My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt and Faith [Paperback]

Robert Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0312243146 | ISBN-13: 978-0312243142 | Edition: 1st

Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography

In the tradition of Augustine's Confessions, Robert Clark tells the story of his return to the Catholic Church through the prism of the religious history of his ancestors. Intertwining their experiences as Catholics in late-medieval England, as Puritan settlers in 17th Century New England, and as 19th Century New England transcendentalists with his childhood in an Episcopalian boarding school and later conversion to Roman Catholicism, Clark presents not only a memoir but a testament of faith.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Tracing his ancestry back 500 years, PNBA book award-winner Robert Clark (Mr. White's Confessions) maps a legacy of religious belief, disbelief, and faith that mirrors his own spiritual quest. Although he speaks to his recent re-entry into the Catholic Church (the original church of his 500-year-old ancestors), Clark has not written a predictable "I once was lost but now I'm found" autobiography. Rather, he examines a familiar English-American religious legacy. "Like my forebears, I have been variously, and sometimes simultaneously, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Puritan, a Transcendentalist, an agnostic, and an atheist," Clark explains in the introduction to the book. Using his own journey of doubt and faith as the narrative framework, Clark weaves in the religious stories of his ancestors. We meet the Clark family members as inquisitors during the rein of Henry VIII, as Puritan settlers, as accusers in witch trails, and as cohorts of Emerson and Thoreau. Clark has great command over his ancestors' stories, his own story, and his story-telling ability. As a result, he has pulled this ambitious autobiography together in a way that is historically informative, consistently entertaining, and personally meaningful. Deftly and often humorously, he helps us see how our ancestors' religious conversions, confusions, and conquests often reflect our own. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Two factors shape this religious memoir: Clark's family and his own experience. In an effort to explain the evolution of his faith, Clark takes readers on a trip through the ages, from the time of his ancestors of the 1500s to his coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s. Along the way, he reflects on history, creeds, art, literature, philosophy, and religion. He points out the faults of the Puritans; calls Mary, the mother of Jesus, "the vehicle by which Christians come to Christ"; and discusses the value of spiritual signs. Although not a meticulous historian, Clarke has nevertheless created a book of general interest. Recommended for larger public libraries.AGeorge Westerlund, Providence P.L., Palmyra, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (October 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312243146
• ISBN-13: 978-0312243142
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,547,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Clark is the author of ten books, the novels In the Deep Midwinter, Mr. White's Confession, Love Among the Ruins, The Lives of the Artists, and Heaven (just published) as well as the non-fiction works The Solace of Food, River of the West, My Grandfather's House, Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces, and Bayham Street: Essays on Longing (coming in 2012). He is a winner of the Edgar for Best Novel, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the Washington State Book Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Non-Fiction as well as being a finalist in the Los Angeles Times Book Awards and the IMPAC Dublin Award. He lives in Seattle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty and Story and God, October 1, 2003

By 

Kevin A Koehler (Mayfield Village, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt and Faith (Hardcover)

Perhaps one of the most original and reflective conversion stories in print. Clark creates a self-portrait from the reflection he finds of himself in the 500-something years of his family's history. Amazingly researched, beautifully written. Probably has a special appeal to people of English ancestry and, of course, to those who contemplate theological mysteries.

Unlike the other two reviewers, I had no problem with his discussion of Protestantism. Rather, I felt that he had a firm understanding of the content of his book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Storyteller + Great Story= Great Read, July 11, 2003

By 

matt (the reading room) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt and Faith (Hardcover)

The author is certainly not a theologian, but he is a magnificent storyteller. I read this book primarily for the story of the author, but found myself pulled into the tale of his English ancestors, something that I would not have read about under normal circumstances. I enjoyed very much his weaving together of his own personal spiritual journey with that of his forbearers.

While the other reviewer thought that his description of Lutheranism was off base (I agree), I would remark that the Universalist or Puritan trajectory of the Reformation was not an illogical outcome given some of the premises of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli concerning the nature of revelation, the church, the bible, matter, redemption, damnation and self. They are certainly not the only possible outcomes, which the author sort of implies, but they are certainly connected intellectually to Luther.

If you want to know more than you want to know about the relationships of the Naturalist Emerson and Thoreau, or neat details about Hawthorne and Melville, not to mention countless other luminaries, this book's later chapters will certainly be of interest to you.

You may find "Surprised By Joy" by C. S. Lewis enjoyable as a spiritual autobiography. Of course, Thomas Merton's "Seven Story Mountain" is incredible for its style and content.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What is this book trying to accomplish?, December 14, 2005

By 

PianoGuyFromSC (Columbia, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt and Faith (Paperback)

I certainly hope that the theologically unschooled don't use this book as their only handbook on church history. Clark has fundamental misunderstandings about Protestantism that go off on wider and wider tangents, and he closes his eyes to the doctrinal abuses of the Catholic church in Luther's day. I also hope that writers don't use this book as an example of how to write a memoir. Just what was Clark trying to write? 1. A history of religion?(Failed). 2. A story of his family? (Perhaps, but he seems more inclined to brag about the various famous people his kinfolk knew than about the family itself.) 3. A biography of Margaret Fuller? (This section, which consumes a huge portion of the book, would probably have been an interesting tome of its own but takes up too much time here.) 4. His personal story? (It comes and goes in the book almost as though he lost his train of thought.) Personally, it all seems like an extension of the therapy sessions he had as a troubled youth. This volume must have served a cathartic purpose for Clark, but didn't do much for me. It adds about as much to the understanding of religion as THE DAVINCI CODE.