Customer Reviews

Suburban Renewal (Mira S.)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Terrific read, even though the beginning goes a bit slow. Watching the characters develop, blossom, respond to challenges- plus the historical angle of the last 30 years in America, add up to a fascinating examination of how one family functioned together. This is more of a real life romance. Not the starry kind of looking-across-the-room at each other and "falling" in love. This is how true love develops and how a husband and wife realize the importance of the other. This is a love story that focuses on how real life impacts love.

Read it and then get your hands on everything Morsi has written. Her delightful (and humorous) earlier books will keep you laughing, while looking at interesting heroines who are NOT beautiful on the outside, but find their beauty in other ways. Morsi is my favorite- and that is saying a lot, considering how many great romance writers there are!

Being a huge fan of Moresi, I was excited to read Suburban Renewal. Again, she has created a page turner until the end.

Suburban Renewal introduces you to Corrie and her husband Sam. After 25 years of marriage, we peek into their morning routine of coffee and reading the paper. Without waring, Corrie brings up the "D" word ~ divorce.

Like no other novel that I have had the pleasure of reading, Moresi takes us back 25 years prior to when the couple first meets and falls in love. We learn the struggles that Corrie & Sam have to deal with over the years which begin with teenage pregnancy. Corrie's mother does not approve of Sam and is ashamed of her careless daughter. Corrie and Sam choose to get married and have their daughter, Lauren. With little money, the couple moves into a garage apartment and try to make ends meet. Corrie's mother is trying to swallow the choices that she has made until she learns that Corrie is pregnant with her second child.

Suburban Renewal is filled with Corrie & Sam's struggles - from his father coming back into his life, raising teenagers, unemployment, AIDS and suicide.

One aspect of Moresi's writing that I love is that her stories are not happy from the beginning to the end. Meaning, they are true to life and the struggles that we endure on a daily basis. Sometimes we have a happy ending, sometimes not. But, it we have people in our lives to lend us love and support, that will help us to get through anything.

Once again, in her quiet, understated way, Pamela Morsi captures the essence of what makes a simple life worth living, and an everyday person -- extraordinary and worth knowing. Her characters do not save the world from super villains or dodge bullets; instead, they live our own lives. We recognize ourselves in them. We share their pain and their joys, and we feel that if they can do it, so can we.
Corrie had great plans at eighteen: college, a career. Then she became pregnant, and all that changed. Sam did not see this as a disaster. He was only too happy to propose. They started a life together.
A lot happens in twenty-five years: a child, then another one. A business, then another. Old friends, new friends. Death, new life, new generations. Urban sprawl, economic ups and downs. Everything impacts a family. Everything could destroy it, or strengthen it. Pam Morsi takes us along on Corrie and Sam's life journey, and we root and cry for them, because they could be us.
Pamela Morsi's latest novel couldn't be better titled. Without fanfare or grand parades, through trials and tragedies, her characters find the strength to renew themselves constantly. They face disaster and destruction, and renovate themselves and their environment without faltering. We close the book with a feeling of hope: we can have this too, because it's not something Sam and Corrie were given on a golden platter. They worked hard to earn what they achieved. Suburban Renewal is a story of success in everyday life.

As a "many-years-married" woman, this book hit very close to home. Morsi accurately portrays the ebb and flow of a long marriage. She puts everything out there, warts and all. Don't expect a light-weight comedy from this one. It will bring a tear to your eye. I liked the format of the book especially. In a practical sense, the short chapters alternating between characters, made it easy to come to a stopping point when your reading time gets interrupted by the daily grind.

I enjoyed this book, and I didn't really expect to. I've read Ms. Morsi's books for years, and I always LOVED them. But those were her historical "Americana" romance novels. Since she moved to contemporary settings and less "romantic" plots, I've avoided her work. But there was just something about this book...

It begins with Corrie Braydon giving Sam, her husband of twenty-five years, an ultimatum-- give me a reason why we should stay together other than inertia. The book then skips back in time to 1977 when Corrie and Sam were married and moves forward from there. The chapters switch points of view, first Sam then Corrie and so on. We see Corrie and Sam have children, struggle with the end of the oil boom in the eighties, and battle illness.

Throughout the book I could REALLY feel what the characters were feeling, and I LOVED the ending. I recommend this book without hesitation. Read this book-- you will enjoy it!

