Answer as a Man

I found this book at the "Friends of the Library" book sale. "Answer As A Man", is the first book by Taylor Caldwell that I have read. The storyline follows the life of Jason Garrity, his family, business partners, and acquaintances. The timeline is the first decade of the twentieth century in the United States. Overall, the novel was pretty good. I enjoyed the history that was interwoven into this fictional novel. The Irish characters and plot were strong and believable. The plot had a lot of twists and turns (some predictable, some not) that kept the novel interesting. The reason for the 4-star versus 5-star rating, is the fact that I felt the novel dragged on at times.

I found this book at the "Friends of the Library" book sale. "Answer As A Man", is the first book by Taylor Caldwell that I have read. The storyline follows the life of Jason Garrity, his family, business partners, and acquaintances. The timeline is the first decade of the twentieth century in the United States. Overall, the novel was pretty good. I enjoyed the history that was interwoven into this fictional novel. The Irish characters and plot were strong and believable. The plot had a lot of twists and turns (some predictable, some not) that kept the novel interesting. The reason for the 4-star versus 5-star rating, is the fact that I felt the novel dragged on at times.

One of Caldwell's better novels, Answer As A Man touches on most of her recurring themes - the conspiracy behind governments to incite wars for profit and to install taxation to create a form of slavery. She also continues to stress than man can be evil and God cruel.

This is the story of an Irish innocent, Jason Garrity, who rises from the slums of a suburb in Pennsylvania to become a wealthy landlord and hotelier. For too long he is unable to see the evil around him, and is taken advantage of by his wife, his siblings, his best friend . . .

A good read, and as always, Caldwell makes one think. Whether you agree with her or not, she presents compelling arguements.

I used to love Taylor Caldwell & now I'm trying to decide if I've outgrown her or, if she was ill when she wrote this book, as it was her last novel. I was very disappointed in the poorly developed ending, but then I wondered if she was having problems. I also found that her characters were not as well developed as usual. Usually when I would read her books I could imagine the characters moving through the story. This time I couldn't.

Basically a good story, but too many of the characters are not believable. Except for Nick, the children are miniature adults.