Come Sunday

Isla Morley's Come Sunday is captivating from the very first chapter. This is not a story about death and tragedy but rather a journey experiencing pain, fear, joy, love, human nature, change, hope, relationships, understanding, and spiritual renewal. As Morley chronicles the events of Abbe and her family, she has the ability to draw us into this spiritual renewal as well. As a reader, I felt the emotions of the story participants and began to understand that each experience along the way contributed to Abbe's new day; no endings but rather new beginnings. This story is about how resilient the human spirit is. We can all walk through the fire and emerge with a new and fresh spirit. Morley's ability to draw one into the actual physical settings of the story is incredible. The landscapes this author paints for us allows the reader to more fully participate in the journey. Abbe's passage made me stop and realize how each of us is always evolving. That our life experiences mold us and ultimately change us in sometimes unexpected ways. From the moment I began reading I was enthralled and didn't want to stop. Morley has the ability to address one's inner core. Allow yourself to experience and feel and ultimately surface to the blessings of this story and on a personal level to each new day that awaits us. Thank you Ms. Morley for this deep and very special narrative about survival and renewal of the human spirit. Come Sunday: A Novel

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.

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.

Come Sunday takes the reader on a journey from grief to exploring the path of recovery. Abbe Deighton feels her life is mundane, forever going through the tasks of the day as a mother of a 3 year old and the wife of a minister whose church is in decline with members placing blame on the pastor, trying to figure out how to replace a leaking roof and get her life back on track. In a moment her life is turned upside down when her daughter is accidentally struck and killed by a car outside the house of a friend who is baby-sitting. Abbe must deal with the loss of her child as well as feelings of unforgiveness towards the driver and the friend who was supposed to be caring for her child. Interacting with people on the island of Hawaii where she lives and remembering her life as a child in South Africa reaveal a complex woman who is struggling to regain her life. This is a book that is hard to put down and difficult to forget.