Book Description

The bestselling author of Stones From the River delivers her most ambitious and dramatic novel yet -- the unforgettable story of an endearing, but flawed, Italian American family.

In December 1953 Anthony Amedeo's world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parent's Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium -- and in his imaginatin, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead, he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm's family.

Malcolm is in jail for stealing -- once again -- from his latest new job, and Anthony's aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amedeos' fifth floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affinity for the twins. But the real change in Anthony's life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member's life forever.

Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Keenly observing the dark side of family -- and its gracefulness -- Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood's tenderness and the landscape of loneliness.

Hegi reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations.Download Description
"The bestselling author of Stones from the River delivers her most ambitious and dramatic novel yet -- the unforgettable story of an endearing, but also flawed, Italian American family. In December 1953 Anthony Amedeo's world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parents' Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium -- and in his imagination, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm's family. Malcolm is in jail for stealing -- once again -- from his last new job, and Anthony's aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amedeos' fifth-floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affinity for the twins. But the real change in Anthony's life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member's life forever. Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Keenly observing the dark side of family as well as its gracefulness, Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood's tenderness and the landscape of loneliness. Ultimately she reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations. With gravity and poise, Hegi turns her astute yet forgiving eye on the essential frailty and dignity of the human condition in this elegant and fast-paced novel. " ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Tragedy Affects Family
Anthony, seven years old, is fairly content.His father has a good catering business and his mother and grandparents dote on him.He even likes his cousins, eight-year-old Belinda and Bianca, in small doses.Now Christmas is coming, though, and his uncle is in jail again, so his aunt and cousins have moved in with his family.Anthony is crowded out of his space.He has to share his room with his cousins, and his aunt's sewing materials are taking up much of the apartment's living room.Anthony also picks up on his mother's irritation at having to take in their relatives, which adds to his overall stress.One day while Anthony and Bianca are alone in a room, she falls out of the sixth-floor window to her death.

This tragedy affects the entire family.Anthony is guilty about his part in Bianca's death, and weighted down by his family's unspoken belief that he pushed her.Belinda is guilty of picking a fight with her twin just before her death, and she stands as a permanent reminder of what the family has lost.The twins' father is guilty of having been in prison when his daughter died, unable to even attend the funeral.Anthony's parents and aunt all feel as though they should have been able to do something to avert this tragedy.

The writing in this story was beautiful, and it was interesting to read events from different points of view.However, it was sad to read about a family that was broken and even over the course of decades, was unable to fix itself.It seems that if Anthony had been encouraged to tell his story, perhaps he, at least, could have been able to heal.Instead, his cousin's death haunted him and ended up affecting the family he started as well as the family in which he grew up.

A story of powerful emotions and family dynamics
Sacred Time" follows two lines of one Italian-American family during the last half of the 20th century as its members try to integrate and move on from a shared and tragic event.

I found this story less inspiring than Hegi's "Stones from a River", too preoccupied with loss, guilt, longing and death. But Hegi goes as deeply into the particulars of her settings and locales as she does when she's exploring the minds and hearts of her characters, or what it's like to feel tired and sweaty, or how we sometimes see in strangers reflections of something in ourselves. This impeccable depth of detail makes this book really good.

Told from the perspectives of several family members, the storyopens onto urban childhoods amid popular commercial artefacts of the 1950's- Studebakers, Woolworth's jewelry packaging, Howdy Doody, Dragnet, and Davy Crockett. There's even one of those dime store pictures of Jesus that gave him too good (surely she means too orange?) a tan.

This charming coming-of-age tale suddenly shifts, catapulting the reader, along with the family, into a tragedy that affects each member forever. Hegi is able to maintin a consistently calm and lyrical tone however harrowing are the emotions she's so tenderly handling. It is this ability that inspired me rather than the story's content.

While I enjoyed its vivid characterisations, the book was overall so dark and sad that I'm now yearning for something lighthearted, such as a drive along Liguria's coast (Liguria provided one setting for Floria, a character I really felt for), or some pretty martini, or a night out swing-dancing to really happy music.

