Up the Creek Book Club
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© 2000 Kathy Craig |
Saving Grandma
by Frankey Schaeffer
September 1998
Synopsis
"Calvin Becker's family are good Bible-believing missionaries; it's their duty to spread the Word to everyone they meet. But now they face their greatest spiritual challenge right in their own home: Grandma. Foul-mouthed, foul-tempered, and heathen through and through, she's staying in the spare room, recuperating from a broken hip - and making it next to impossible for the Beckers to do the Lord's work. Calvin's pious mom is determined to save Grandma's soul, even if she's doing it through gritted teeth. His father's spending more and more time in his room, blasting opera records to drown out the old lady's voice. And Calvin wishes things would just get back to normal so he could go on vacation and see his beloved Jennifer. But now Calvin's starting to understand Grandma a little better - and appreciate her a little more. After all, misery loves company..." (Publisher)
Reviews
- "A triumph...you will laugh out loud." (Andre Dubus)
- "Thirteen-year-old Calvin Becker gets all the best lines in this irreverent, amusing sequel to Schaeffer's 1992 'Portofino'. Like that novel, this one follows the adventures of the Becker family, Presbyterian missionaries, as they try to convert the people of "Pagan Europe" in the late 1960's. Hapless, accident-prone Calvin, confused by the twin adolescent terrors of sex and the Foreknowledge/Predestination debate, finds his life complicated further when foul-mouthed, chronically sacrilegious Grandma breaks her hip and moves in with the family. While his father goes increasingly insane, Calvin emerges from erotic daydreams about his English pen-pal Jennifer long enough to form an unholy alliance with Grandma and to run off seeking the counsel of an aging Italian painter (befriended in the first book). Schaeffer's slapstick jokes and often tender evocations of youth make for an uneasy but entertaining cross between 'Portnoy's Complaint' and TV's 'The Wonder Years'. His nuanced characterization of Calvin part malicious prankster, part helpless victim of his absurd family breathes life into the stock ensemble cast and heavy-handed religious satire." (Publishers Weekly)
Book Club Rating and Comments
If you or your book club has read this book and would like to share your comments, please email us at upthecreekbc@yahoo.com.
Other Books by Frankey Schaeffer
- 'Dancing Alone'
- 'The New Testament'
- 'Portofino'