Patience of a Saint

Rating:
Summary: A typical Greeley story, but nonetheless, a good read
Review: "Patience of a Saint" is a typical Greeley story. It contains some excellent images and metaphors of the Catholic Church, some good mystery, some sex, and some violence. It fits Greeley's perfect equation of what to include in a sell-able story. But even with all the expected story parts, it remains one of his better stories, delving into a person's growth as an adult. It is reminiscent of the Biblical story of Saint Paul's conversion, set in modern-day Chicago, with some contemporary images thrown together to show us what Paul may have gone through if he had lived in our time. An interesting idea, a good read, and if you take the time, a thought-provoking way to approach the Bible story as well as middle age.

Rating:
Summary: Summary of the story from the dust jacket
Review: This is a wonderful book. The author suggests wonderful possibilities of grace and love for our lives. It is a book that restores faith and replenishes the soul. Oh, and it's a great love story. Not your typical boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back; this is a wonderful tale about a man who discovers the true depth and meaning of his love for his wife--with no small assistance from God. In a "cynical" age this book is a rare, complex, affirmation of true love and grace. This is my favorite Greeley story.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Greeley story.
Review: This is a wonderful book. The author suggests wonderful possibilities of grace and love for our lives. It is a book that restores faith and replenishes the soul. Oh, and it's a great love story. Not your typical boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back; this is a wonderful tale about a man who discovers the true depth and meaning of his love for his wife--with no small assistance from God. In a "cynical" age this book is a rare, complex, affirmation of true love and grace. This is my favorite Greeley story.

Rating:
Summary: Summary of the story from the dust jacket
Review: This is the story of Red Kane, a man caught in a dilemma of Love. After twenty years of marriage plagued by misunderstanding and bitter resignation, Red finds himself falling in love with his wife all over again - and at the same time, pursued by an implacable, attractive God.

Redmond P. Kane, a popular Chicago newspaper columnist and Pulitzer prize winner, smokes and drinks too much, neglects his kids, enjoys a mistress, is feared and hated by his colleagues, and has shared nothing but a bed with his wife for much too long. At 53, Red is an unhappy, disgruntled cynic. But soon, all that changes. On a Chicago street corner a speeding car, almost runs him down, and a moment of divine grace - one in which God and Red's green eyed wife are somehow identified with each other - almost knocks him unconscious. An then Red';s real troubles begin. They start with evil- plan old fashioned wickedness in the person of aging politico Harv Gunther. Red has come up with evidence that links Gunther to the disappearance of a newsman 20 years earlier and the recent murder of a teenage girl, but proving it can cost Kane his career. He's almost ready to close his files, go out for a drink and forget it all. Yet since his brush with death Red finds himself inexorably drawn down the path of saintliness and driven to always do the right thing. Being a good husband to his wife Eileen is at the top of Red's list. Without realizing it, he's whistling "You're Irish and You're beautiful and dreaming of going home, taking her in his arms, and making up for all the sins of omission accumulated over 20 years of their on-again, off-again marriage. But what happens when he does? Beautiful Irish Eileen think's he's having a breakdown, just as his newsroom co-workers are sure he's finally gone over the edge. Soon, a psychiatrist is trying to have him committed. God has turned Red's whole existence upside down. Must he choose between his wife and his god? Or have they joined in a plot to try the patience of a saint. As Red probes the depths of his new emotions and renewed commitments with the help of Msgr Blackie Ryan, he also digs into the dirty business of Harve Gunther and in the process gravely endangers the lives of everyone he loves.