A memorable story of a matriarch whose bravery and tenacity inspired her children.
An inspiring novel of a runaway’s journey through heartache.
In this novel’s introduction, the real-life Essie Brown’s son eulogizes her as a woman of sacrifice—a heroine who led a turbulent life until she found God and turned her life around. Her fictionalized story begins in Jamaica—a gutsy 14-year-old determined to make a life for herself, who escapes her resentful adoptive family and the arduous work they make her do. After she runs away from tiny Cascade to the city of Montego Bay, Essie hunts for work and soon finds a job working for the Ferguson family, baby-sitting their children and cooking their meals. She begins to enjoy her life in the big city, making friends and even finding a boyfriend, Stedman; then she gets pregnant and miscarries. Although she and Stedman are determined to stay together and have a family, she has another miscarriage and then another, and Stedman leaves her for her best friend, Cherry. Heartbroken and angry, she once again resolves to make it on her own and lands a job as a hotel chef. She soon finds herself pregnant once more, but this time, the father wants nothing to do with her, and she brings the pregnancy to full term. After a series of ill-fated affairs, Essie finds Tim Brown, a friend from childhood who now promises to be the first man to stand by her. But soon enough, Essie moves on and searches for a wealthy man to take care of her. This novel shows how, in the end, Essie’s journey and faith helped her grow strong and focused; she eventually raised eight children on her own, molding them into ambitious, motivated sons and daughters. She held her unwieldy family together with gumption, stoicism and a willingness to recreate herself whenever life proved difficult. Her determination is powerful, as is this fictionalized collection of key moments in her life.
A memorable story of a matriarch whose bravery and tenacity inspired her children.Pub Date: March 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-1483987279
Page Count: 274
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.
Pub Date: April 28, 1967
ISBN: 0449911543
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967
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