Reviews for Saving Grandma

The average rating for Saving Grandma based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-06-02 00:00:00 Anca Joe Calvin Becker is back, he is sixteen and facing the usual contradictions of adolescence. The usual with Calvin Backer is not entirely so usual because he is the son in an extremely Calvinist family. Meals are cold because long blessings preclude hot meals. Fortunately or unfortunately grandma has come to convalesce. Grandma Becker: Grandma the un-chosen, the Heathen, the foul mouthed. Grandma the living reminder that mom married beneath her status. Grandma who for all her irascibility can form a bridge across the isolation Calvin feels surrounded by sisters, a passive aggressive mother and a brilliant but depressive father. For all of this the suggested drama, Saving Grandma is alternately laugh aloud funny, touchingly human, humane and on occasion uncomfortably accurate. I remind you Calvin is male and sixteen. He is hormonal. Calvin also has some heroic impulses or at least a desire to be good, but he is sixteen, mostly he has desires. This Calvin is more determined to achieve some kind of independence but ultimately he acts out his love for family. Frank Schaeffer attempts more complex plotting and as a result produces a more sophisticated story. It is also a more contrived story line and allows for less time to keep his characters from being caricatures. As in the rest of the trilogy, Author Frank Schaeffer is drawing heavily from his real life. As always, readers should be mindful that this is fiction. Schaeffer's underlying technique is to use what he knows but to stress out family members beyond the limits of biography and then imagine how his fictional family would react. As before, the point of view is narration by the older "Calvin". This lends us a knowing wink at the failures of the still learning but maturing boy and lessens the edge of the satire at the expense of the religious intensity of the family. I enjoyed Saving Grandma. I loved the punning title. This should not be your introduction to the Becker's world, Read Portofino first. I rate this as a life affirming, pro-family book, but only if accept the foibles along with the strengths.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-02-28 00:00:00 Randy Weaver I chose this entry of Calvin's story as the first one to read. Overall the book was enjoyable. Stories of people who think they're mighty and holy are always interesting, especially so when it shows how they really are. Thank goodness for authors who show that we all make mistakes, despite how holy we may believe we are.