The ListenerTaylor Caldwell's The Listener was a book I read as a young man, and it is a book that has been a major influence in my life. It tells the story of a rich man who built a magnificent house when he died and in it was a room where people could come and be listened to by a person behind a curtain 24 hours a day. The person was Christ. People crowded the place, and they talked and in talking they found solace, strength and worked out their problems.That book shaped my view of being a pastor from the very beginning, and I have found that simply listening is the best medicine, the best pastoral care we can give. In the last few days as I am dealing with up coming surgery, the people who have taken time to listen in person have made a difference. Our ministry is based on the being a listener, a pastor. It is difficult because you open yourself to pain. St. Ignatius said: "Tears are the sure sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit," and for me being open to suffering and crying with people has become the sign of the Spirit's presence. I have two guys dying, one of cancer and one of hep C, and I listen, and listen, and in that listening they find healing. In my friends listening to me these past days I have found healing.For our society to be open and whole we need to become listeners. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!VegInspiration Changing our individual daily food choices to reflect a consciousness of mercy will transform our lives and move our culture in a positive direction far more than any other change we can contemplate.Following right behind this change in our individual food choices is the necessity of practicing mindfulness and nonviolence in all our relations in order to bring our mind and heart into alignment with the truth of our interconnectedness, and to allow us to enter the present moment more deeply and experience directly the mystery, joy, and beauty of being. Dr. Will Tuttle
The Listener is a very unique novel that involves the reader as well as the characters. An "eccentric" has created a building that anyone with problems can go into and be guaranteed that someone there will listen, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Of course, the disbelievers scoff and ridicule this concept but the ordinary person ignores them and goes to tell their troubles to the Listener. Basically each chapter is a dialogue of the troubled one. Remarkably, the reader can pinpoint when the transition takes place in the dialogue of the participant. They end up solving or changing their perspective to their problem, and, if they wish, can push a button to see who the Listener is. This is when the reader becomes involved. We are expected to solve the question of who is behind the curtain. In each case, it is a different person, biblical, of course. I really enjoyed this book since in some cases I could relate it back to my day to day life and because of this, the problems seem less because of changing one's perspective.
What do You think about The Listener (1984)?
This is not my cup to tea: a book of plenty of moralism for my taste.4* The Arm and the Darkness5* A Pillar of Iron4* Dear and Glorious Physician4* The Earth Is the Lord's: A Tale of the Rise of Genghis Khan4* The Final Hour5* Captains And The Kings2* The Romance of Atlantis3* The Late Clara Beame3* Ceremony of the Innocent4* Answer as a Man1* The ListenerTR Dynasty Of Death (The Eagles Gather, The Final Hour)TR The Wide HouseTR Testimony of Two MenTR This Side of InnocenceTR Glory and the LightningTR Never Victorious, Never DefeatedTR A Tender VictoryTR Wicked Angel
—Laura
I did not like one thing about this book. The perils of my self-imposed Big Fat Reading Project. I only read Taylor Caldwell because she keeps showing up on the bestseller lists. There will be four more, but finally in the mid 1970s she fades away. Ever since she got on her weird variety of Christian writing, she went right downhill in my opinion. But people who read books for comfort or reassurance from a Christian standpoint seem to like her which explains how she made #8 on the bestseller list for 1960.The Listener is not even really a novel. It is a collection of stories connected by the visits of each character to an odd sort of shrine in an unnamed midwestern city. The shrine is named The Man Who Listens. People from various walks of life come and talk to a curtain, tell their troubles, then open the curtain and realize they have been talking to God. They see the answers to their problems and then go straighten out their lives.It felt highly contrived and gave Caldwell a platform from which she preached in a reactionary tone about the evils of modern society. I confess, I did a lot of skimming but kept on to the end. It did not get any better. In fact it got worse until I was gagging when I finished.
—Judy
