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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love the PBS series Grantchester. The main character, Sidney Chambers, is portrayed as a flawed man struggling with his faith and vocation. His becoming a priest has alienated him from his worldly friends who don't understand his choice. He must cope with the strictures of the organized church. He is flawed and understands human frailty in others.
I have wanted to read the novels by James Runcie, and even bought the first in the series, but reviewing new books keeps me busy and it has languished in the TBR pile.
But now I am not sorry because I can start at the very beginning with Runcie's newest novel in the series, a prequel titled The Road to Grantchester.
How did the attractive, intelligent, lover of jazz end up in the priesthood? This novel shows us the events and internal anguish that brought Sidney to change his life.
The first section of the novel begins with Sidney and his London friends enjoying theater and fancy dinners and dancing. A quick jump five years later finds Sidney on a transport ship to Salerno. He is with his best friend from university, Robert Kendall, and Freddie Hawthorne, a theatrical star. These bright young men are thrown into bloody battle, Sidney set to being a sniper. They experience the destruction and misery of war.
The Episcopal priest Rev Nev is with the soldiers. "What does a priest do in the midst of this?" a friend asks him."I believe there is no higher calling than to be a priest in the service of God and God's people; to offer some kind of stability in a bewildered world," he explains. The soldiers are more than bewildered for the evil of war feels overwhelming and faith in a loving God flees. The men contend daily with mud and cold, their comrades shattered and dying, and they long for the simple pleasures of clean dry clothes and a hot bath. And mostly wonder what it is like to have no enemy. The pleasant days of dancing with Amanda Kendall is a distant memory.
They arrive at the Gustav Line, a flooded valley without cover which they must cross to make their way up Monte Cassino with enemy fire raining down from the monastery at the top where the Nazis have buried in. During the battle, Robert Kendall dies, leaving a heartbroken Sidney with survivor's guilt and questions of culpability.
It is Rev Nev who helps Sidney, explaining the mystery of faith in a broken world, and how to accept the mystery of life. At war's end, Sidney realizes it is grace that he needs. His friends note the change in him. Oh dear, Freddie exclaims, either you've had too much to drink or you really have got religion.
I know about these battlefield faith experiences from my friend Floyd Erickson, a WWII veteran who was in the 10th Mountain Division. They were in Italy and had to climb Monte Belvedere at night. While advancing across the Po Valley in the foothills of the Apennines, his best friend was killed in a blast that left Floyd deaf in one ear. While under fire, Floyd prayed to God for protection, offering a lifetime of service if he survived. Floyd made it home and changed his life. I knew him as a revered family man and leader in the local church. (Read more here.)
Part Two follows Sidney back home to England, facing Robert's grieving family and Amanda who can't reconcile a loving God with her brother's death, and his own family's expectations for Sidney's post-war career. Sidney lives with Robert's ghost.
While Amanda and Sid's other friends only want to forget the war and have fun, Sidney finds that kind of life deadly and meaningless. He longs for a life with purpose. It's more than depression that ails Sidney--he is searching for peace. He continues to turn to Rev Nev for spiritual guidance.
"I need to change my life," Sidney explains to Amanda. And in Part Three, Sidney explores faith and a vocation as a priest.
There is a lot of God talk and faith talk in the novel. It is after all about Sidney's journey to the priesthood. I discovered that Runcie's father was Archbishop of Canterbury, which explains the depth and realism of Sidney's journey. The rejection suffered from friends is also realistic. Amanda is unable to accept Sidney's choice and accepts the proposal from another man. I love that Freddie, who is gay, is the one friend who seems to 'get' Sidney and supports his decision.
Several episodes show Sidney's ability to understand people and know how best to counsel them, and his native ability to notice what other's don't see, both traits important to his ability to solve puzzles and crimes.
My favorite scene is Sidney's ordination which takes place in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral. A charred cross "symbolizes determination, survival, and above all, the possibility of Resurrection." He is presented with a cross made of nails gleaned from the ruins. The symbolism is vivid. Britain has suffered greatly, the world is broken. In taking orders, Sidney dedicates his life to the rebuilding of faith and hope in a devastated people. From these ruins, he is to raise up God's love to light the path forward. Sidney is trying to heal himself. He trusts he will also become a vehicle of healing to his flock.
