the edge of sadness

The story is narrated by Father Hugh Kennedy,who tells us on the first page,that at no point is the story his own,but rather it is about the Carmody family,mostly ,the patriarch ,Charley,a man well knowen , but not well liked in the unnamed city. There are many really wonderful reviews about the book on Goodreads here. “A realistic Christian novel of hope in a non-Christian age.”—New England Quarterly“A deeply felt and eloquently expressed work . After years of marriage and already becoming a grandmother, it is curious why she should now seek some sort of security in Hugh's affirmation of reciprocal feelings for her. The story is about … And this is a thoroughly Catholic novel taking a look at priests and their humanity without making them evil. This tale of a priest in his middle years had a haunting quality, although melancholia certainly didn’t prevail. He becomes involved again with the Carmodys, a wealthy family whose ancestry, like his own, is Irish and whom he has known since childhood. He believes this, quite sincerely, and he finds ample support for such belief: on all sides he's assured that he is doing the much-needed job of "waking up the parish." This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and I can see why: it is literary. Ron Hansen was born in Omaha Nebraska in 1947.He received a BA degree in English from Creighton University in Nebraska in 1970. I found myself laughing out loud, which is quite unusual for me, as I read much of the dialogue. A lovely, nostalgic read. This engaging window on a moment in time and a particular culture kept me reading, but the story itself runs deeper, into the areas of love, forgiveness, growing old, and finding meaning in life. Wise enough to accept his surroundings (often the source of wryly comic interludes) , and his failings, he fights the realization that what he is seeking may no longer exist. There's a great attraction to this: he's doing what he likes to do, and he can tell himself that it's all for the honor and glory of God. share. it begins when Kennedy receives a phone call at six AM from Charley inviting him to his birthday party next Sunday( he says it's his eighty second,but everyone knows he will be eighty one, he knows that they know it, he dose it just to irritate them) he. Normally when people ask me what my favourite book is I say Moby Dick (which I love also) because it is just too difficult to explain the depth of affection I have for this obscure little book. “We can stand only a certain amount of unhappiness; anything beyond that annihilates us or passes us by, leaving us apathetic.” Goethe.Elective Affinities. The greatness of The Edge of Sadness lies not in its insider’s view of ecclesiastical life, or in its portrayal of steely faith, bloody martyrdom, or the heroic struggle to seek out a seemingly ever-withdrawing God. It's not for everybody: narrated by a priest who is a recovering alcoholic, the novel is very long and slow moving with scarcely any plot. O'Connor's novel went from winning the Pulitzer Prize to going out of print. He, himself, is battling his own private demons, having lost his stature and parish through the ills of alcoholism, he struggles to find his own niche. Edwin O'Connor's book, The Edge of Sadness won the Pulitzer prize in 1962. The little day-to-day absurdities of ordinary--and priestly--life, played against life's sufferings, are part of what makes the story of Father Hugh Kennedy such a life-affirming one. An additional title or two — most likely All in the Family or The Edge of Sadness — can sometimes be found (long unread) on the fiction shelves of the local public … Dear to his heart are the Irish parishioners, of course, whom he portrays with a gentle accuracy. I would not usually start, let alone finish such a book, but the expression and descriptions strike a chord within. See guidelines for writing about novels. O'Connor has a gift of understanding prayer, loneliness, despair, hope, faith. Note: The depression at the top of the Little Brown logo is Neptune's Trident - not a book club blind stamp. While each character finds his or her own station in life, each also has a secret, a part of their lives which remains unfulfilled, unsatisfied. What he may not see is that he stands in some danger of losing himself in the strangely engrossing business of simply "being busy"; gradually he may find that he is rather uncomfortable whenever he is not "being busy." 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