“What’s it like having an old man who’s a saint?” The question came from the depths of Romey Guttner’s troubled soul. It was as honest as the hot sun that beat down on him and his best friend, Lowell, as they picked beans that unforgettable summer in the late fifties. They were just boys, one the son of the town’s pillar of faith and one the neglected child of a man whose anger spilled onto everyone in his path. Despite their disparate upbringings, Romey and Lowell were like brothers, inseparable in their pursuit of adventure. But events were brewing that would force them to confront the reality of their differences for the first time. With perceptiveness and style, James Calvin Schaap renders a coming-of-age tale about friendship, fathers and sons, and, most of all, the grace that saves us from the darkest places.
Book Info:
I love books and I like lists. Heres yet another entry of a list about books: LuAnn Schindler complied a list of classic literature for middle school ,ROSS m Scottish, English From a Scottish and English surname which originally indicated a person from a place called Ross (such as the region of Ross in northern ,Where the Lilies Bloom has 1,158 ratings and 125 reviews. Linda said: Written in 1969, this incredible YA book received numerous awards including a Natio,RIDLEY m English (Rare) From a surname which was originally derived from a place name meaning “reed clearing” or “cleared wood” in Old English.,Settle in. Take a deep breath. Hold tight. The best screen version yet of a novel by John Grisham (The Firm, The Pelican Brief) delivers all-out, moment-by-moment ,Whether you come from Florida, New York, Texas, or any other state, reading a book set there can make you feel a warm nostalgia for that beloved place. We ,New Rivers Press is pleased to announce that two works, a novel and a collection of short stories, have been selected for publication in the New Rivers Press ,Quotations,Testimonials My daughters both enjoyed the Blackheath holiday course this time. They particularly liked the feedback from Romey as they found it very positive and ,The Client (1993) is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham, set mostly in Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana. It is Grisham’s fourth novel.
* Books Details:
- Sales Rank: #1903479 in Books
- Published on: 2007-09-01
- Format: Bargain Price
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 400 pages
The Client (novel) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Client (1993) is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham, set mostly in Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana. It is Grisham’s fourth novel.
Inkhead: HOME
Testimonials My daughters both enjoyed the Blackheath holiday course this time. They particularly liked the feedback from Romey as they found it very positive and
Romney Marsh – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quotations
New Rivers Press
New Rivers Press is pleased to announce that two works, a novel and a collection of short stories, have been selected for publication in the New Rivers Press
Most Famous Book Set In Every State – Business Insider
Whether you come from Florida, New York, Texas, or any other state, reading a book set there can make you feel a warm nostalgia for that beloved place. We
Amazon.com: The Client (Snap Case): Susan Sarandon, Tommy
Settle in. Take a deep breath. Hold tight. The best screen version yet of a novel by John Grisham (The Firm, The Pelican Brief) delivers all-out, moment-by-moment
Behind the Name: English Names
RIDLEY m English (Rare) From a surname which was originally derived from a place name meaning “reed clearing” or “cleared wood” in Old English.
Where the Lilies Bloom by Vera Cleaver Reviews
Where the Lilies Bloom has 1,158 ratings and 125 reviews. Linda said: Written in 1969, this incredible YA book received numerous awards including a Natio
Names Starting with R – Behind the Name: Meaning of Names
ROSS m Scottish, English From a Scottish and English surname which originally indicated a person from a place called Ross (such as the region of Ross in northern
An A to Z of Classic Literature for Middle School Students
I love books and I like lists. Heres yet another entry of a list about books: LuAnn Schindler complied a list of classic literature for middle school
- Sales Rank: #1903479 in Books
- Published on: 2007-09-01
- Format: Bargain Price
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 400 pages
“What’s it like having an old man who’s a saint?” The question came from the depths of Romey Guttner’s troubled soul. It was as honest as the hot sun that beat down on him and his best friend, Lowell, as they picked beans that unforgettable summer in the late fifties. They were just boys, one the son of the town’s pillar of faith and one the neglected child of a man whose anger spilled onto everyone in his path. Despite their disparate upbringings, Romey and Lowell were like brothers, inseparable in their pursuit of adventure. But events were brewing that would force them to confront the reality of their differences for the first time. With perceptiveness and style, James Calvin Schaap renders a coming-of-age tale about friendship, fathers and sons, and, most of all, the grace that saves us from the darkest places.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Romey’s Place ….. or was it?
