Customer Reviews

Passport

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3 star:		(1)
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I really enjoyed this book. I heard about it from a friend and bought it, intending to get to it when I'd finished reading my current novel, but I took a quick look at it when it arrived and I was hooked. The story is interesting, engaging, and thought provoking. It discussed some very complex themes, including marital love, fidelity, and intimacy, in a very thoughtful and engaging way. I recommend it, particularly for anyone who is a father, or intends to become one any time soon.

I, too, really enjoyed reading this inaugural effort by Chris Blunt. The style is quick, yet with plenty of detail, and the story keeps you turning the page. As a thinking man's novel, I appreciated the opportunity to follow the main character struggling with a solution to a dilemma that in modern day America gets too little discussion or consideration. The book also celebrates being authentically and unapologetically Catholic.

An absolutely wonderful and inspiring novel. Dr. Blunt presents the reader with a topic rarely discussed in popular fiction: dealing with the consequences of our failures in an ethical manner often comes with great cost. His main character Stan's journey from sin to redemption gives us a model of heroic Christianity. His prose style will keep the reader engrossed from start to finish and it was one book I couldn't put down. While written from a Catholic perspective, Dr. Blunt's novel has much to offer anyone who has had to struggle back from a severe ethical failure. I anxiously await Dr. Blunt's next novel.

After spending every waking moment trying to finagle more moments to read just one more page of this book, I finally finished it much to my regret. I wanted more.

Passport is a difficult book to describe. It is a novel, yes. But what do you call a novel that makes you want to be a better person? That helps you see the sacrifices you've made aren't really that much, and you should do more? That turns your mind to your own selfishness and lays it bare? That makes you ask yourself if you're doing God's will in every little thing, and not just when His will and yours converge?

This is an adult novel, and yet, it's not that kind of adult novel. It's adult because it deals with mature stuff. Not that kind of stuff, although that's in there, too, just not graphically enough to give it an "R" rating. It's adult because the mature stuff is about sin. And sacrifice. And loving someone enough to give up everything for them. And the consequences of even a moment's lapse in judgment. And the love of Christ to help you walk through the darkness.

There are many situations in Passport which are comparable to real life. I've talked with Catholic women who have conceived out of the usual order. Who have married in court because they didn't yet have an annulment. Who have children in their homes with two different last names and complex arrangements for parenting. Who have endured hardships in marriage due to mental health issues, physical health issues, lack of being on the same page with the Church issues.

There are stories no one will ever hear. Stories of self-sacrifice and pain and days of quiet martyrdom that no one will ever know about in marriages all over the world. People who should be declared saints for what they go through; people who silently offer up daily difficulties for the sake of their children, or their spouse, or someone else.

This is a novel about a situation like that. A difficult situation. A very complex story about the complexities of sin, sacrifice, love, honor, chivalry, manliness and womanliness. It's a story about parenting, and families, and children, and faith, and hope. It's a story about a normal man, an average man, and a story about humans as we are. It's a story about how we try, and fail, and try again.

I think the greatest virtue in this story is hope. The main character never seems to give up hope, even though the situation--brought about by his own sin-- seems so hopeless. I loved his circle of friends, the garage where they work on cars and talk about life, the community center where they volunteer.

And even though the main character is often hopeful, he is real and human. He often fails, there, too, and tries to run from his sorrows and pain in ways many of us will recognize, because we've run like that, too.

And although this story is told from the guy's point of view, I still liked it, and I could still relate to everything that was happening because it is a human story, and hope is something anyone can understand.

The story is set in Chicago (mainly) and so I could really relate to that. When the author describes Evanston, or some Chicago neighborhood, I could picture it because I live here. I guess I could also relate because of being a parent and a spouse, and the story revolving around those states in life and issues relating to them. I don't know what an unmarried young adult or a grandparently adult would think of this book. But I suspect the emotions and situations are universal enough for most any adult to be able to find the story compelling, interesting, and even challenging.

I recommend this book to any adult looking for some leisure or commuter-type reading. This book is easy to read. It's a page-turner because you want so badly for the situation to be resolved in a good way, and there are so many almost insurmountable obstacles in the way. You won't be uncomfortable reading it because it keeps itself modest, and yet, talks about subjects you might not talk about with your friends, unless you know them really, really well, and trust them with your secrets.

