Answer as A Man

By Taylor Caldwell

Taylor Caldwell is one of my favorite authors.  Her books totally capture the scene, character, and mood of the story, for one reason; there is a sense of autheticism.  In reading a biography on her I have come to discover that reincarnation research has been done on her ability to write such authentic description on subjects in past time periods and found that she can write clairvoyantly with no research on the subject and hit the mark perfectly.  She was known to write spontaneously on a subject as in Testimony of Two Men.   In that book, she not only captured the technology of medicine in the 19^th century but captured the beside manner and mood between patient and physician that could only be done having interviewed both; requiring time travel.  Or, as suggested in the biography, she experienced the situation first hand; reincarnation.

Answer as a Man covers the time period of the early 20^th century of an Irish Catholic family and in particular one Jason Aloysius Garrity in Pennsylvania.  In writing this note I recall that another of her books, Captains and Kings, she writes of another Catholic family that closely resembles the Kennedy’s.  Clearly the families and thread of characters are different between the two books.  But the reader will come away from the book(s) with a colorful appreciation of how an oppressed ethnic group of Irish people overcame racism of the WAPS and make a fortune.  Caldwell at the same time writes of the dark stains and the hard headed determination of Irish Catholics who rise above not just their own flaws but the flaws of society in whole.  The time spans of both books overlap. Coincidentally, it is my favorite time period of history, from the Civil War (Crimean War in Europe) to the Great War.

This book begins on November 11, 1900 and spans through the rise and the Great World War.  This is a period that fascinates me because so many changes in technology had a knock-on effect on how one would chart new ways to make a fortune.  Each technology is folded into the story as the reader witnesses it almost first hand.  Here it is one hundred years later in the era of Steve Jobs, a new century, and still new technology abounds us. But it seems to me, albeit the character of ‘the man’ is the same; however the fortunes require a vision that not is the same as 1900.  Today it’s not how to live better, but to live longer.  I presume Jason would say something similar about his forefathers in the aftermath of things like the printing press.  So what were the guiding principles that Jason lived by?  How was it that he answered like a man?

There are three threads that Caldwell weaves to answer this question.  First Jason’s brother who, because he is seen to be cut of the fabric to be a man of the cloth, in childhood is granted special allowances away from chores.  This burned Jason, but he also understood it. Second is the relationship he has with his wife, a woman of monstrous character, reference my review of East of Eden.  His wife never loved Jason, but she married him because she became pregnant by Jason’s best friend, who was betrothed to Jason’s sister.  The question of virtue is again again at the root of controversy.  This dynamic is too strikingly close to a storyline too many people deal with.   So I appreciate this book being a best seller in it’s day.  

Finally  along side those personal dramas, which is the moral undercurrent  of the book, Caldwell’s practical story line describes how  Jason sorts how to make a bundle of money in the hotel business where his core values borne in him by his father, who likely passed them down from generations of forefathers before him provides the foundation for his success.  The one word that coins Jason is virtue; where those close to him, his wife and best friend, had none.  I have come to learn that when virtue escapes you, there are opportunities to atone for your ‘sin’.    I know both sides of this equation.  Forgiveness and its cousin could then set in and the story would be different.  In this book as in East of Eden and Anna Kiernan there was no atonement (Job: 11).  And everyone besides Jason Garrity paid a price.    Caldwell opens the book with a quote from the bible.  “Then the Lord asked Satan: Have you considered my servant Job – Job 1:8.  Jason prevailed.  I think it is important to read from the Bible Job first and then read this book.

Bibliography:

Page 21:  He had no impulse to kneel, to venerate; to worship for what he had experienced had no name, no frame of reference in piety, no connection with the world of men at all.  It transcended time and place and flesh.  It was only Itself, revealed utterly, possessing no human awareness.  It was Revelation, and its awareness of its revelation was sufficient for it, demanding no acknowledgement.

He had heard of the “rapture” of saints. It never occurred to him the he himself, for one endless instant, had experienced rapture.  He was not famous for devotion to his religion, or for his earnest practice of it.  Yet, as he went toward the house, he was suddenly aware of God in the simplest and our surest sense.

Page 50:  Bernard silently plunged his hands into his trousers pocket and brought out a handful of coins, which he nosily spilled on the table cloth.  “Nearly two dollars”, he said finally.  “We needed only four more.  We’ll get it sure we will!”

“Yes,” said Jason, who was less than hopeful, but he wanted peace tonight for his mother’s sake.  ….he said where did you get that money Da?”

“went around,” grunted Bernard.  “Not everybody’s got a heart like a stone.”

Page 70: [of the land left to Jason from a friend who was murdered]   “Some day that land will be valuable, mind my words,” he told Jason.  But Jason did not think of that.  He only thought that old  Joe had not properly been avenged.  His hatred for the executed murders never abated.

