“Trust no one. Know everything. Have eyes and ears around the world. Put nothing in writing—ever. But read into everything. Follow the leads, yet never leave tracks. Don’t allow anyone into your world, but enter everyone else’s.”--Martin Gruber
New Haven, CT
McCauley grabbed an oven-roasted turkey hoagie from the Book Trader Cafe on the Yale University campus and brought it back to his office. He logged onto Pandora’s Frank Sinatra channel, always his default when he had important things on his mind. It relaxed him.
Where? Exactly where this year? he thought as he took a satisfying bite of his dinner. He studied a topographical map of Montana with three strategically placed push pins indicating the final areas he was considering. Beside each pin was a yellow sticky note with numbers 1, 2 and 3. McCauley had put through the paperwork months ago for three potential sites; all offering interesting challenges for his students and the potential for a cool find or two. State park commissions had already given conditional approval for each location. But he still needed to complete the application process. They were due in Billings in just five days. At the end of last summer, McCauley had flown over the area and found each attractive for different reasons. Site 1, Hell Creek, Montana, was noted for its mudstones and sandstones dating back to the end of the Cretaceous period, with fossils of triceratops, tyrannosaurus, and Ornithomimids. Interesting. Site 2, further east, had real possibilities. It was just outside of Glendive, MT. Maybe, he said to himself. Site 3 was north, part of a pre-historic riverbed and was certain to garner great finds just a few feet down. But he found that less challenging. No adventure. He figured there’d be initial excitement, then with the same results week after week—boredom.
McCauley finished chewing another bite, quickly catching a piece of turkey as it dropped out of the bun. He did it instinctively, like the first baseman he’d been in Little League, high school and college. He still had a quick hand and a great throwing arm. He swallowed the last of his sandwich, studied the map again and pulled the pin and paper off Site 3. That makes it easier. Down to two. The music on his computer segued from Sinatra to Dean Martin,
Dean Martin to Matt Monro, a crooner considered the British Sinatra. The “From Russia to Love” theme broke his concentration. “Pete!” he shouted. “Need a little help.” DeMeo left his adjoining office and was at McCauley’s side in seconds. “Ready.” “I’m torn between Sites 1 and 2, but drawn more to 2. Give me arguments why we shouldn’t go there.” “You want them right now?” “Yes.” “Site 1 is better. Earth that you can dig and geological footprints evident everywhere. Perfect grazing grounds. And that means perfect remains.” “I know. But the strata at 2 appeals to me.” “Harder. More challenges. Cliffs and valleys. You’ll need better equipment. More money.” “Forget the money. If I made my decisions on money, I would have stuck with baseball. ” DeMeo had heard the stories about the Red Sox looking at the young McCauley. They even made an offer his junior year at Harvard which he turned down. “Let’s sleep on it for a few days. See what you can come up with.” After a pause he added, “And while you’re at it, find out why the Brits had this thing about Matt Monro.”
“Black is the color of my true love’s hair,” McCauley said, citing the traditional Appalachian folk song “Wrong again. You have no true love.
~~~
Readers will quickly discover there are two distinct settings for Grossman's book. One in a publishing company setting where various travel magazines are front and center... However, behinds the scenes, there is a world-wide group who are committed to "The Path." Gruber is now head of both; and, as he is growing older, is working to find and train his replacement for the more important part of what will be a life-long commitment.
“No ‘I think,’” Gruber demanded of Kavanaugh. “Never ‘I think.’ Never! Own what you say. If you don’t own it, then it is not ready to be said.”
Colin Kavanaugh has been working with Gruber, but as time goes by, both find themselves unsatisfied with what is happening. There is a 40-year age difference; however, I think that readers will have the same type of concerns that Gruber has in evaluating his top candidate...
Past, present, future. It is all one. No mistakes.” “I understand, Mr. Gruber. You have my assurance.” “Not just your assurance. Your dedication. Your commitment. Your faith.” “Forever. Without question.”
“You will be a guardian without the luxury of failure.”
At the same time, we enter into the life of Professor McCauley who is teaching as Yale's paleontologist and is now preparing for his summer dig site. Three options now need to be explored and one will be chosen. His group of students will be small, all coming from other U.S. universities with one coming in from Spain. McCauley will be on his own this time since his postgrad assistant is touring Europe this summer... At least McCauley thought he would be on his own, until he learned that another professor would be doing an evaluation of him this year. He was not pleased--but this does work out very well...LOL Especially when she was both beautiful and an awarding-winning scholar from England...
A third, less covered, setting will take readers back into the 1600s. But don't think it will be a minor part. In fact, it is the basis upon which the entire book is built... Ever heard of Galileo? Well, don't be surprised that much of what he gets involved with, you will never have heard of. On Purpose...
The overall concept will center on science, versus religion, versus the good of mankind... Grossman does an extraordinary achievement in pulling each factor in the story--brining in each group as needed, just in time for the reader to understand the connection and also, sometimes, the results which keeps the story moving forward.
But it is certainly not a boring, dry tale. Readers will be centered on the student group in Montana, where Professor McCauley had established some basic areas for each students to become involved with. It is then he takes off to explore the area that encompasses what his site. It requires chasing away large birds next, and finding a cave which appears to have not been touched since, perhaps, the indigenous people who had once lived in the area that was now controlled and managed by the state. The area has been known for many years to have once been inhabited by dinosaurs--the group's main target of interest...
But McCauley's tour of the cave, with many paintings by the Native Americans is intriguing, especially when it appears that there is a guiding pattern leading further into the cave... Yes, the entire group gets excited because this appears to be a totally unexplored area! And they decide to change their plans!
And that is when the action begins. Soon news of their activities has reached across the world, especially to Room 10 in the publishing building...
Unfortunately this is not an easy book to break out any scenes of interest. As indicated earlier...starting in the 1600s, we learn that the violence begins, but not from an expected group--at least in today's world...
May 10, 1633
Rome, Italy “Assuredly, we can all reflect on the meaning of time,” Galileo argued. “It is not ours to control any more than the truth. You may do what you want with me now, but it’s temporal only to us; a pyrrhic victory for you and those who sit in judgment of science.” Father Vincenzo Maculano sat silently. His fellow inquisitors had left, as had the Vatican scribe. Just two men now, continuing to explore a most uncommon ground. “Tell me Father, how did you find out?” Galileo asked. The inquisitor smiled. “Quite simply. Your coterie.” “My coterie? I don’t understand?” “The thinker doesn’t think?” Maculano declared. “Are you so old that you have forgotten your friends Pino and Santori?”
June 21, 1633
Rome Galileo fully recognized it was not just the Church he faced. Father Maculano was charged with a goal greater than defending the faith. He was protecting the institution. “You believe that science justifies your vaulted intellectual pursuits; that your ideas are as limitless as the skies. They are not. We live with laws of the state and our firmly held Canon Laws. When it comes to standing up to you, Galileo Galilei, they are one and the same. You are a threat; a threat that cannot be permitted an audience or a place in history.” “I’m merely a thinker with no political power.” The priest grasped the point. “A thinker? Thinking is the root of political power—proposed by Plato, re-defined by Aristotle, and re-interpreted by heretics and outcasts ever since. Thinking leads to the organization of apostates who espouse the secular rather than the holy. We can’t afford thinkers, Galileo. We cultivate followers and believers. And so, by your own admission you are a thinker?” “I am.” “Then your guilt is solidified.” “It isn’t the Holy Inquisition that judges me or seeks to purge the name of Galileo Galilei from history. You represent something else.” “The Inquisition suffices for our purposes. And our decision will serve all purposes.” Galileo sat again and rested his head in his hand. “Perhaps your head hurts from all your thinking. It should. Your thoughts do the work for me.” “Thoughts, observations, intellectual pursuits. I have no arrows in a quiver; no knives in a sheath.” “Words that undermine faith are equally dangerous weapons. You are well-armed with those,” Maculano resumed. “So is research that threatens how things ought to be.” Galileo considered his next words carefully. He spoke slowly and with conviction. “I did not understand what I had come across. My interest was in my experiments. Though I somewhat described it to my two friends, I did so as a fantastic story. Bedtime tales and fodder to pass the time away.” “But what you discovered was real. As real for me as it was for you. It set the course for your greatest work. It pointed you to the stars and the heavens. But did you see God through your lens or his great deeds? No, only something that would challenge him.” Galileo, weakened by argument, years and pain, lowered his head. “Alas, dear Galileo, the cave is sealed and so is your fate. You see, I am a man who understands what needs to be done. And others are in accord. What was there represents chaos. I will not permit chaos to undermine order.”
~~~
The major thrust of the book is the time "after" the cave site is being explored... What is found needs further information, and getting experts in various areas, such as history requires travel to find these individuals... Only thing is, that the very first man they visited? His home was bombed immediately after the professors left! And the bomber is on their tail once the bomb detonated!
So, let's close by enumerating the issues that are involved in what the book covers: violence, dogma, the business of religion, science versus the Bible, lies, climate control, illegal acts, and more... And how do they come in? Let me just share one more excerpt to illustrate...
“Have you ever heard of “Gap Theory?” Fr. Eccleston (priest and scientist) asked. “Yes,” Katrina responded. “Pseudo-science. Dismissible. An explanation that covers ancient geological ages in support of biblical belief.”
“Ancient doesn’t begin to describe it,” the priest said. Katrina looked confused. McCauley wasn’t certain why the priest was bringing up the subject. It was hardly discussed anymore and seemingly not on point. “If I may?” “Go right ahead, Father. Chapter and verse,” McCauley replied. The priest poured another glass of the house wine from Castelli Romani, south of Rome. He held it to the light to examine the rich reds, drank some, and continued. “Gap Theory proposes that a span of time existed between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. From a strictly theological point of view, Gap Theory maintains that a cataclysmic judgment was prescribed as a result of the fall of Lucifer. For the sake of keeping you in the discussion, let’s put aside the religious construal. I’ll simply call it a line of reasoning.” “Appreciated,” McCauley said. “The argument can be traced to the early nineteenth century. As the science of geology gained, pardon the expression, ground, some theologians were at a loss how to counter the scientific claims that the formation of the earth’s surfaces occurred at imperceptibly slow rates. They needed an explanation that supported the biblical record. You might call it scriptural enlightenment: a way to describe the vast geological periods before Adam. Conveniently perhaps, a place was found between the two verses of Genesis. “It was proposed by a Scotsman, theologian Thomas Chalmers, in 1814. It was further espoused by two American ministers, Cyrus Scofield and Clarence Larkin, and evangelist Harry Rimmer in the twentieth century. Each wrote books on the subject, trying to justify the gap between ruin and reconstruction.” The priest took another satisfying sip of the wine. He saw that his guests needed more. He gave them each a liberal refill and signaled the waiter for a new bottle. “Now to specifics. Follow me.” “We are,” Alpert said. “Genesis 1:1 expresses the creation of the universe. Then, in geological terms, five billion years presumably came and went, producing ages you’re well aware of with its various life forms. Gap Theory then seeks to explain that all life on Earth was destroyed.” “The meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs,” Alpert stated. “Yes, leaving fossils for you to uncover. This cataclysmic event, according to the theorists, is what’s described in Genesis 1:2. This solved the biblical problem of time, and helped to square natural history with the scriptural interval, described as days.” McCauley interrupted. “Yes, but…” “Wait,” Father Eccleston said. “It gets better. Gap Theory rests on the need for re-creation. It holds to the paleontological record that has produced dinosaur fossil beds on every continent. It also allows for the sudden transformation of the environment. In a word, it works.” “But…” “Not yet, Dr. Alpert,” the priest chided. “I have one other point for you to consider.” She leaned back in her chair and listened. “What if…” Eccleston paused. He wanted the full attention of his companions. “What if we dismiss the theological justification? After all, it never gained much support. Strip away the religious argument and stay with the basic idea. Can we accept a gap between life forms? From trilobites through the dinosaurs to the evolution of man? “Of course,” Katrina replied. McCauley remained at the table but left the conversation, thinking, Gap. He repeated the word to himself. Definitions rushed forward from his years of study. General usage, medical, mathematical, geographic. An empty space; an interruption in continuity; a divergence; a difference; an interval. Disparity in attitudes, ideals and actions. If the priest was still talking, McCauley didn’t hear him. Etymology: gapa – a hole in a wall, a break or pass in a long mountain chain. Impossible possibilities were coming together. Quickly. The cave. The discovery. The conversations. The attack. The book. And still another notion. It was a dialectic he’d had with his grad students in Montana. “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” “What?” Katrina asked. McCauley hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud. “What?” she repeated. “You said, ‘The absence of evidence…” “Is not the evidence of absence. A gap.” Katrina was still confused. “The gap?” “Not the gap. A gap. Before.” “Before? Before what?” Katrina wondered. “Before what is described in Genesis.” “Or part of it,” Eccleston said. “We better leave.” He signaled for the check. “Let’s move this to my apartment.” McCauley paid the tab. On the way out, Katrina pulled him close and asked the inevitable follow up while the priest walked a few feet ahead. “What were you talking about? It obviously scooted us out of there.” “An epiphany. Or,” McCauley admitted, “a wild ass assumption. I’ll explain.” Father Eccleston bounded up the three flights with Quinn and Katrina in tow. He asked forgiveness for the mess they’d face and the reason: “My roommates. I’ll keep the lights down. You’ll hardly notice. Even in full daylight there