Disappointing
I found this book on an awards list and listened to it on CD.It was difficult to finish because I just didn't care about any of the characters.The only redeeming part of the book is the charming narrative with which it opens, told from the viewpoint of a little boy growing up in a close-knit Italian-American family.But the narratives of the adults, which follow, are predictable and fall hopelessly flat.There are the obligatory infidelities and a lesbian dalliance, and there is even some completely gratuitous George Bush bashing!There is much better contemporary fiction out there.

fear, recrimination, remorse intertwine in compelling novel
What should a family do when its fabric has been irreparably torn by an unintended tragic accident?Should its members seek to forget and minimize the trauma caused by sudden loss?How can those who suffer from guilt face those who have rage boiling beneath an appearance of acceptance?Ursula Hegi tackles these issues in her compelling and important novel, "Sacred Time," a work which tracks one family's journey through fifty years of suppressed mourning, recrimination and remorse.

Hegi is at her best when she focuses on Anthony Amedeo, who is at the epicenter of tremors unleashed by a fatal accident which he innocently abetted during his Bronx childhood."Marked and isolated" by his involvement in the accident, suffused with "dread and fear," Anthony's life has been marked by his conscious repudiation of wants.He has concluded that his childhood desire--for his own space, his own toys, his own personality--has caused his family to fracture.Confiding to his estranged wife as an adult, Anthony's characterization of himself as "the devil" encapsulates his self-hatred, his suspicion that life offers little to hope for and much to be afraid of.

The loss of his cousin is "one huge ripple--a tidal wave, rather" that "seized" all the members of his family and "flung" them into a territory where there is "no common focus, only conflicting angles of vision, colliding and aligning" in a "chaotic mosaic."Marraiges crumble; silences replace language, and the children affected by the tragedy struggle to regain their bearings.Anthony's cousin Belinda is haunted by the absence of her twin sister, and it is with great difficulty that she emerges as an intact adult.

Hegi is masterful in her recreation of the Bronx during the McCarthy scare of the early 1950s.Her use of dialogue advances a crisp narrative, and she seems to have a genuinely compassionate sensitivity for the life of a child whose dreams are altered first by family circumstances and then by tragedy.Anthony's mother, Leonora, is by far the most complicated and satisfying of the adult characters of the novel.

Less convincing is the author's treatment of Anthony's aunt Floria.Over one-third of the novel explores her psychological metamorphosis, and much of that simply doesn't work.Floria's extended stay in Italy devolves into maudlin melodrama; her death is depicted in a quasi-Joycean stream of consciousness that is contrived and predictable.Hegi doesn't seem to realize that the greatest strength of "Sacred Time" is its treatment of serious emotional questions through a powerful narrative.When she overwrites or gets bogged down in psychobabble, her novel becomes mundane.

Early in the novel, the child Anthony rejoices at the stories told by his family.His mother and aunt compete to retell, embellish and recreate "one thread of a story and spin it along."With "passion," family members listen, then "leap into a story and spin it along.""Sacred Time" succeeds because it advances Anthony's odyssey through the thread of a story, a thread which finds itself in the lives of the entire Amedeo family.That thread of hidden fear, unspoken grief and unforgiven remorse, when stitched properly, makes this a novel worth reading and remembering.

remarkable look at how one event has lasting impact
In 1953, seven years old Anthony Amedeo lives what he perceives is the good life in his Bronx neighborhood as the only child.His father has a thriving catering business and his stay at home mother dotes on Anthony.Anthony's idyllic childhood changes when his Uncle Malcolm is back behind bars, forcing Aunt Floria and their eight-year-old twin daughters to move into the Amedeo fifth floor apartment; the twins share Anthony's previously private room.Not long afterward, one of the twins falls out a window to her death.

The tragedy haunts Anthony over the next four plus decades as he not only witnessed the fall of his cousin and never quite got over that first touch of death, his mother and aunt believed he pushed his cousin out the window.Living with that undeclared sentencing by his beloved family, Anthony feels all alone in spite of marriage and success as a chef.

Though a bit confusing as there are three eras not smoothly transitioned, SACRED TIME is a remarkable look at how one event lasting seconds can have major impact over the lives of those immediately involved and even later on others for example spouses.On a mega level such as 9/11 this seems obvious, but Ursula Hegi's message is that on the micro family level, relationships are impacted by events such as the death of the twin.The cast is a delightful Italian-American Bronx family who never look at Anthony the same way after his cousin's death.However, the biggest bearer of misfortune besides the victim is Anthony, who perceives what his loved ones believe of him.This is a strong character study of the long term consequences of a tragedy.

