Zermatt (Audible Audio Edition) Lloyd James Frank Schaeffer Inc Blackstone Audio Books
Download As PDF : Zermatt (Audible Audio Edition) Lloyd James Frank Schaeffer Inc Blackstone Audio Books
Calvin Becker's strict fundamentalist upbringing means he's never seen a film, watched television or danced. He even has to hide his five second-hand copies of Mad magazine in the attic. Now he and his family - his embarrassingly devout missionary parents and his sisters, the tyrannical 18 year-old Janet and the angelic Rachael - are on their modest annual skiing holiday in Switzerland. For the Beckers, the Hotel Riffelberg had always provided a safe haven from the jazz-loving sinners who congregate further down the mountain in Zermatt, but this is 1966, the year of peace, love and the Beatles, and the world is changing. As is the irrepressible Calvin...In his innocent 14 year-old body the hormones are raging, awakening a volcanic sexual curiosity and he willingly succumbs to the ample charms of Eva, the young waitress who introduces him to ecstasies beyond his wildest dreams. But then Calvin's mother catches him supposedly in the act and things start to go awry, triggering a climactic end to his childhood (and the family holiday).
Zermatt (Audible Audio Edition) Lloyd James Frank Schaeffer Inc Blackstone Audio Books
Having recently finished reading the first novel in this trilogy, "Portofino," which was a delightful vacation by the seashore, I was eager to explore the family's ski trip to "Zermatt" next, and I was not disappointed! On more than one occasion I told myself I would read just one chapter before going to sleep, but could not put the book down before dawn. The author's writing is so rich, his descriptions of people and places so vivid, and characters at once both outrageous and yet totally believable - we all have at least one such relative, right?! - that I find myself drawn into the story as if I were right there with Calvin and his family. At times hilarious, at other moments profound and philosophical, with just a few disturbing scenes thrown in to mirror actual human existence, this fictional writing is fabulous. It is especially enjoyable for those of us with a background in theology, and/or those who have escaped from a fundamentalist upbringing, as the book's teenage protagonist wrestles with issues like predestination. The author is expert at addressing serious philosophical matters and even the darker side of human nature with refreshing humor. So, it was a wonderful vacation, a great distraction from the ugly craziness of our 2016 presidential election, which is ironic since the author regrettably helped to create the current situation. He explains how it happened in the non-fiction book, "Crazy for God," highly recommended and very pertinent at this point in U.S. history. I very much look forward to reading the third book in this trilogy, "Saving Grandma."Product details
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Zermatt (Audible Audio Edition) Lloyd James Frank Schaeffer Inc Blackstone Audio Books Reviews
I have enjoyed reading Schaeffer's CRAZY FOR GOD, KEEPING FAITH, PORTOFINO, and PATIENCE WITH GOD. He is a talented writer with an evangelical background like my own, much of which he has turned his back on. I have been interested in seeing the progress of his thought. ZERMATT is a bit too preoccupied with sex, I think I have not enjoyed it nearly as much as, for example, Portofino or Keeping Faith. The delivery system from was flawless.
Zermatt is a continuation of Portofino same families, same characters, same really weird behaviors. But still very worth reading.
After reading Portofino and Zermatt, I spent several days debating the opposing logic of determinism and free will religions, until realizing that neither one makes any real sense.
I am a huge fan of Frank Schaeffer's first two books in this trilogy, Portofino and Saving Grandma. I find his portrayal of Calvin Becker, the son of evangelical missionaries, to be realistic and comical. Calvin illustrates their lives, with all their contradictions, perfectly, from the perspective of a pre-adolescent boy. I found this third book in the series to be less satisfying than the first two. I enjoyed the first two thirds of the book immensely, but felt that the last part felt unrealistic as it showed Calvin's father "falling off the wagon" of religiosity. I still enjoyed it, however, and would love to read more about this family.
The second of the trilogy of "novels" is great. While "Portofino" covers the summer vacations of the Becker family, "Zermatt" covers two of the winter vacations. As the only sane person in his family, Calvin continues to deal with a bizarre and strangely lost father, an overzealous evangelical mother (to the point of crazy) and two older sisters who are sadly warped by living in this embarrassing and consuming family. Fortunately for Calvin, he finds sanity in his friends and a cooperative servant girl at the resort where they stay. Intriguing and a page-turner which leads to the 3rd of the trilogy, "Saving Grandma" which I am currently reading.
When the Becker family goes on a ski vacation, the hotel waitress/barmaid attempts to seduce 14-year-old Calvin--so he thinks it's the Best! Vacation! Ever! until he is nearly caught. Despite his, hm, partial cover-up, the incident puts stress on his parents' marriage. As a result his father has a sort of nervous breakdown and starts acting like a nearly-normal person, the waitress accepts Jesus as her personal savior, and Calvin must do some unlikely truth-telling to save his parents' marriage and livelihood.
I like bawdy humor and religious humor and this story has a great deal of both. As a survival mechanism Calvin has learned how to manipulate his mother through telling her what she wants to hear, but also through apparently-innocent questions about her religion and attitudes (which contributes to much of the humor). When he is caught fondling his sister's bra on the clothesline, he leads his mother--who has no healthy boundaries but many euphemisms when it comes to talking about sex--through a silly sequence of theological and sexual questions ("I just wanted to ask about predestination and bras") that distract her from punishing him for this relatively innocent incident.
Despite the humor, which had me laughing out loud for much of the book, the end of this book becomes kind of horrifying, as the mother descends from her boundary-free religious mania into some kind of deeper megalomaniac insanity and spiritual abuse, compared to which his father's occasional physical abuse seems relatively benign.
Despite the somewhat chilling ending, this book is my favorite of the trilogy and has already stood up to re-reading.
Having recently finished reading the first novel in this trilogy, "Portofino," which was a delightful vacation by the seashore, I was eager to explore the family's ski trip to "Zermatt" next, and I was not disappointed! On more than one occasion I told myself I would read just one chapter before going to sleep, but could not put the book down before dawn. The author's writing is so rich, his descriptions of people and places so vivid, and characters at once both outrageous and yet totally believable - we all have at least one such relative, right?! - that I find myself drawn into the story as if I were right there with Calvin and his family. At times hilarious, at other moments profound and philosophical, with just a few disturbing scenes thrown in to mirror actual human existence, this fictional writing is fabulous. It is especially enjoyable for those of us with a background in theology, and/or those who have escaped from a fundamentalist upbringing, as the book's teenage protagonist wrestles with issues like predestination. The author is expert at addressing serious philosophical matters and even the darker side of human nature with refreshing humor. So, it was a wonderful vacation, a great distraction from the ugly craziness of our 2016 presidential election, which is ironic since the author regrettably helped to create the current situation. He explains how it happened in the non-fiction book, "Crazy for God," highly recommended and very pertinent at this point in U.S. history. I very much look forward to reading the third book in this trilogy, "Saving Grandma."
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