Page 71:  When Jason talked of Justice, Lionel was bored.  Justice had been done.  The murders were dead too.  Why brood?  Life was for the living.  He saw that others respected and trusted Jason, whereas they did not respect or trust him.  He only charmed them, and he found much more to his interest, and far more profitable.  There would never be tips for Jason.  He would have to earn every penny.  Jason had character.

My comment:  Lionel did earn his tips and saw immediate gratification in terms of reward.  But Lionel was less that honest, albeit not telling any lies.  I think the message here is he who plants his intention in firm soil sees a stable return on investment and is less vulnerable.

Page 82:  He still stared at the empty hollow under the trees.  Then all at once he felt a “shifting,” a movement, though there was no movement anywhere.  Suddenly, like a giant wave of light, he was engulfed in brilliance, though he did not see it with his mortal eyes.  He was only aware of it, a glory, an opening, a vastness of being, of understanding, of love, of promise, of secret but incredible hope.  Above all, of tremendous love, supernatural, filled with eternity, without boundaries, personal consoling, joyous, ecstatic.  Warmth enveloped him, like embracing arms.  He was not only released, but he felt expanding, as if aware of his membership in something beyond life and duty and grimness of pain.  He was swept, in, in that blinding glow, into rapture, tenderness, strength, and grandeur.  Everything was explained, everything known, all terror lost, all peace encompassing.

Page 82:  However the melancholy and fear had left him, as if a parent had lifted him from a sightless bed and had held him and had told him something he could not remember and only knew.

My comment:  Caldwell speaks to that inner knowing that comes from above, generation to generation; the everlasting now that needs no remembering.

Page 95:  To him, as to his Irish ancestors, trees were holy things, the home of druids, not to be violated.  He wanted to worship, but he did not think of the God of fervid cities.  His impulse was toward something more intense and immanent – indwell yet immense and boundless and universal. He felt the immediacy of the godhead, listening, aware, burning, with Being, young, and joyous yet timeless, swelling with love and mystery not comprehended by man.  Here was all explained, even to the dark mind of humanity – if it would listen, which it rarely did.  Here indeed, was the peace that passed understanding, the eloquent peace of majestic eternity, which knew nothing of death or pain or tumult.

The earth to Jason would sometimes think, was a temple, sacred and dedicated not by any priest but by …What?  For an instant and something flashed across his mind, as incandescent as the sun but more vivid – a wing of light, which also brushed his flesh.  But it was gone at once; it left only a shadow of resplendence behind it.  The it was also gone.

My comment:  I call this a holy instant, where others may call it a vision quest, a word from God.  It is written about in many novels and books, including ‘The Good Book.’

Page 121:  Bernard’s vivid gaze moved about the room.  He listened to the silence, disturbed only by the hallow thud of the wind.  He said “I’d like to think there is a God – for Katie.  The woman in the other bed – she said she saw an angel… I’d like to believe it was Katie, going home.”

Jason looked down at the table with its oilcloth covering.  “Let’s believe it, then.”  He said in a voice as emotionless as his grandfather’s had been.

Page 141:  Her restlessness overcame her.  She had got out her bicycle from the stable and had furiously ridden off, peddling with all her strength.  That she was desperately seeking an encounter she did not know.  The exertion exhilarated her and she pressed for the out skirts of town.  The gentle heat made her sweat; her breasts tingled wetly against the camisole and the shirtwaist, and the sensation excited her.  Her loins, on the seat of t bicycle, began to burn.  She took off her straw hat and tied it on the handlebars,  The wind lifted her light brown hair and she laughed.  She felt alive and vibrant as never before.  She felt her femaleness and was proud.  It was naughty. of course, but in what way?

She passed carriages and automobiles and did not see or hear them.  She searched with her eyes, and did not know for what she was looking.  Her heart was beating very fast.  An unimaginative girl, she had never known beauty before..  Now she was entranced by the countryside which bordered the narrow road.  Everything elated her, the new green of the trees, the scent of the warm grass, the sight of wildflowers shyly clustered in the shade of great trees – purple, yellow, red, and blue – the mauve glisten of the mountains in the distance, the fragrance of hot stone and hot dust, the comfort of the sun on her face and her hands.  She smiled, and she wanted to cry in her delight.  Patricia Mulligan had discovered life.  She felt she was part of it and she was beautiful, too.  Her hear expanded, She began to sing.

My comment:  She was riding to a rendezvous with her lover.  This would be their one and only time having sex.  While she was being pursued by Jason, she really wanted Jason’s best friend Lionel.  Who was betrothed to Jason’s sister.  Both betrayed Jason.  Was this a double surrender of virtue in its true meaning?  On its own; no.  But to hold to the betrayal the through the remainder of the story as did Jason's wife and his best friend did and haunts everyone involved as the upheaval of truth like a plate tectonic crash, rains ruins upon the immediate characters and their children. 