... Read more

Book Description
What could possibly account for the scope and longevity of the Star Trek phenomenon? With legions of impassioned fans and a life span of 30 years and counting, the Star Trek television and film corpus has made Gene Roddenberry's creation nothing less than an American mythology. Deep Space and Sacred Time examines for the first time in book-length form the many ways Star Trek has served as a mythic reference point for American society--and suggests that an understanding of this might help us to see ourselves more clearly as a culture. Moreover, this thoughtful and thought-provoking work posits that Star Trek offers its audience a sense of hope and, in the setting of an orderly cosmos, the possibility for empowerment. Written to appeal to thoughtful Star Trek viewers, as well as teachers and scholars, Deep Space and Sacred Time examines Trek's humanist creed, with its faith in the human capacity for compassion, growth and self-guidance. Roddenberry's optimistic vision stressed the tolerance of diversity, the central role of friendship and loyalty, an opposition to prejudice, and the rejection of organized religion and divine authority. Employing the framework of contemporary social analysis, authors Jon Wagner and Jan Lundeen reveal the evolving tension between Star Trek's liberalism and its subliminal messages of gender, race and class hegemony; yet they also take issue with the recent wave of critical scholarship that finds only homophobia, sexism, racism, and other "oppressive" forces dominating the Star Trek mythos. Citing hundreds of examples from the first eight Star Trek feature films and the four television series, the authors consider the ways in which Star Trek invites its audience to explore the nature of the self, the essence of humanity, the construction of gender, the possibility of utopia, and the role of narrative in shaping an intelligible cosmos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Now I finally understand what "post-modernism" means!
I decided to read this book mostly because of the title -- as aTrekker who is also Jewish, I was interested to see what theseauthors had to say about "sacred time," because, as Abraham Joshua Heschel said, weJews live more in sacred time than in sacred places.So, any book with"sacred time" in the title is bound to catch my eye.

As itturned out, their definition of "sacred time" wasn't quite thesame as the Jewish one, but I still enjoyed the book.It's an excellentanalysis of Star Trek from an anthropology POV.Especially useful to mewas the clear, concise explanation of what "traditional,""modernist," and "post-modernist" worldviews mean interms of how various cultures view time andthe future.I had heard TOScalled "modernist" and DS9 called "post-modernist"before, but could never really get a grasp on what that meant, exactly. (What can I say?I'm in the over-50 generation and haven't always kept upon the latest buzzwords.)This book clearly explained all three POVs --traditional, modern, and post-modern -- then put them into the context ofvarious Trek episodes.Great job!

I also enjoyed the brilliant insightthat Trek has, in effect,moved primal mythology from sharing a commonstory about the past, to sharing a common story about the future.Incenturiesgone by, each culture assumed its origins story to be the"real" story, and that was a uniting factor for each group.Buttoday, with so many cultures colliding in an ever-shrinking world, wecannot assume that we all we share the same past heroes anymore.Instead,we look to the same future heroes on Star Trek for role models andinspiration.Whether or not Trek is the "real" future is besidethe point here.It has become a mythology that people use on a globallevel (to greater or lesser degrees), regardless of the different creationstories that make up their individual cultures' past mythologies.

Iliked the fact that this book intelligently questioned some of thepolitically-correct criticisms of Trek that have come out in recent years. While not accepting everything on Trek at face value, this book does pointout that some PC critics have bordered on the ridiculous.The authors herestrike a very good balance between entering into the spirit of the Trekuniverse, and critically examining some of the basic assumptions that Trekmakes about what the future "should be.">I highly recommend"Deep Space and Sacred Time" to anyone seriously interested inthe impact of Star Trek on our modern (or is that post-modern? ) culture.

An excellent analysis
Wagner and Lundeen have added an important book to the growing repository of "serious" literature concerning Star Trek. In a sense they take over where Harrison Taylor et al left off with "EnterpriseZones", and they are not slow to suggest within their own bookcriticisms of that earlier work. The chapter on religion was particularlyenlightening, since for me it seemed to highlight the inconsistenciesinherent in Star Trek's treatment of the subject. Less caustic thanTaylor's volume, its apparent gentleness does not betoken an acceptance ofall things Trek.

