Death is a part of life, one which no one looks forward to and is every bit as devastating even when we try to prepare ourselves for it. It is even more overwhelming when the delicate flame of life that extinguishes belongs to a child. "Come Sunday" is a magnificent debut novel that examines death, loss and resurrection of the human spirit, its religious undertones adding lightly and non-intrusively to the story. The book invokes the relentless mourning of the dearly departed in its first half and intriguing notes of mysticism in its latter half, some self-examination finally bringing its tortured main character full circle. First-time author Isla Morley gives her protagonist a hard road to serenity, seldom skimping on the struggle to get there.The book begins on a simple note - the reader is introduced to the Deighton family and their simple, monotonous lifestyle in Hawaii's capital city of Honolulu with Abbe (the voice of Morley's first-person narrative) conveying the joys and frustrations of being mother to a feisty three-year old named Cleo. The book jumps fairly quickly to the shock of life without her after a fatal accident, grief the heavy foot under which everyone's hem is caught in their endeavor to move forward. The Deightons once- steady life rhythm abruptly loses tempo and stumbles headlong into inertia, Abbe's rapidly cycling bouts of anger, sorrow and silence constricting their every waking hour.The Daily Beast has said that "Come Sunday should not be attempted without a Kleenex box at hand", and it's a well-warranted caveat - Morley abruptly drops the reader into the same emotional quicksand that threatens to swallow Abbe, refusing to spare them even one pinch of death's unrelenting grasp. They fall to their knees with her when Cleo dies. They sit in a hard pew with her during the funeral, trying to make sense of it all. They lay in bed with her praying for a reprieve from merciless heartache. They feel her anger and sorrow through and through, rarely failing to match it. They watch her ruthlessly assign blame, disapproving of it but understanding it just the same. Grief's journey is long and painful (now and then excruciating - some readers, especially parents, may find Abbe's anguish too much to take in the beginning), full of requisite and unavoidable destinations, the reader becoming Abbe's faithful traveling companion on a rocky and quaking path.Their mutual travels eventually take them into Abbe's childhood in South Africa, through distressing recollections of an abusive father and a battered mother who lived in constant fear. When she dares to go back to the country and home in which she grew up, she comes to find that there is more to her reserved mother than met the eye, including her strange relationship with Beauty Masinama, their African-American housemaid and the town's sangoma (witch doctor). Ghosts multiply as Abbe digs for answers to a family secret, and it isn't until in a moment of life or death that she finally gives each one of them up, her own desire to live restored at last.Though Morley chose two exotic locales for her novel, she doesn't use either of them to much effect. A former resident of both, what she does present of the first is a far cry from the sun-soaked tropical beaches and Polynesian cultural roots that The Big Island is known for - Abbe's Honolulu is Smalltown USA, full of simple people with simple lives. South Africa is lackluster as well save for the strange and fascinating segments involving Beauty. Those expecting descriptions of climate and environs in the vein of Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" will be disappointed. "Come Sunday" is purely character-driven, plot and setting non-essentials in its explorations of the human heart and its hard truth that though we may lose those we hold most dear, life does - and must - go on.Bottom line: Isla Morley is an author with power and precision, sewing heartache and healing into the resplendent quilt that is "Come Sunday" with skilled eye, mind, and hand. Its bold and dramatic colors and patterns of life, love and loss will steal the breath of anyone who gazes upon it and will in turn inspire them to proudly display it for others' visual and emotional consumption. Highly recommended. I won an early review copy of this book. I had a very difficult time getting through it for two reasons. The first is I have a young daughter, so they loss they suffered when the child was killed was more than I could stand to read. It brought tears to my eyes. Secondly, I struggled with other parts trying to stay focused on the different characters involved, and I kept losing my focus. Definitely not a light or easy read and not for everyone.
What do You think about Come Sunday. Isla Morley (2010)?
I almost stopped reading about 4 chapters into the book. Glad I stuck with it.
—adonisread
Some good writing, bt very sad story and a character I really wanted to shake.
—liselotte