I was impressed with Runcie's ability to show Sidney's path to his vocation, from the hard to read horror of war to the emptiness of frivolous pleasure, the questionings and embracing the mystery, and the bafflement of old friends who stereotype the priesthood.
I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
I have wanted to read the novels by James Runcie, and even bought the first in the series, but reviewing new books keeps me busy and it has languished in the TBR pile.
But now I am not sorry because I can start at the very beginning with Runcie's newest novel in the series, a prequel titled The Road to Grantchester.
How did the attractive, intelligent, lover of jazz end up in the priesthood? This novel shows us the events and internal anguish that brought Sidney to change his life.
The first section of the novel begins with Sidney and his London friends enjoying theater and fancy dinners and dancing. A quick jump five years later finds Sidney on a transport ship to Salerno. He is with his best friend from university, Robert Kendall, and Freddie Hawthorne, a theatrical star. These bright young men are thrown into bloody battle, Sidney set to being a sniper. They experience the destruction and misery of war.
The Episcopal priest Rev Nev is with the soldiers. "What does a priest do in the midst of this?" a friend asks him."I believe there is no higher calling than to be a priest in the service of God and God's people; to offer some kind of stability in a bewildered world," he explains. The soldiers are more than bewildered for the evil of war feels overwhelming and faith in a loving God flees. The men contend daily with mud and cold, their comrades shattered and dying, and they long for the simple pleasures of clean dry clothes and a hot bath. And mostly wonder what it is like to have no enemy. The pleasant days of dancing with Amanda Kendall is a distant memory.
They arrive at the Gustav Line, a flooded valley without cover which they must cross to make their way up Monte Cassino with enemy fire raining down from the monastery at the top where the Nazis have buried in. During the battle, Robert Kendall dies, leaving a heartbroken Sidney with survivor's guilt and questions of culpability.
It is Rev Nev who helps Sidney, explaining the mystery of faith in a broken world, and how to accept the mystery of life. At war's end, Sidney realizes it is grace that he needs. His friends note the change in him. Oh dear, Freddie exclaims, either you've had too much to drink or you really have got religion.
I know about these battlefield faith experiences from my friend Floyd Erickson, a WWII veteran who was in the 10th Mountain Division. They were in Italy and had to climb Monte Belvedere at night. While advancing across the Po Valley in the foothills of the Apennines, his best friend was killed in a blast that left Floyd deaf in one ear. While under fire, Floyd prayed to God for protection, offering a lifetime of service if he survived. Floyd made it home and changed his life. I knew him as a revered family man and leader in the local church. (Read more here.)
Part Two follows Sidney back home to England, facing Robert's grieving family and Amanda who can't reconcile a loving God with her brother's death, and his own family's expectations for Sidney's post-war career. Sidney lives with Robert's ghost.
While Amanda and Sid's other friends only want to forget the war and have fun, Sidney finds that kind of life deadly and meaningless. He longs for a life with purpose. It's more than depression that ails Sidney--he is searching for peace. He continues to turn to Rev Nev for spiritual guidance.
"I need to change my life," Sidney explains to Amanda. And in Part Three, Sidney explores faith and a vocation as a priest.
There is a lot of God talk and faith talk in the novel. It is after all about Sidney's journey to the priesthood. I discovered that Runcie's father was Archbishop of Canterbury, which explains the depth and realism of Sidney's journey. The rejection suffered from friends is also realistic. Amanda is unable to accept Sidney's choice and accepts the proposal from another man. I love that Freddie, who is gay, is the one friend who seems to 'get' Sidney and supports his decision.
Several episodes show Sidney's ability to understand people and know how best to counsel them, and his native ability to notice what other's don't see, both traits important to his ability to solve puzzles and crimes.