This book was a breath of fresh air among all the romance novels I read. Don't get me wrong I love romance for many reasons and I will pick romance from any other genre any day of the week. Not because I can't understand other genres, but simply becuase romance is "my cup of tea". However among the genre of romance there's a lot of formulas that we can see over and over again adn I'm a bit tired of it. So when I picked Suburban Renewal and started reading ch 1 in the store I knew I had to have the book and that I would like it. I was wrong. I did not liked the book. I LOVED the book. This is Morsi at her best.
Suburban Renewal is the story of Corrie and Sam. Corrie is the popular girl, who is valedictorian, come from the right side of the tracks and tries to please her parents. She has ambition and drive. She has a plan.
Sam is the 2 year older guy from the wrong side of the track. Bad family history except for his grandma who has raised him sincee he was a little guy. He's not particularly smart, not particularly ambitious, and even though he plays high school football he is not particularly good enough to make it to college ball.
He has watched her from afar and has always known that she is out of his league. However that does not stop him from asking her to the homecoming dance. She accepts and that is that for them. They soon fall in love. But things happen and they are separeted for 2 years. Then Corrie goes away to college and breaks up with Sam upon her mother's request. However one thing Sam and Corrie did not plan. Despite being careful, Corrie ends up pregnant and Sam sees this as the perfect opportunity to have Corrie to himself forever. So he grabs his chance and runs with it.
Sam works very hard to provide for Corrie and their soon to be in this world baby. He takes every job he can and saves as much as possible. And that's how their years together beging. The book is written in 1st person and by year. So you'll see the point of view of Sam in year 1985 and on Corrie's too.
You get to see how their marriage evolves. The hardships of marrying so young and uneducated. The unwise and wise decisions they make. We see their family grow and how parenthood takes a toll on the relationship. We see Sam's father play a huge role in the lives of everyone and we see Corrie questioning her marriage to Sam more often than he does.
What one character of the book said of Sam was completetly true, he was the nurturer. He was a great provider, husband and father. He never tried to diminish Corrie's needs with his own or for his own personal benefit. I empathized a whole lot more with Sam than with COrrie. She was a very good character, but I would have done many things differently and handle them differently as well.
The book is full of modern history, charm, great writing, outstanding character development and an absolutly fabulously real story of life, love and marriage. It is a close up picture of what a good marriage is. With the good the bad and the evil.
In short the book was near perfect!
2 thumbs up way up!

Carrie and Sam Braydon are about to celebrate twenty-five years of marriage when she gives him an ultimatum. He can renew their vows based on whether he would marry her today if they were not wedded or they can divorce. Sam is confused as both look back over the years starting in 1977 when she informed him that she was pregnant. He immediately offered to marry her and she accepts. Carrie wants Sam to remarry her only if he really wants to spend the rest of their lives together.

Over the years, the couple has two children, manages several businesses, held several jobs, and were forced economic to live separately at times. Her family and his aunt provide caring support though her mother hates Sam. His father who killed his mother is freed from prison and he has a negative impact on the family. Still it is the twenty-first century and the children are gone. Will Sam agree to renew his vows or seek his freedom?

SUBURBAN RENEWAL contains strong lead protagonists and solid support cast whose motivations seem apropos to their personal traits. The rotational first person account between Sam and Carrie enables the audience to see deeper into how each one interprets the same event/incident. Though his father is too nasty to accept anyone would trust him with their children (his grandson lives with him for a time), romance readers will enjoy this powerful character study that showcases the ups and downs of the Braydon bunch.

Harriet Klausner

While I still miss the Historical Romances that she used to be famous for - this story was really pretty good.

It spanned 25 years in the life of a couple. Corrie gets pregnant in her freshman year of college - and she and Sam get married. The story tells about all the ups and downs of their life over the next 25 years - alternating every few years by Corries point of view...and then by Sam's perspective. Nice concept.

They go through alot - and at times you wonder "what kind of marriage is this". Well, I guess it's the kind that endures. These are people I grew to care about - especially Sam.

I have to confess - I did like this.

I found this a very boring book and 3/4 through I just quit. I just could not justify wasting my time. I am in my 30's so maybe I just can't relate.

SUBURBAN RENEWAL holds the reader's attention.

The device that author Pamela Morsi uses, of having a husband and wife provide their versions of the story, in turns, is a an excellent one.

And the fact that the story is chronological, with the principal characters' lives mirroring the events of that moment, also proves intriguing. The cycle of life here begins with the Vietnam War and ends with the September 11th attack.

All of this is fine. It only is after the novel has been completed that it becomes obvious that the story is implausible. Author Morsi has given her poor characters more trials than the Biblical Job.

She also fails to explain the feelings of the husband and wife for one another, the wife remaining particularly ambiguous. Does she ever love the husband? Did she love him at some points in their marriage? Is she still in love at the end of the tale?

Beautifully as this book has been written, these are the questions which inform the underlying story, and these questions never are explored.

The parts of the novel about small town life, and about a small town in mid-20th Century America joining the modern world, are among the best of SUBURBAN RENEWAL'S subplots.

SUBURBAN RENEWAL is not perfect fiction, but it is good.