As part of Amazon's Novel Breakthrough Award, Publisher's Weekly reviewed my entire manuscript. I have changed it considerably, but I, and the manuscript, have the same sensibility as before. I like to think I've improved it, while still maintaining its "subtle and genuine characterizations".
Editorial Reviews
manuscript
review by Publishers Weekly, an independent organization
The
title suggests that this novel's protagonist is a saint. However, Meredith Beam
is far more complex and emotionally intricate than that, and while her good
intentions are front and center here, the work is equally attentive to the give
and take between family members in a time of crisis. Meredith, a teacher in
Michigan, is married to Jay, a social worker, and the two of them move in with
Jay’s mother for the summer to help her overcome a Xanax addiction. Jay suffers
a serious head injury in a boating accident and is in a coma for much of the
novel. The narrative shuffles back and forth between pre-accident flashbacks
and real time. If anyone is a saint in this book it's Jay, who once saved a
family of six after a car crash in a blizzard. Meredith even says one of the
reasons she married Jay was so that some his goodness would rub off on her. Yet
her attempts at altruism often seem to end badly, such as the time she attempts
to help out a troubled student, with tragic results. With a finely tuned and
clear prose style, the author relies less on family melodrama than subtle and
genuine characterizations to draw readers into this world. This
thinking-person's novel is both a breathtaking and heartbreaking view of
contemporary altruism and family dysfunction.
Amazon
Top Reviewer
The comatose results of a boating accident brilliantly open this novel and immediately draw the reader into the story. This is not only a tale of physical healing, but also promises to deliver emotional and spiritual healing as well. And this healing is not only for those who are hooked up to the machines in the hospital, but also for those who are dying on the inside. This will be a truly emotional book. But I imagine it will encourage the reader to examine himself.
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