Open Road has an ebook promotion of Testimony of Two Men (on sale tomorrow, the link is below). This is one of five promotions for Taylor Caldwell this month.

I will quote and comment from the family review to address an issue we can't avoid today. What exactly is the conservative opinion?

Big issue, you bet! Too big to take on in entirety even if I were qualified. Still, as an author of a newsletter on Taylor Caldwell, I am acknowledging her as recognized universally – to those many who remember her novels – as a quintessential conservative. So, let us consider what being conservative meant to her. I will stick with the viewpoint from this novel.

TC leads with the occupation of physician. As a Catholic writer, Taylor Caldwell can't resist tying its highest goals to the priesthood. She wants us to know medical practice of a century ago, in the hands of the most talented physicians – even from ancient times – would be recognized today. Witness Dear and Glorious Physician.

TC has the novel's hero (Jon) articulate many wrongs perpetrated by the darlings of that age: pre-turn-of-the-century 1800s, in small town Pennsylvania. Yet, you won't find it easy to map between the conservative-liberal spectrum of her time (the novel's publication date is 1968), to ours today.

Those relevant themes include: our duties to each other; our right to the control our own lives; and the vexing question – considered in many of TC's novels – of whether human nature is mutable.

Simply, but not simplistically, TC considers: What makes a good man or woman? Her female character (Marjorie; Jon's mother) is almost universally appreciated by her many readers.

Caldwell's strongest characters doubt Freud. They see his philosophy at best as limited in what it tells us of the plots we hatch against each other, those driven by a heavy dose of jealousy over the love of another, as well as our pernicious ambitions. Yet, that's the liberal position today.

She suggests that many illnesses arise when we cannot find sufficient courage to face life; when we have too little respect for Judeo-Christian morality. Yet, even her hero Jon struggles with both. He brandishes confrontational bravery instead of courage to deal with reality.

World events, through the actions of local individuals, touch this small Pennsylvania town. Yes, this war-mongering sickens Jon! Yet, it is Jon's lobbying for child labor laws – matching his sincerity toward professional expertise – that has drawn the greatest ire from the home grown senator (Campion) and his Congressional cronies.

The complication in this is that TC's conservatively stated positions changed throughout her long career, again as seen through her novels. My later newsletters will occasionally harken back to this attempt to view TC during her late mid-career.

Here is the $2.99 promotion link for Testimony of Two Men that I promised you.

Michael Fried, Grandson For the Descendants of Taylor Caldwell

The sign-up for the TC-Descendants Newsletter is here.