Page 147:  Mrs. Lindon had once said, “You have all the ways of a gentleman, my Deal Lionel, but you don’t have much education.  It doesn’t take a lot of study to give te appearance of education; it just needs a little reading, a lot of listening, and a knowing air.” 

Page 186:  Daniel dutifully attended Mass with his uncle.  He did not see Jason there very often, and when he did, Jason would site wit his eyes in swerving regarding the great crucifix above the high alter.  When he prayed, it was with a strange intensity.  It was as if a devoted son contented with a  capricious or in comprehensible father and demanded answers to unanswerable questions.

In his spirit he is a priest, Daniel would think  with a curious mixture of compassion and mirth.

252:  While Jason fumed, Lionel opened his newspaper.  “Look at this,” he said.  “just when we wanted to install oil heat instead of coal, Washington warns – they’re always warning – that our oil resources will be exhausted by 1930.  And coal soon after.”  “We should heat with wood.”

Page  253:  [On the looming Great War] We’ve got too much sense.  And Washington is too small and feeble to push us into one.

Page 259:  Every man in that kitchen thinks he is better than any other man there, and far superior in every way.  That’s human nature.  If you look at slights, you’ll get them.  But for God’s sake, don’t insult them either.

Page 261:  He tried to lighten his mood and forced himself to think of his new Zulu chef and finally could smile.  No matter a man’s race or color or religion, he was on with the rest of his wrenched fellows and they all had one terrible adversary – God.  And each other, of course, sad to say.

Page 326:  “You’ve changed,” she said.  “

Have I?”  He did not know that his usually impassive face was glowing, like a youths.

“Yes and I don’t like it.”

He turned away.  He said involuntarily, “You’ll have to get used to it.”  He left the room.

Patricia fell back on he cushions.  He was not the man she had known only yesterday.  He has escaped her.  She felt powerless.  This enraged her.  She got to her feet, went to her locked dressing table, and took out a bottle of whiskey.  She did not wait to get a glass.  She lifted the bottle to her lips and drank avidly.

Page 370:  But Jason shook his head over end over in increasing torment.  “But not for his parents; there is no joy or peace, watching somebody like that.  A waste of life…”

“Is it a waste to those children?  Is a bird a waste, or a butterfly, or a flower?  Who is to say?”

He won’t be a man.”

“The days of a man’s life are full of trouble.   Like the grass he is cut down.’  Job cursed the day of his birth.  Nick will never do that.”

“Its better to suffer,” said Jason.  “Then you know you are a man.  It’s better to have pain than endless childhood.  AT least you know you are alive..”

Saul shook his head warily, “ I’m an old ma. I wish I’d never been born.  It was Gods will – blessed be his name – and here I am in my old age, with none of my own.  I’ll go to my grave and thank the Lord.

My comment:  This is dialogue between Jason and Saul in the realization that Jason’s son Nick is mentally impaired.  Caldwell brings in Job into this very Catholic story of the early twentieth century.  Medicine had not made break through’s…and still today we have mental disorders.  Hence we all turn to God, the reality of our being and go within.

Page 389:  Let Love come last, after the lesson’s learned

Love like all things else, must be earned.

“And that goes for children too, Saul Weitzman.  He told me that it is Jewsih teaching, from the Holy Bible, that a man owes his children and education, but above all he must teach them righteousness.  Parents are not commanded to ‘love’ their children.  Children have to earn their parents’ love.  But kids are commanded to honor their parents.”  He waited a moment and said, “And the Church teaches this also…”

Page 419:  Suddenly radiance fell over the mountains, river, sky, trees, blinding Jason wit hits effulgence.  A sea of light engulfed him, bearing his soul upward to ecstasy, becoming one with the brilliance he thought he saw with his eyes. The light became rapture, the rapture true light.  They flowed into one another, pulsing blissful, without boundaries, without end.  Above all they brought joy.  All was transformed, charged with grandeur.  A thought came to Jason un bidden.  Be still and know that I am God.”

The glory ended.  The familiar scene became small, ordinary, merely pretty.  The majestic revelation faded.  Jason felt as if he had wakened in some fetid valley after falling asleep in Olympia.

My comment:  This is for sure the essence of my book of poetry “Love is a Blooming Rose”.   If you want a copy, send me an email.  It is also a coincidence that I also randomly picked this book up along with all of James Redfield’s books on the Celestine Prophecy.  He describes a process to this transformation and describes exactly the glorious moment of revelation.  I call it in my book ‘The Holy Moment’.  The moment itself is fleeting.  But ones reaction is forever.