Saving Grandma: A Novel (Calvin Becker Trilogy) and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$3.24 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Saving Grandma
 
 
Start reading Saving Grandma: A Novel (Calvin Becker Trilogy) on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Saving Grandma [Paperback]

Frank Schaeffer (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

Price: $23.00 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Monday, February 6? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $9.99  
Library Binding $23.00  
Paperback $11.20  
Paperback, August 1, 1997 $23.00  

Book Description

August 1, 1997
An unforgettable story of an utterly unpredictable family, from the critically acclaimed author of Portofino.


Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With the same humor and warmth that distinguished Portofino (Macmillan, 1992), Schaeffer continues the story of Calvin Becker, his missionary family, and the love his life, Jennifer. No matter how the family tries to convince Calvin to spread the word of the Lord and convert Europe's youth, Calvin is much more interested in getting into trouble. After his grandmother breaks her hip and has to move in with the family, the plot really begins to move. A most interesting relationship develops between Calvin and his supposedly evil grandmother. Born to American missionary parents in Switzerland and raised a fundamentalist, Schaeffer also ran away from boarding school; thus, he can give great insight into his protagonist. Portofino will soon be made into a movie, and one can hope the same will happen to the present work. A fine acquisition for all libraries.?Vicki J. Cecil, Hartford City P.L., Ind.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

In a sequel to Portofino (1992), Schaeffer offers an uneven, if sweet-natured, comic tale of a boy's struggle for independence from his often-loony missionary family. Fifteen-year-old Calvin Becker is burdened with two squabbling, goody-goody older sisters, a volatile, quixotic father who's often stricken by dark periods the family calls ``Moods,'' and an emotionally overwrought mother who instructs Calvin to pray for wet dreams so he won't be tempted to masturbate. The Beckers run L'Arche, a Calvinist Presbyterian mission in Switzerland; when the supply of converts runs low, they turn their attention to ``saving'' handicapped children from the home next door. Calvin's only friend, through all this, is Jean-Pierre, a French boy with cerebral palsy who shares with home-schooled Calvin a near-inability to read; Calvin's only true comfort, it seems, is spinning elaborate fantasies about Jennifer, the beautiful English girl he sees for two weeks every year when the Beckers vacation in Italy. Calvin's mom is always crowing about having rescued his father from a coarse, heathen, working-class background, so it's little surprise that when Dad's mean-tempered mother, who spews bad language, racial slurs, and blasphemy in abundance, breaks her hip and comes to stay, the family is thrown into an uproar. Unhinged by stress, Calvin's father manages to escalate an obscure theological dispute with a neighbor into a full-scale feud that almost gets the Beckers expelled from Switzerland. Just when the fracas has settled down, Grandma contracts pneumonia, and when Calvin, who aspires to be a doctor, learns that his parents don't plan to treat her, he smuggles veterinary penicillin to her and saves her life--creating a strange bond between the two and providing the catalyst for Calvin's realization that it's finally time for him to escape for keeps. Good material, though with jokes that are often overplayed and a scattered, episodic structure that slows the story's drive. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Berkley Trade (August 1, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0425157768
  • ISBN-13: 978-0425157763
  • Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,747,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times best selling author of more than a dozen books Frank Schaeffer is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as "pretty terrible," and a best selling author of both fiction and nonfiction. Frank's three semi-biographical novels about growing up in a fundamentalist mission: "Portofino," "Zermatt" and "Saving Grandma" have a worldwide following and have been translated into nine languages. Jane Smiley writing in the Washington Post (7/10/11) says this of Frank's memoirs "Crazy For God" and "Sex, Mom and God": "[Schaeffer's] memoirs have a way of winning a reader's friendship...Schaeffer is a good memoirist, smart and often laugh-out-loud funny...Frank seems to have been born irreverent, but his memoirs have a serious purpose, and that is to expose the insanity and the corruption of what has become a powerful and frightening force in American politics... Frank has been straightforward and entertaining in his campaign to right the political wrongs he regrets committing in the 1970s and '80s...As someone who has made redemption his work, he has, in fact, shown amazing grace."


 

Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (7)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect follow up to Portofino, December 18, 2000
This review is from: Saving Grandma (Paperback)
If you've read Portofino, you've just got to read Saving Grandma! But whatever you do, don't read Saving Grandma UNTIL you've read Portofino! Saving Grandma is the the followup to Portofino, so you'll want to know the history. I don't want to give it all away, but I'll say you're in for some seriously funny, crazy, off the wall antics when you read these books! I'll also say, I wish I knew Calvin. He seems like my kind of person! Still wondering if the movie for Portofino is ever going to be released.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best comming of age novel ever, December 12, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Saving Grandma (Paperback)
After I read Frank Schaeffer's first novel, Portofino I hoped there would be more. there is! Saving Grandma. This has got to be the funniest book on growing up in a religious family ever. It happens to be set in an evangelical Protestant family but Saving speaks to everyone. I grew up in a strict Catholic home and can identify with Calvin, (the books hero) perfectly. Saving is also one of the best books I've ever read when it comes to the innere workings of religion in America, albeit the book is set in a Protestant mission in Switzerland. Anyone who wants to come to terms with the religious nature of our country, and have a good honest laugh along the way will want to read this outstanding book. Frank Schaeffer is our new Mark Twain. Both Saving Grandma and Portofino are a wonderful holliday read. Also My womens group read both books back to back last year and we still all say that they were the best books we've done yet. There were women from all backgrounds, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant as well as agnostic in the group of abpout 12 of us. We ALL loved Saving Grandma and laughed so hard we could hardly get through some chapters.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Another smashing book by Frank Schaeffer! Bravo, Bravo!!!, September 7, 1999
By 
This review is from: Saving Grandma (Paperback)
One of my favorite books of all time is Portofino. I read it in 1993, shortly after the book came out, and it is a book that I could read time and time again, so likeable is Calvin Becker, so alive the sights and smells of Portofino, and so funny and bittersweet it's insights.

So it was with great anticipation that I read "Saving Grandma", Schaeffer's sequel to Portofino, picking up roughly where the other left off.

I was not at all disappointed. While the book fills you with a little more angst, as you suffer along with Calvin waiting to see how it all turns out, the book is as sweet, as funny, as colorful as Portofino. This book proves that you don't have to write a thriller to write a page turner, I devoured the last 150 pages in one sitting where I got up only to go to the bathroom, and took the book along with me, reading as I walked.

If you liked Portofino, you'll love Saving Grandma. I suggest reading Portofino first, as the two are very much intertwined.

Does anyone know if a follow up book is planned? the ending seemed to suggest it.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
PS. I presume you will put in an appearance as per usual? Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
praying family, eet ees, dining terrace
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mary Lou, Reverend Bahre, Reverend Keegan, Swiss Nun, Chalet Beau Rivage, Dick Keegan, Santa Margherita, Dents du Midi, Uncle George, Reverend Becker, Roman Catholic, Jane Keegan, Little Thing, Mystery Boy, Day of Miracles, Grandmother Becker, Hotel Nazionale, New L'Arche, Physical Things, General Donor Mailing List, Lord Jesus, Merry Christmas, Pensione Biea, Praise Jesus, Ralph Senior
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:



Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
Portofino by Frank Schaeffer
 


Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 
(61)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject