It had been years since I’d read anything by Taylor Caldwell (1900 – 1985). Reading Tender Victory brought me back to my past admiration for this author.
Tender Victory, a novel first published in 1956, is about a former military chaplain, Reverend Johnny Fletcher, who served in Europe during World War II. It is now 1946 and Reverend Fletcher is seeking to pastor a church. He meets with resistance when members of prospective churches learn he has brought back from Europe five orphan children. The children, two Protestants, two Catholic, and one Jew, not only can’t speak English, they have been so traumatized by the horrors inflected upon them that they appear to be like wild animals.
Reverend Fletcher accepts a position in the small mining town of Barrymore, PA. He immediately finds friends and supporters, but many in the town are against him, not only because of his children, but they fear he will be instrumental in disturbing their status-quo. As it stands, the rich who live up in the hills, are getting even richer from the mining operations, but the average citizen who lives in town on lower elevations suffers from the dirty industrial air the mines produce.
As he continues to serve, Reverend Fletcher is challenged on many counts, but he firmly believes in the goodness of man, despite obvious evidence to the contrary.
I found Tender Victory an uplifting, inspirational read rich with the timeless themes of hope, faith and compassion.