Your review was so eloquent that it brought tears to my eyes. I read this book many years ago and was a fan of Miss Caldwell to the point that I tried to find every book she had written. At that time I had found quite a few and saved them in a box in my attic. Stupid, stupid woman that I am I didn't realize what would happen to them. They were not saved with an eye to their value in this day and age, but because of the reverence I had for Miss Caldwell and her unbelievable talent as a writer and story teller. I can remember reading and rereading "The Listener" with a box of tissues always at hand, although all of her work was poignant and human and so full of life and its events, this one moved me beyond words. She had a genuine unquestionable gift for the interpretation of the human spirit with all of its strengths and weaknesses and I am sure we will not see her equal in my lifetime. Mr. Henry, you are correct, Taylor Caldwell's superior ability is not valued or appreciated and I consider this a travesty.