Items related to Romey's Place: A Novel
"What's it like having an old man who's a saint?" The question came from the depths of Romey Guttner's troubled soul. It was as honest as the hot sun that beat down on him and his best friend, Lowell, as they picked beans that unforgettable summer in the late fifties. They were just boys, one the son of the town's pillar of faith and one the neglected child of a man whose anger spilled onto everyone in his path. Despite their disparate upbringings, Romey and Lowell were like brothers, inseparable in their pursuit of adventure. But events were brewing that would force them to confront the reality of their differences for the first time. With perceptiveness and style, James Calvin Schaap renders a coming-of-age tale about friendship, fathers and sons, and, most of all, the grace that saves us from the darkest places.
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About the Author:
James Calvin Schaap, a professor of English at Dordt College and president of the Chrysostom Society, is the award-winning author of twenty-two books. He lives in Sioux Center, Iowa.
Review:
James Schaap's most recent novel, Romey's Place, is the story of two boys whose fierce friendship springs from their differences, and is ultimately reshaped by them.... This compelling story of their coming-of-age is laced with the silent realities of social class in a small Wisconsin town. Ultimately, Romey's Place is about the human struggle to understand what faithfulness to God, family, and community demands, and their conflictive pulls. From the first chapter... to the stunning and unexpected conclusion, this is a riveting story about moral righteousness, grace, and the chasm that can lie between them. -- The Other Side, January/February 2000
Lowell Prins, son of a small-town minister, promises us that thestory he's about to tell has shaped his life. "What happened there years ago," he solemnly tells us, "I will never forget." This promise (repeated over and over as Prins wanders from one adolescent crisis to another) keeps us hanging on until the unforgettable event actually takes place (thirty pages from the end). Even then, the payoff is diminished by Schaap's narrative technique, which continually overlays the voice of the adolescent Lowell with the intrusive editorializing of the adult Prins....This distance imposed between the reader and the novel's events Makes Romey's Place as compelling as a set of vacation slides, complete with narration. At every turn, the adult Lowell turns up again, telling us exactly what each event means in stultifying detail. ....Schaap is so busy telling us what to think of these scenes that we're never permitted to experience them. He doesn't trust his readers; he has to spell it all out. This editorializing voice drowns his story - and finally kills our interest. -- From Beliefnet
Richly authentic and beautifully written, Romeys Place captivated me from beginning to end. This evocative, Tom Sawyer-like tale set in the early 50s may well be Schaaps finest work yet -- John Timmerman, professor of English, Calvin College
Romey Guttner lives in Wisconsin, not Mississippi, but his story of devotion to an unworthy father is just as poignant as Faulkners short story Barn Burning. Jim Schaaps novel has an additional dimension, however. How does the narrator, no longer youthful, forgive his own father for his oppressive righteousness? For those with eyes willing to see, this work shows the chasm between a well-intentioned piety and reckless rebels. The moral suspense it generates makes clear just how much is at stake here -- Virginia Stem Owens, author
Romeys Place is a novel of deceptive ease and simplicity. With long, confident, perfectly accurate strokes, Schaap paints the social landscape of small town America. So familiar, so well textured and convincing is his portrait that we find ourselves swiftly and deeply involved in itand in an experience which is anything but small. Here the conflicts are dramatic, powerful, and complex. Schaap writes at the bone of human interaction, where matters economic, spiritual, social, and moral knit and rip the fabrics of community. He knows the gravity of common things -- Walter Wangerin, author of The Book of the Dun Cow and The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel
Today many dramatic, high-concept novels, tales of apocalypse, conspiracy, and medical experimentation, shout for the attention of readers scanning the shelves of Christian fiction. But a few, like Romey's Place, stand out for quietly conveying sharp spiritual insights glimpsed in the dramas of ordinary life. Schaap skillfully transports readers to a small Wisconsin town in the late 1950s through the eyes of 14-year-old Lowell Prins, the son of a leading church family, and best friends with Romey Guttner, whose family lives on the wrong side of the tracks.... For a season Lowell and Romey share a friendship that bridges the gulf between their worlds. At times they test the boundaries of their behavior. But only when a labor conflict in the town gets out of hand and a confrontation with Romey's dad turns violent, does Lowell discover from an unexpected source the meaning of grace. -- Moody, January/February 2000
With an ominous, unsettling story line, this novel ferries readers back to the late 1950s.... More than a coming-of-age story, Romeys Place offers a thought-provoking, detail-rich narrative that literature buffs will savor -- CBA Marketplace, November 1999
[An] earnest, thoughtful coming-of-age novel -- Publishers Weekly, Aug. 30, 1999
Lowell Prins, son of a small-town minister, promises us that thestory he's about to tell has shaped his life. "What happened there years ago," he solemnly tells us, "I will never forget." This promise (repeated over and over as Prins wanders from one adolescent crisis to another) keeps us hanging on until the unforgettable event actually takes place (thirty pages from the end). Even then, the payoff is diminished by Schaap's narrative technique, which continually overlays the voice of the adolescent Lowell with the intrusive editorializing of the adult Prins....This distance imposed between the reader and the novel's events Makes Romey's Place as compelling as a set of vacation slides, complete with narration. At every turn, the adult Lowell turns up again, telling us exactly what each event means in stultifying detail. ....Schaap is so busy telling us what to think of these scenes that we're never permitted to experience them. He doesn't trust his readers; he has to spell it all out. This editorializing voice drowns his story - and finally kills our interest. -- From Beliefnet
Richly authentic and beautifully written, Romeys Place captivated me from beginning to end. This evocative, Tom Sawyer-like tale set in the early 50s may well be Schaaps finest work yet -- John Timmerman, professor of English, Calvin College
Romey Guttner lives in Wisconsin, not Mississippi, but his story of devotion to an unworthy father is just as poignant as Faulkners short story Barn Burning. Jim Schaaps novel has an additional dimension, however. How does the narrator, no longer youthful, forgive his own father for his oppressive righteousness? For those with eyes willing to see, this work shows the chasm between a well-intentioned piety and reckless rebels. The moral suspense it generates makes clear just how much is at stake here -- Virginia Stem Owens, author
Romeys Place is a novel of deceptive ease and simplicity. With long, confident, perfectly accurate strokes, Schaap paints the social landscape of small town America. So familiar, so well textured and convincing is his portrait that we find ourselves swiftly and deeply involved in itand in an experience which is anything but small. Here the conflicts are dramatic, powerful, and complex. Schaap writes at the bone of human interaction, where matters economic, spiritual, social, and moral knit and rip the fabrics of community. He knows the gravity of common things -- Walter Wangerin, author of The Book of the Dun Cow and The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel
Today many dramatic, high-concept novels, tales of apocalypse, conspiracy, and medical experimentation, shout for the attention of readers scanning the shelves of Christian fiction. But a few, like Romey's Place, stand out for quietly conveying sharp spiritual insights glimpsed in the dramas of ordinary life. Schaap skillfully transports readers to a small Wisconsin town in the late 1950s through the eyes of 14-year-old Lowell Prins, the son of a leading church family, and best friends with Romey Guttner, whose family lives on the wrong side of the tracks.... For a season Lowell and Romey share a friendship that bridges the gulf between their worlds. At times they test the boundaries of their behavior. But only when a labor conflict in the town gets out of hand and a confrontation with Romey's dad turns violent, does Lowell discover from an unexpected source the meaning of grace. -- Moody, January/February 2000
With an ominous, unsettling story line, this novel ferries readers back to the late 1950s.... More than a coming-of-age story, Romeys Place offers a thought-provoking, detail-rich narrative that literature buffs will savor -- CBA Marketplace, November 1999
[An] earnest, thoughtful coming-of-age novel -- Publishers Weekly, Aug. 30, 1999
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- PublisherRevell
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 0800732383
- ISBN 13 9780800732387
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages400
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