Reviews for Wheat That Springeth Green (New York Review of Books Classics Series)

The average rating for Wheat That Springeth Green (New York Review of Books Classics Series) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-05-28 00:00:00 Denise Glanton "Religion," she said, crossing her legs so he could see her garters but not very well in the dark. "It's like Santa Claus, only it's for old people afraid of dying." So the impressionable Joe Hackett is told when still a kid. He becomes a priest anyway, but not before he learns the secrets hiding in the dark. This turns him not quite jaded, not even entirely cynical. He's just a bit of a stinker, as priests go. Midway through the book, this act was wearing thin. I didn't like Joe. Characters in the book seemed to have the same reaction too. But then something changed. It was before Barb and Brad's son, Greg, dropped out of school and got his induction notice. Would you please talk to him, Joe? By that time Joe was different. Subtly. And not for some obvious reason. He was, for lack of a better word, pastoral. In a shepherding sense. Characters came to like him. Readers, too. I inherited, through marriage, an Aunt Frances. She was well into her nineties, but still with it, renowned for her precise handwriting and her piety. Sitting at a small family gathering, on a Sunday, Aunt Frances turned my way and asked if I missed Church that day. I answered her honestly, if literally, "No. I never miss Church." She was 'with it' enough to detect a whiff of stinker. You have to read this book kind of that way, I think, to fully enjoy it. Nan came out of the black house with drinks garnished with mint, which grew on the outer banks of the dump and had also, in the Gurriers' Holy Family period, cropped up in one of Joe's sermons--which Nan, it seemed, remembered. "Praised be God for green things," she said, improving on Joe and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Amen.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-12-20 00:00:00 Shameek Steele Not many books can straddle laugh out-loud funny and painfully sad at the same time. Wheat that Springeth Green follows the life of Fr. Joe Hackett from childhood, through seminary, early priesthood to late middle age and disillusionment. It is also eccentrically droll; I found myself rereading each section to pick up even most of the subtleties. It would take a couple more careful reads to get them all. The book is packed with clever detail, ironic and poignant. Sadly this is one of those books which I cannot do justice to in a review, at least not yet. Maybe someday. It was Powers' tour de force, his life's work. Just read it. If you are mature enough to appreciate the wider and longer view, we are mere infants in God's world. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> December 20, 2016: A GRs friend recommended this book and let me just say upfront that I do NOT take book recommendations anymore. But then what are rules without exceptions and when I read about this book, it made that very miniscule list. It is not that I don't value the many fine recommendations I get dear friends, but I am trying to 'be good' and finish books I already have, which FILL my house. Anyway, so far, I'm not sorry for my decision. It is a booklady book about a young man who doesn't just want to be a priest, he wants to be a saintly priest. Then he goes to seminary. Then he gets ordained. Then he becomes an assistant at a parish. Then he gets his next assignment at Catholic Charities. For seven years. Powers writes likes that. During his dialogue sequences, you get to sift through a page of very abrupt short sentences. Then there are the long complicated run-on descriptive paragraphs with references to unfamiliar past people and places. I find myself reading and rereading them to make sure I understand what he means. Do I? I don't know. I'm not finished yet. But the dry humor and irony are unmistakable.