The book was very interesting.
This book was a great book because of how he include family life and the things about star trek. I would recomend this book to the star trek fans. ... Read more

Book Description
In Sacred Time and the Search for Meaning, author Gary Eberle contemplates how humans' view of time has evolved throughout history, how we came to measure time, and why we feel especially starved for it now. Eberle seeks to rediscover a renewed sense of meaning in life through looking for ways to enter the realm of sacred time or "sabbath time"—where we can reconnect with the slower, deeper rhythms of life that have traditionally been experienced through worship, prayer, and the observance of holy days. Drawing from the work of Western philosophers from Aristotle to Heidegger, and on theorists from Jung to Foucault, he presents both an intellectual history of time and a personal account of his own search for sacred time. Along the way he formulates an insightful analysis of our culture's obsession with speed and efficiency, and he offers guidance for slowing down to savor life outside of schedules and routines, showing the way toward finding fulfillment in this increasingly accelerated world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Time: The Infinite, yet Scarce Commodity
"Time, time, time, see what's become of me!"

The image of time as a sports car racing swiftly away from the curb of our existence is a picture which those of us, in that joyous span of life known as "middle-age," can see with utter clarity.In today's society, we have an abundance of riches: possessions, unparalleled affluence, access to information and images, instantaneous communication and freedom of expression.And yet, for all of our multi-tasked nirvana, we are simple beggars as time slips through our fingertips.

Gary Eberle conducts us on a delightful exploration of the concept of time - its evolution, its importance, its scarcity, and our obsession with filling every nook and cranny of the thing.Drawing on both personal reflection and academic considerations, the author examines our fixation with robotic productivity and offers thoughtful ways to effectively slow the pace of daily living to a level that is consistent with the internal rhythms of our being.

One of my favorite sections is Chapter 4: Books of Hours, which examines the concept of prayer as an integral part of daily existence and in finding our internal tranquility.Rather than viewing Liturgical Prayer as a numbing restrictive regimen, Gary Eberle offers its liberating patterns as a tonic for temporal gastric distress.

The book is well written and holds the reader's interest throughout the 200+ pages.It is well worth the time!
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Customer Reviews (1)

Joyful Geometry
I particularly enjoy this approach to the TSK vision. Sacred Dimensions is a warm, ebullient text; it's less a gauntlet thrown down in challenge than the first three TSK books (which are, in my opinion, works of genius). Perhaps it's best to let this text speak for itself:

"The promise of the Time, Space, Knowledge vision--TSK--is this: If we understand our own space more fully, we can open all of space. If we konw our own time more intimately, we can transform our living experience. If we investigate the operations of our own mind more deeply, we can see the roots of knowledge everywhere. Seeing the natural harmony within appearance, we wil lbe able to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity time is steadily presenting" (p. xli).

The rest of the text elaborates these themes.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Entering Lent can be imagined as entering the silence of a vast and empty desert that leads to an experience of alleluia. The Lenten meditations in this book lead us to our own interior desert. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Unique Exploration of Baha'i Faith
John Walbridge's outstanding book gives a fascinating exploration of the Baha'i Faith, the most widespread of the world religions and the most recent of the world major religons. He gives it's complex history from its beginnings in 19th Century Iran, where it has been and continues to be persecuted. He explains its law, both comparing it to the laws of the other religions of the world, as well as explaining complicated aspects of it scripture. What is unique is that he details the small rites and sociological characteristics that effect individual believers with accuracy and respect. His scholarship is profound, explaining many deeper aspects to the Baha'i Faith in way that anyone could understand. He does this fully in the context of its scripture, its history and its contemporary issues. I strongly recommend this book for those individuals who want to understand the Baha'i Faith and its scripture with greater depth, more intense clarity, going beyond introductory books. This is a book for those who want to explore the Baha'i Faith from the perspective of a believer but also from the point of view of accurate detail and Baha'i scripture. This books covers Baha'i scripture in the orginal languages it was written, it's complex and turbulent history, it's theology and law, social structure, relationship with historical and contemporary Iran, local and international administration,etc. Few people can explain as much in so small a book. It is delightfully written and compherensive. I strongly recommend to any student of comparative religion or student of religious studies. ... Read more

Product Description
This study contributes to the debate over the relationship between science and religion by examining Sir Isaac Newton s construal of space and time in his Principia Mathematica and other important works.This book should appeal to scholars interested in the philosophy of religion, theology, and the history of science. ... Read more

Book Description
Complete rituals for the celebration of birth, marriage anddeath, as well as a comprehensive structure for a new age religion inwhich the natural rhythms of the earth signal the major spiritualfestivals. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Church and State, published by J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State on June 22, 2001. The length of the article is 537 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: France and the Cult of the Sacred Heart: An Epic Tale for Modern Times.(Review)(Brief Article)
Author: David Longfellow
Publication: Journal of Church and State (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2001
Publisher: J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State
Volume: 43Issue: 3Page: 611

Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article

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