Customer Reviews

Portofino

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Frank Schaeffer proves his skill as a storyteller in the coming-of-age novel "Portofino." This often hilarious tale revolves around the son of fundamentalist missionaries to Switzerland on annual family vacation in Italy. There is a lot of humor here, with an undercurrent of fear (father's "moods") and even, in one instance, cruelty. The boy, Calvin, tries to be normal in the face of his family's evangelical quirkiness, proving that "correct doctrine" does not preclude dysfunctionality. Some conservative Christians (a group of which I consider myself a part) may be offended, but only if they take themselves too seriously. The sexual euphemisms, the excessive "Thees and Thous" used in prayer (especially by the long-winded, super-spiritual mother), the splitting and resplitting of a denomination due to doctrinal hair-splitting (do they follow Hodge or Warfield?), and especially the infamous "Gospel Walnut" I found very humorous, probably from recognition as much as anything else.

With Schaeffer, it is fairly well known that he is the son of conservative Christian icons Francis and Edith Schaeffer, and that he has turned his back on his strict Calvinist upbringing and embraced Eastern Orthodoxy. Are Calvin's parents in the book Francis and Edith themselves, or just people based on them? I really don't know, but I'll give Francis and Edith the benefit of the doubt, and just say that Frank Schaeffer has given the world a terrific novel with excellent characterizations. Highly recommended.

If you're looking for a humorous and effortless read, this is the book for you. Portofino is about a religious family and their summer vacations in Italy. Being a non-religious individual, I sometimes felt the Mother's prayers were a wee bit too long, but the main character, Calvin, made those pages easy to tolerate. Calvin, a young boy, just wants to go out and hang with his vacation-time girlfriend. His family often embarasses him with their "wittnessing" and long mealtime prayers. Calvin hangs with an Italian family and is friends with a local Gay artist who gets the young boy drunk. I couldn't stand his sisters, but they were perfect members for the family the author has designed for us. An interesting twist is thrown in having to do with his Mother! You'll be surprised! I often found myself laughing outloud and can't wait to read Saving Grandma. I wonder if the movie for Portofino is really ever going to be released?

Portofino was given to me by a friend. I missed a meeting because I stayed in my hotel room reading this book, unable to put it down. Portofino comes as close to being the most perfect novel I've read. It is ceryainly the funniest book I have read in years. I bought the sequal, Saving Grandma with a great sense of relief because the only thing I didn't like about Portofino was that it ended too soon. The two books taken together are not only a great comming of age saga but the best commentary on growing up in a religious family I've ever read. The women in our reading group all agree that these two books are the best we've read together. The generated the best discussions about life and the loudest laughs. I've gone broke giving out copies of Frank schaeffer's books.

Although most reviewers of this book said it made them laugh out loud, I found it poignant, but not humorous for two reasons. First I was raised in a missionary family in Johannesburg in a fundamentalist sect. The story reminded me so much of my own family that it wasn't humorous, it was amazing.

Second some of the writings that helped me get out of my sect were the writings of Frank Schaeffer's mother, Edith, whom I adored. Calvin's fictional family matches exactly the details Schaeffer's mother wrote about in her book "L'Abri", the account of her family's missionary work in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was intensely upsetting to see the fictional Elsa portrayed as such a codependent personality, with all the foibles of that personality. However, upon consideration, I realized that if I took away some of the worst situations in the book, my family was all too similar. Also, as a writer, I realize that all my own fiction comes from real situations that I exaggerate, organize, truncate, etc. Good fiction involves intense conflict and tension. Some of the stories may be completely fictional, though if they are fictional, why does Schaeffer make no effort to disguise the fictional family? He leaves them as Reformed Presbyterian missionaries in Lausanne, Switzerland, exactly as his famous parents were. It seems like a deliberate statement to the world, yet one which he does not have to defend, because, after all, this is fiction.

At first I found Schaeffer's constant hammering at his fundamentalist upbringing accurate but irritating, however I realized that he also took various European ethnic and political groups to task as well. I also found the trashing of fundamentalist "villains" and the idealization of a gay hero a little too clicheed and politically correct.

All in all though, I was disappointed when the book came to an end, and I can't wait to read the sequel, Saving Grandma.

