Customer Reviews

Come Sunday: A Novel

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I picked this book to read, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I definitely did not expect the book to pull at my heart strings like it did. This is a heart-breaking tale of a mother's grief.

Born and raised in Africa, Abbe finds herself married to a minister, who is the opposite of her violent father. Her husband was a minister and very laid-back in comparison, perhaps too laid-back, as the beginning of the book suggests. They're in Hawaii and their little girl Cleo was three years old and very energetic. As any mother knows, raising kids can be mentally and physically exhausting. Then tragedy strikes. A mother wonders if she is still a mother if her child is no longer there.

This book will haunt your dreams at night like it did mine, so don't read it before bed. It is very vivid and descriptive of a mother's grief. Not only did Abbe grieve for her daughter, she also grieved for her mother. In flashbacks, she tells of the abuse her father put on her mother while she was growing up and how she was trying to find meaning of her mother ... trying to reconnect with her mother again even though her mother is long dead. Eventually, Abbe returns to Africa to confront her memories and perhaps put the ghosts to rest.

It is well-written ... and very heart-breaking. I gave it a four star because I cannot "love" a book like this because it stirs up too many emotions. Would I recommend it? Yes, because it is definitely good fodder for book club discussions, and for discussions among friends. Would I read it again? Probably not because it was just too intense and it's not something I even want to contemplate let alone read again. It is not just a book about grief, but finding onself again through the darkness only to find the sun has been shining all along ... one just has to find it. It is a book about forgiveness and grace, and all the things a person must find on their own even in the midst of life's tragedies.

This is a book about life and death; about the resurrection of the spirit long after it thinks it has given up.

4//9/09

"Come Sunday" is not a book with a straight-forward plot. It is, rather, more like a maze that takes the reader round and round the present and snakes back into the past. Abbe, the protagonist, is obsessed with the accidental death of her little girl, Cleo. That is the door to the maze.

Isla Morley writes well and feelingly, leading the reader deeper and deeper into the tangled web of her family. She gives us insights into family relationships as well as the hidden currents beneath the surface.

For me, the book was sometimes too ordinary in an effort to show the ordinary life of Abbe and Greg. Africa doesn't come into the picture until the book is 3/4's finished. Sometimes the book is crisp and at other times it becomes a besotted soap opera in love with stubbornness, unkindness and self-pity. The side characters are interesting, though, and if you like the emotional turmoil of a woman who thinks too much, and yet not nearly enough, you will like "Come Sunday."

Author Isla Morley weaves together a tale of grief and geography, heroism and history, and sin and survival in Come Sunday. Abbe Deighton is a writer, mother, and wife of a minister, Greg, in Honolulu. She loses her little girl, Cleo in a tragic accident. Abbe dissolves into grief, blaming anyone and everyone for their role in Cleo's loss.

This is the first 100+ pages. This constant grieving is a lot to ask the reader to wade through, not that it is unrealistic (I'm sure it isn't for many mothers and fathers), but that there are only so many ways to state that Abbe is unhappy, that she wakes up unhappy, that everything reminds her of Cleo, and that her daily ablutions suffer under the constant bombardment of this grief.

It was enough to seriously consider just giving up on the rest of the novel.

And I'm glad I didn't.

Abbe is a complicated person. She grew up in South Africa, under apartheid, with a seriously abusive father, a battered mother, a famous poet brother, and a secretive domestic aide named Beauty Masinama. I say Beauty was secretive in the sense that she was a 'sangoma', or witch doctor, so she knew the rituals and formulas that are part and parcel of her trade. But when Abbe escaped her father, she left all that behind.

She thought.

Morley skillfully crafts a tale that connects lives halfway across the planet, meshing Abbe's sophistication with ancient traditions. When Abbe is put to the test, there are times she fails, miserably and terribly, but Abbe rises to the task in other occasions. Isn't that human of her?

There was an unevenness in how Morley characterized Hawaii and South Africa. Being more familiar with Honolulu myself, I expected to recognize places and "characters." Was it me, or was there greater detail and color when Morley described Abbe's adventures in South Africa? Did the intensity of Abbe's grief dilute any need to develop Honolulu more as a place?

This is a book about grief and healing, but it is more than that. We are all tested in our lives. How do we react when we are found wanting? How do we divvy blame? How do we connect the life dots that surround us?

Stick with this book, and you won't be disappointed.

Abbe Deighton is a minister's wife living in Hawaii. She's already having trouble coping with her circumstances--a dwindling congregation, an ineffective though very nice husband, lack of money, the demands of a three year old daughter, and needs of her own that aren't being met--but then her daughter Cleo is killed. Consumed by blame and grief, Abbe's life falls apart. Quite honestly, Ms. Morley's depiction of Abbe's agony is so excruciating I didn't think I could keep reading, but persistence was rewarded as plot twists take this novel beyond the predictable.