Passport: A Novel. Bring a tissue. Bring your hopes and fears. Prepare to be changed. Prepare to be challenged.

Reprinted with permission from http://naturalfamilylife.blogspot.com

I am always flattered when someone asks for my opinion and I was particularly flattered to receive an autographed copy of Passport by Christopher Blunt at the CCL Convention.

Christopher Blunt has written a novel demonstrating nearly the entirety of the Church's teachings on marriage and sexuality. I am stunned by how well everything hangs together without being forced. The plot involves fornication, abortion, contraception, personalism, NFP, annulments, and marital chastity. The story is gripping and believable with a main character, Stan, who appeals to me, a Simpsons-loving entrepreneur. Stan is also a Catholic like me, who takes the Truth for granted and needs to re-learn the Faith constantly.

As Stan re-learns the Faith, a variety of events occur in his life which succeed in being surprising while not being unexpected. Stan's life is not a common one, yet it appeals to the common man. His is a truly Catholic life, where small things can teach great lessons and where an average man is prepared for great gifts.

Christopher Blunt describes his debut novel as a "coming-of-age story about a young Catholic man's discovery of self-sacrificial love." In this day and age, where self-centeredness, casual sex and "friends with benefits" are becoming the norm, Passport offers an important and timely message: that only in dying to ourselves can we truly love others and find meaningful happiness.

The book's protagonist, Stan, is a likable fellow, but one who lacks direction and drive in his life. He is an average guy who is trying to live out his Catholic faith but who has not yet found a lifetime mate. After a lapse in judgment, Stan finds himself in the difficult and agonizing position of being torn between two women: one he cannot marry (but who needs him) and one who would be the ideal Catholic wife. Throughout the rest of the novel, we journey with Stan as he struggles to make selfless, albeit difficult and painful, choices.

Passport shows the growth of a man who strives to do the right thing, and shows that the struggle to live chastity does not end with marriage; it is simply lived out in a different way.

I most strongly recommend this book to Catholics in their twenties and thirties, although all people would find the story compelling. There are some romantic elements in the book, but this is decidedly not a romance novel in any traditional sense. As a woman, I enjoyed reading a story from a man's perspective, especially the inner workings of a man's mind regarding chastity and natural family planning. The author does an excellent job of incorporating teachings on both the indissolubility of marriage and natural family planning without being preachy. Blunt's portrayal of family life is especially real, down to earth and believable as he describes attachment parenting, self-sufficient farming and home schooling.

Passport is an extraordinarily fine book and I highly recommend it. It is easy to read, engaging, well-written and the characters are rich and well-developed. It was a joy to read such an uplifting story.

Ellen Gable

award-winning author

In Name Only

This is a wonderful book, a real blessing.

The writing is clear and sparse, not a wasted word.

Because the novel is strongly driven by dialogue it really moves, truly a page-turner. I needed to depart from "I couldn't put it down" because I zoomed through the first 300 pages one evening until my eyes gave out at midnight, so I finished the final 100 pages the next evening.

All the characters are natural, in 3-D, utterly authentic. I know someone who is very much like each of the characters (major and minor) and, so, reading the book felt more like seeing a movie in my mind.

There is so much depth here, so many points of wisdom throughout, that I intend to re-read Passport (as soon as my wife reads it) so that I may focus on (and benefit from) the elements of wisdom and insight and integrity and not so much the suspense of the basic plot.

A passport is what's needed to pass into new lands freely, and they are not always easy to get. "Passport" is the story of Stan Eigenbauer and his search for happiness. He thinks he finally has it, but fate has it in for him, and he soon faces a decision which could either make or ruin his life. Using the passport as a symbol, "Passport" is a tale of choices, love, and doing what's best for others and oneself. Highly recommended reading.

a great Catholic novel - easy to read,engaging and upholds Catholic teaching and instructs all at the same time! I hope to see more from this author. We need more Catholic novels!

I really enjoyed PASSPORT.

It has at its heart one of the most heroic portrayals of fatherhood I have seen. It's not the grandiose heroism of the father who is willing to kill to save his family but the quiet, self-sacrificing heroism of the man who is willing to lay down a little piece of his life, day after day after day as he battles his own selfishness.

If you want to learn something about Opus Dei, PASSPOST is about a billion times more informative than THE DI VINCI CODE.