I loved this book! My only complaint is that it ends. I had recently spent some time in Portofino, and was given this book to read. I picked it up because of the title location, and discovered the same feeling the town in Italy gave me: Once I arrived I never wanted to leave. The story is so well written that it captures moods and feelings perfectly. The moods range from the embarrassment of sexual "reaction" in front of a girl, to the fear of a Father with a temper, to the warm breazes and lush smells of Italy. I laughed out loud at Calvin's interpretation of the fundamentalist Christian beliefs of his family. The often absurd and totally dogmatic views of the "us vs. them" fundamentalist Christian are depicted with amusing accuracy, right down to the "thees and thous". The strange melding of love and intolerance, accepting and rejecting of those who are different was wonderfully depicted. I do not know how it could be done better. A funny, warm story, and a wonderful experience.

"Portofino" is a story about a boy's annual summer vacation with his family, headed by two alarmingly religious yet all-too human parents. This coming-of-age tale wrapped me around its little finger on Page One and did not let go until the very end, which came much too quickly. I bought it at an airport bookstore and read most of it during a short flight, finishing it (instead of unpacking) when I got home. Schaeffer has drop-dead perfect pitch for the rhythms of family life, which he captures in warm, compassionate, and seamless storytelling prose. I especially appreciated the way he blends family humor and pain (even abuse) into a uniquely personal yet totally universal mood of adolescent yearning. This book is poignant and incredibly funny (my frequent guffaws had people turning heads on the plane) and I would recommend it to anyone who loves to get pulled into a book you can't put down until you're done.

I am not much of a fiction reader, in fact the only fiction books I have read recently are the Chronicles of Narnia series. But that was until I picked this book up, and after I picked it up I could not put it down! Its a first rate story that captures the magic of youth through the eyes of Calvin Becker. This book does poke fun at most Reformed Protestants though, so beware if you are a long-winded Baptist. I don't know how much of this is autobiography, but many of the situations seem as if they may have actually occurred in Frank's life. Even though he may poke fun (and at times just criticize) reformed folks who are always saying that 'Catholics worship Mary, etc etc,' he still portrays his family as one that has a tender and loving side to it. His father's walk with his son in the hills of Portafino really touched me. It almost made me wish I was Calvin! This is a great book!

Calvin Becker looks forward to vacationing in Italy with his family every summer: the weather is nice, the waters are great for scuba diving, and his best friend Jennifer is there too. There's a problem, though: his family is a Reformed Presbyterian family, missionaries in Switzlerland who have come from America to convert those poor, lost, Roman Catholic youth. His mother prays too long before meals to show that they are the light of the world, and gives the most embarassing talks about sex. His father gets into "Moods" and doesn't seem very happy most of the time. And his two sisters get on his nerves by being alternately sweet or sour, often emulating their mother's sanctimoniousness. What's a normal, healthy, adolescent boy to do on the beach with them around?

I laughed out loud so much when I read this book! I grew up as a conservative evangelical myself, and there is much I can identify with, especially all the cliche phrases and behavioral patterns endemic to fundamentalism. I'm told that this book is really a thinly-veiled memoir of Frank's experience with his own family--and his parents are among the most famous evangelical icons, Edith and Francis Schaeffer, so he is giving us a glimpse into what it might have been like growing up with them. The results are often funny, but not always pleasant--the mother, father, and sisters turn out to be human after all, with significant flaws and foibles. Despite this, Schaeffer's portrayal is largely free from mean-spiritedness, and is buttressed by some strong descriptive passages about the title location and what it's like to fall in love for the first time. Ultimately, though, this book stands out as a good example of how the scions of evangelicalism deal with their past, and gives outsiders a glimpse into a world that often seems strange and loony. As someone working through similar issues, I found it a good laugh and good catharsis.

I was captivated by the power and grace of this amazing novel. In the simpliest terms it was a true romantic fantasy and at the same time a remarkable insight into the ideals of fundamental Protestanism. Without a doubt it is a book to be read and reread. I read it aloud to my twelve year old son and we laughted through the entire book. This is a rare piece of fine writing and a wonderful jouney into the past.

A family of Christian fundamentalists vacation annually on the Italian Riviera, and their 10yo son, Calvin, has discovered his Hormones, with a capital H.
Dad, determined to convert European Catholics to his Holy Roller way of thinking, is sometimes a little, shall we say...unpredictable. Calvin spends a lot of his time trying to gauge Dad's moods. Calvin is left to ramble on his own a lot of the time, and in his explorations comes to discover the pleasures of alcohol and women. Watching as he tries to permit himself to enjoy the world without outright lying to his parents is hilarious and very touching. His `little thing' (a unique family euphemism, if ever there was one) develops a life of its own, and Calvin doesn't quite know how to keep it under wraps, especially when he's wearing only a bathing suit.
Splendid, all around.