My favorite scene is Sidney's ordination which takes place in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral. A charred cross "symbolizes determination, survival, and above all, the possibility of Resurrection." He is presented with a cross made of nails gleaned from the ruins. The symbolism is vivid. Britain has suffered greatly, the world is broken. In taking orders, Sidney dedicates his life to the rebuilding of faith and hope in a devastated people. From these ruins, he is to raise up God's love to light the path forward. Sidney is trying to heal himself. He trusts he will also become a vehicle of healing to his flock.
I was impressed with Runcie's ability to show Sidney's path to his vocation, from the hard to read horror of war to the emptiness of frivolous pleasure, the questionings and embracing the mystery, and the bafflement of old friends who stereotype the priesthood.
I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I picked this up in the Heathrow airport to read on the long journey home and was not disappointed. I have enjoyed watching the Grantchester mystery series and this prequel on Sidney's earlier life--references to college, service in World War II, adjusting or not to peacetime England, finding faith, and becoming a priest in the Church of England--helped make sense of some things in the series. Sidney's best friend Robert's sister, Amanda, is a thread throughout the book as she will be later in the series.
Runcie has a sense of story and did his research as well to make the book feel authentic to war, peace, and the church. Only anachronism that I found was his mention of the hymn "Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord" which wasn't published in hymnals until the early 1960s.
Runcie has a sense of story and did his research as well to make the book feel authentic to war, peace, and the church. Only anachronism that I found was his mention of the hymn "Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord" which wasn't published in hymnals until the early 1960s.
A lovely read for the long autumn weather-so poignant, filled with epishany, self realization, lives tossed on the pyre of WWII and the years that follow. Love, deep friendship, grace or the search for it-
Fascinating to find out how Sidney Chambers became a priest. But a little harrowing, and there were points where I wanted to shake both him and Amanda and tell them to actually talk to each other!
If you've read the others in the series, you'll want to read this.
If you've read the others in the series, you'll want to read this.
I love Sidney Chambers, but the first section of this book, during World War II and its aftermath, really dragged for me. It was only in the second section, when Sidney reconnects with Amanda, that the book picked up, and I enjoyed the end, as Sidney comes into his own as a priest. HOWEVER, there are no mysteries here, so it was a bit disappointing toward that end. Even though Runcie's other books often put more emphasis on character and emotion than on the crime at hand, there were crimes there to be solved.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is a departure for me from my dominant reading tastes, but an enjoyable one nonetheless because of my enjoyment of the Masterpiece mystery series “Grantchester” for which this book is the “prequel”. Here we find the backstory of the show’s central character—Sidney Chambers, a young, English war survivor who decides to become a Vicar in the Church of England after he returns from fighting with the Scots Guards on the Western Front of WWII. He fought in Italy, lost his best friend Robert Kendall, and returns to the friendship of Robert’s sister Amanda, to wrestle with a host of questions about the meaning of his life, his relationship with his guilt, his hope for the future, including Amanda, and his role as a survivor in the face of so much senseless loss.
I find James Runcie’s use of the present tense both unfamiliar and appealing in its immediacy. Runcie also weaves a series of subtle spiritual insights into his narrative which I appreciated for their resonance with questions I have asked about life. I do wish he would have given more depth to the characters, though. They all seem a little flat. Overall it was an enjoyable intro to the series which has a richness to it missing from this “prequel”. The book is somewhat disconnected from the premise of the show, deliberately to be sure, which is focused on an episodic murder mystery while developing the backstory of these characters.
Favorite Quotes:
"You mustn’t dwell. It makes you moody." -Sidney Chambers' mother (5/2/21)
I find James Runcie’s use of the present tense both unfamiliar and appealing in its immediacy. Runcie also weaves a series of subtle spiritual insights into his narrative which I appreciated for their resonance with questions I have asked about life. I do wish he would have given more depth to the characters, though. They all seem a little flat. Overall it was an enjoyable intro to the series which has a richness to it missing from this “prequel”. The book is somewhat disconnected from the premise of the show, deliberately to be sure, which is focused on an episodic murder mystery while developing the backstory of these characters.
Favorite Quotes:
"You mustn’t dwell. It makes you moody." -Sidney Chambers' mother (5/2/21)
Fun to revisit how this story began before the next televised season of the show based on this set of novels unfolds. Summer reading, just right.