isn’t much to see except the simple residence of three priests, two of them slobs.” He directed them to the couch. “Sit down. We’re alone. Fr. Densey and Fr. Santiago left on sabbatical. So we’ll be able to speak openly. I’ll be right back.” As Eccleston went through his cabinets, McCauley glanced around the apartment. Eccleston’s description of Spartan was completely accurate. White walls, few chairs, low wood coffee table, lamps that didn’t match, an old throw rug, and no living room curtains. Apparently good enough for a trio of priests living off-site on limited Vatican stipends, right down to the three wine glasses Eccleston returned with that didn’t match. “Sabbatical. An interesting word in itself, wouldn’t you say?” Eccleston noted while pouring. “From Greek sabbatikos and Latin sabbaticus. And, of course, Hebrew Shabbat. From Genesis 2:2-3. On the seventh day God rested after creating the universe. Described in Leviticus 25 as a commandment to cease working in the field the seventh year, reiterated in Deuteronomy 5:12-15.” “You have your numbers down,” McCauley observed. “Chalk it up to my share of sabbaticals,” Eccleston laughed. Katrina chimed in, “We live for them, too.” Once the wine was served, Eccleston proposed a simple toast. “To our finding the answers we seek.” “I’ll drink to that.” Quinn reached for the bottle to see what it was. “Verdicchio?” “Yes, I think you’ll like this,” he said. The priest held up his glass to the lamp light and examined its luster. “So beautiful. From a magnificent yellow-green grape. See how the final product embraces and expands upon the original hues. Much like our conversation tonight.” His guests examined it in the same way. “Now, take in the floral aroma.” They brought their wine glasses to their nose and acknowledged the scent. “This Verdicchio hasn’t changed since the fourteenth century. It’s from Le Marche region, still produced by Brothers at Verdicchio del Castelli di Jesi.” “Quite a tradition, Father,” Alpert said. “I really like this.” “I’ll tell you someone who enjoyed the Verdicchio in Le Marche.” The priest captivated Katrina. “Oh?” “Galileo Galilei.” “When?” McCauley asked. “In the early 1600s he came to Le Marche to do experiments on a new invention—the thermometer.” Father Eccleston exhaled deeply. “The thermoscope,” Alpert remarked. “Quite right, Dr. Alpert. You’ve studied Galileo?” “Some. I knew he was credited with its development along with the telescope.” Eccleston nodded. “All and more. But there’s probably something else you don’t know. The section of Le Marche where Galileo experimented with his early thermometer is known for something other than wine.” The priest set down his wine glass. “A year before Galileo traveled to Le Marche, Giordano Bruno, a dissident thinker, was convicted of heresy by the Holy Office. He was burned at the stake. The Pope, or those who spoke for him, put reason and science on the opposing side of the religious scale that was completely weighted in the church’s favor. Authority gave them that ability. Ability equaled right. Right equaled power. It wasn’t merely so-called radicals like Bruno who came under scrutiny of the Holy See. It was anyone whose views challenged conventional wisdom, or as history has shown us, conventional myopia. “Galileo confronted church doctrine, though for a time he had actually worked under Papal sponsorship. He was even honored by mathematicians at Collegio Romano.” “Mathematics,” McCauley commented. “I forgot that was his principal field of study. We all think it was astronomy.” “Related. Inter-related,” Eccleston said. “The basis for everything.” Eccleston’s answer reminded him of the next piece of the puzzle he wanted to discuss with the priest. Soon, he thought.
~~~
I confess that I was disappointed at the ending... My hope dropped out of my body... Was this supposed to be satire or truly a "dystopian" book, which came to mind this morning as I thought about it... We hear so much these days about accountability... And the fact that it seems so much is happening which is against laws and the Constitution. I have to ask, have we thrown out all that was discovered based upon lies and rhetoric or through false prophets? Has religion become a business as opposed to the original intent?
While there are no footnotes, there is a Postscript which verifies, for instance, what was done to Galileo by the Catholic Church... So just how much of the book is based upon fact versus fiction cannot be considered, really, as other than complete fiction or as documented. However, what we do know is that today, many writers, professionals in their respective fields, universities and more are speaking out about how the legal system has been usurped by the republican party and other major financial supporters, driven by a man who seeks total control.
You'll have to decide on this one... I'm personally glad I read it, even though I didn't like what I was learning. For me, the life of Jesus is so very different than any of the major large churches or the larger catholic church dominion. I find it of great concern to see how power and the thirst for authority over all has corrupted our lives...again...
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