Sunday, October 19, 2014

Sara and Andy by Ronald Glanz

Sara and Andy met at a funeral home. Both had long been caregivers to a remaining parent. The care giving had prevented either of them from being very social. They were immediately attracted to each other and were soon married. In a fairy tale, rags to riches story, they quickly become extremely wealthy. Their wealth allowed them to form a plan to avenge for a wrong done a long time ago.

The plot of this novel is pretty good. Who doesn't want to see the bad guy finally pay for an evil deed done years ago?

I was distracted by the quality of the writing, however. The author switches viewpoint indiscriminately. In one sentence she was thinking while the next paragraph starts with what he was thinking. There is also a mixture of verb usage, with awkward combinations of past tense and present tense in the same sentence. Also, an odd mixture of pronouns, such as, “They all took a sip of their wine as the salad was being served with your choice of over fifty different types of dressing on the salad cart.” (67) (I wonder how big that salad cart was with fifty different salad dressings on it!) And then there is the odd habit of each character addressing the other by name each time during a conversation. (People just do not talk that way.) There is also the use of precise times and distances, such as, “forty-three minutes later...”

I was disappointed the way the author presented Christian ministers. Sara's mother died when she was thirteen. Her father, a minister, made advances to her when she turned eighteen. She was stronger and able to push him away so he went to his girlfriend's to satisfy himself. The replacement minister turns out to be a gambler and a thief, skimming off the offerings. Not a very good showing for Christians.

The novel glorifies gambling and Andy routinely lies. The novel gave me the impression these actions were fine if the end resulted in justice. There are many mentions of “luck” as Sara and Andy pursue their cause. There is never any mention of trusting God or anything like that.

A pretty good plot line but the unfavorable depiction of Christianity and the writing style were just too distracting for me to thoroughly enjoy this novel.

Ronald Glanz received his B.S. In Mechanical Engineering from Rose Polytechnic Institute in 1967. He and his wife live in Mineral, Virginia.

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 284 pages.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Book Club Network for the purpose of an independent and honest review.

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