The story continues past Cleo's funeral, and Abbe's South African past is revealed. An extremely abusive father took a toll on all the members of the family. Abbe's mother went through periods of anorexia, alcoholism and emotional withdrawal from the family; her brother Rhiaan became a world-famous anti-apartheid poet and was thrown out of the house by their father; and Abbe herself suffered deep damage from her childhood that resurfaces under the strain of Cleo's death. Flashbacks coupled with the account of Rhiaan's contemporary depressed condition illustrate that the past is always with us, no matter how far we think we have come

A casualty of grief and blame, Abbe's marriage breaks up. Needing money, she returns to South Africa to sell her grandmother's farm and reconnects with people from her childhood. Within the context of finding out the truth about her parents, a life-threatening and life-changing event serves as a catalyst for Abbe to understand why it is necessary to forgive and how to begin living again.

Ms. Morley's characters are complex and despite the subject matter, never maudlin. Even though the South African section is not without potboiler elements and Abbe has a pretty naive take on things (she questions why able-bodied white people have black servants to do things they could do for themselves, but doesn't get that they need jobs) and she makes a rather quixotic decision to hang on to her grandmother's farm as a school for HIV-AIDS orphans (why would she not sell the farm for the huge sum offered, take the money and set up a school for the same children elsewhere?); but after the tragedy in the first part of the book, the melodrama saves it from disintegrating into total despair.

Making strong cases for the power of forgiveness and the indelibility of the past, Come Sunday is much more than a chronicle of the death of a child and a marriage, though it is that, too. The secondary stories of Greg, Rhiaan, Beauty and Theresa are moving, and how each finds his or her way makes for a rich, textured novel that I highly recommend.

There is a debate that is as old as recorded history between fiction authors. Should the essence of a novel be plot driven or character driven? Is it ever possible to create an engaging novel where both components are present?

In the plot driven narrative, the reader is drawn forward by the "what happens next?" or the "whodunnit?" components. In the character driven story it is the reader's empathy with the character that makes it work.

Among character driven novels, the first person approach is the most hazard prone. Sometimes the use of autobiographical components will help to keep things on track. More often that will simply bog the plot down withb irrelevant details.

So what of Come Sunday? This is absolutely a character driven novel. It is delivered exclusively in the first person. And it is brilliant.

You will fall in love with Abbe, even as she falls out of love with Greg. You will experience pain to a depth that is seldom transmitted with the written word. And all the while you will revel in the beautifully (and accurately) drawn scenes of the Honolulu not normally seen by the tourists, and the South African townships which still have simmering echos of apartheit present among the people.

So, what is the book about? It is about love for a child, pain when the child is killed in an accident, stuggling to come to terms with reality while still feeling a need to blame -- even years later. It is about the true meaning of family, of love and loss and sometime misunderstanding.

And it flows like a beautiful stream that has its smooth surface rippled by little snags that pop up. Ultimately it is about redemption, recovery and forgiveness -- forgiveness of self and of others.

"Come Sunday" is more than a good story well told, it is liturature, the kind you re-read just to enjoy the craft. Unfortunately, some will not read it because it is by a first time novelist. Others will be put off by the tragic subjest. But, if you will press on to the redemption at the end it will enrich your life and you will be recommending it to your friends.

I love stories with characters with whom I can identify. The main character is a woman portrayed simply but deeply. She is a mother/wife and you identify with her early on. It was a tearjerker, so be prepared to cry with her. As a parent, this was the rough part of the book for me. I was moved by her pain and hate to imagine that in my life. Of course, it was not all I expected. It was more "street-wise" than "Christian fiction." It was more raw and less watered-down.

This is a disjointed read, at best. I kept hoping the characters would show some development, and grow past their "types," but it never happened. Grief is an overwhelming thing, and while I believe the author tried to portray it thus, I simply find it impossible to accept that every bereaved parent reacts in precisely the predictable manner portrayed here. The "plot" was really a winding trip to nowhere in particular.

This book chronicles the loss of a child and the grief that comes from that loss. Abbe and Greg lose their daughter early in this story and the story centers mostly on Abbe and how she deals with her loss. I found this book very difficult to read because of the very emotional and dark subject matter. I found that for most of the book I just didn't like Abbe very much, even at the beginning before Cleo is killed I found her to be abrasive. Much of the dialogue in the book seemed to be a bit stilited and unnatural. I actually preferred the sections in the book when Abbe reminisced about the past and her family life with an abusive father and trying to understand her mother's choices.

Overall, I think this is a good, well-written first book and that this author is very promising. I would recommend this book.

This book brought out every emotion I've ever felt. It was absolutely wonderful. I could say so much more if only I possessed the author's ability to find the perfect phrase for every occasion. Out of 5 stars, I would give it a 10!!