Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Lying on Sunday-Sharon K. Souza

Lying on Sunday
Sharon K. Souza
Navpress, Oct 2008, $14.99
ISBN: 9781600061769

In Granite Bay near Sacramento, Abbie Torrington thinks her life is great as she loves her husband Trey and cherishes their two teen daughters, Bailey and Becca. She does fear empty nest syndrome with Bailey at college and Becca starting in ten days while Trey spends a week every couple of months in Dallas. Ironically the radio is playing One Fine Day by the Chiffons when the nursing supervisor Ms. Walters at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego calls informing Mrs. Robert Torrington that her husband died from cardiac arrest. Besides denial partly because he is supposed to be in Dallas as a super salesman for Washington Mutual Insurance, the “suit” arrived serving Abbie divorce papers.

Abbie and her best friend Shawlie agree to hide the divorce from her daughters as they would be shattered with their dad’s betrayal of her. However, Abbie begins to also look deep inside to her soul and concludes there is no Abbie anymore; there is the mom of Bailey and Becca, and there is the wife of Trey; make that the widow of Trey. She needs to regain the missing Abbie. She wants to know what she wants from life and from God and what can she bring to her life and to God.

The theme has been used before, but not with the double shotgun blasts that shake Abbie to the roots of her soul. She is a fabulous protagonist struggling with death and betrayal while also needing to protect her daughters from their father’s affair. On top of all that, which represents the old Abbie; she needs to start anew and find the essence and soul of Abbie. Sharon K. Souza provides an insightful inspirational character study.

Harriet Klausner

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