By Robert J. Ribbens
This book made me wonder if Schaap was secretly writing about me and my childhood friend. Same type of small town. Same type of fathers and families and churches. Same type of childhood experiences and thoughts in many ways.But moreover, it was thought provoking in the way it looked at how we grew up, learned the things we learned about life and our “faith” and so much about the influences our parents have on our lives long beyond when we move out and start our own lives. It hit home on how other people in our life change the way we are and will be and that we indeed have that ability to change others also.Deeply moving and takes a whole new approach on the whole concept of Christ’s gift of GRACE. How we learn it, receive it and dispense it.Well done and worth reading….maybe twice. Great for a discussion group!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent work by a strong new fiction voice
By A Customer
I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed this book. Schaap has given us one of the finer reads in inspirational fiction. In terms of quality, voice, style, and most of all, story, this novel stands leagues above many others that have garnered far more attention and plaudits in the “Christian fiction” category. In addition, his own Christian worldview shines through without hitting his readers over the head with the more common tactic of “sermonizing.” It’s too bad this novel hasn’t received the recognition it so obviously deserves.I applaud the book and look forward to the author’s next work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Brings readers to wonder about the shaping experiences that they may not know about in the minds and hearts of loved ones
By FaithfulReader.com
Set in the Wisconsin of the 1950s, ROMEY’S PLACE is a sepia-toned story about a summer that would change the lives of two boys forever. Romey Guttner and Lowell Prins (Lobo for short) were an odd couple — best friends from different sides of the tracks, or, in this case, different sides of God.Lowell grew up in a churchgoing household, his father and grandfather pillars of the Christian community in Easton, Wisconsin. And he himself embraced the faith of his family, albeit with reservations and sometimes even embarrassment. Romey, on the other hand, is the son of Cyril Guttner, the town’s most notorious bully, a man so mean that the fear people feel in his presence is from the unknown. He seems capable of anything.ROMEY’S PLACE is a study in contrasts between Cyril and Lobo’s dad, the lessons these men taught their sons, and the lessons these sons taught each other. The drama of the book centers on mostly youthful hijinks the summer before the two entered high school — stealing cigarettes, working at picking beams to make pocket money, sneaking into the girl’s cabin at camp. This should suggest that drama is a strong word for the slow boil that makes up the vast majority of the book. But looming in the background is a union strike that surges forward with the specter of violence at unexpected moments. The strike is like a political manifestation of Cyril (an agitator in the union) himself — mercurial, hard to predict and hard to reason with.The story is told in flashback as a 50-something Lowell helps his dad clean out the house in preparation for downsizing into a retirement home. It’s what he doesn’t find in a closet, an heirloom bayonet he lost that summer so long ago, that sends him careening down memory lane. It seems fitting then that a large part of what’s so lovely about this book is what it lacks. Pretension, for example.The golden rule of good writing is to show, not tell. Yet author James Calvin Schaap has managed to break this rule to good effect by creating a character in Lowell who does just this — he keeps reminding us he exists with heavy-handed foreshadowing and telling us the moral of the story — while still remaining engaging. The pace of the book is slow and feels very much like what it is — a tale told by a midlife man, young and full enough of the pride of life to still wonder at the drama of his own adolescence, yet old enough to repeat himself. And on this point, it feels true to life. People meander when telling their stories, and they repeat themselves. Lowell might be your dad or brother telling you something he has never talked about before. Reading ROMEY’S PLACE might make you wonder at the shaping experiences that you don’t know about that exist in the minds and hearts of your own family members.Though it’s a slow boil, the bubbles do come. A night of violence breaks out that will forever link Romey and Lowell, and make it impossible for them to remain friends. To the end we’re confronted with the contrasts — between the violence that can be wrought by fists and by words, and between the lessons two men inspired. As the older Lowell says, “What my own foolish soul has come to understand is that while my father taught me goodness, it was Romey who taught me grace.” — Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel
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