Romey's Place
by James Calvin Schaap
Baker Books, 1999
Reviewed by Jamison Galt

James Calvin Schaap has created a worthwhile work by doing what few believers seem able to do nowadays: write good fiction. These days many novels by Christian authors begin with phrases like "Professor Shady O'Hary was dusting off the last remains of dirt from an ancient and decrepit papyrus fragment she believed would unlock the Torah's secret mathematical code when...;" or "Hyle Noripshikof, President of D___, signed his country's allegiance to the World Confederation at four a.m. this morning, the global alliance made official as he stamped his country's seal, a red heifer..." Schaap, however, has written a novel without sensationalism, but instead with elegance, simplicity and, most importantly, truth.

Romey's Place is a book about the coming-of-age of two young boys in a small Wisconsin town in the 1950s. The story opens as the now-grown narrator, Lowell Prins, is helping his aging father pack up his old house. As Lowell stumbles over some of his father's old war booty in the attic he is forced to remember and face a consequential summer in his childhood that has haunted him to this very moment. That long-past summer finds him fourteen years old and best friends with Romey Guttner. Lowell's father is practically the town's patron saint and a visible pillar of righteousness, while Romey's father is the town drunk and family batterer. Despite their differences the two boys forge a friendship that renders them inseparable.

Their summer-long exploits include hunting and trapping, stealing, bean field picking, baseball, bible camp, practical jokes and encounters with the opposite sex. Through these common dramatic experiences the boys' lives are grafted together and then ultimately changed. Meanwhile the town is undergoing a torrent of social and moral conflict, in which the boys' fathers play immediate roles. Soon the town friction will heat up to a burning point and place Lowell and Romey at the center, forcing them to make a life-altering decision.

Part of the beauty of this book is its simplicity. The plot races like Lowell and Romey in July heat toward the lake, so that the reader never realizes the magnitude of the themes in which he or she is taking part. Be prepared ahead of time not to miss Schaap's considerable precision and art. The language is flowing, descriptive and enjoyable. The characters are entirely real and full of depth. The setting is thoroughly imagined: the beach on the lake, the baseball fields, and every nook in-between invite you to get lost in small-town America.

Romey's Place is a story in which the external landscape reflects the internal one. It's about grace coming to the most grotesque place imaginable -- the human heart. It takes courage today to stand up and write about something so non-commercial as this, and for it Schaap deserves a "thank you" and a perhaps even a "hurrah."