S.O.S. Press - About The Novel

From The Author…

“…The novel is a frame story; the inner story introduces Sarey Strong to the reader in her youth, uncovering her materialistic and mystical roots, exploring her relationships with her family, her parents and her brothers and her cousins, describing her discovery of a spiritual sister, revealing Sarey's loss of innocence through her abduction by city policemen and the consequent blame she places on herself for her father's leaving the family.

“The rest of the novel is a patchwork, Sarey Strong piecing together the rest of her life, becoming a mystic, believing she is responsible for announcing the Second Coming, battling the devil, coping with accident and injury, falling prey to the lack of self-esteem caused by her rejection, escaping... entranced by her dentist and her frequent inhaling of nitrous oxide during her dental treatments, humorous hallucinations at the start that take on mythical proportions by the book's end, her indulgence in and final conquering of alcohol, above all the change in her loving relationship with her father, the king, through the years and the tolerance of new relationships that ultimately prove to be the weakening of original relationships. The book explores the long term effects of divorce on a family through four generations.

“What triumphs is the relationship Sarey has developed with her brother Christ and her realization of her relatedness to all the other brothers in the world. Sarey Strong also receives revelations from the Holy Spirit which influence her attitudes toward all the world religions.

“Written in chapters of varying lengths which are not in sequential order, some of Sarey’s deeply spiritual sojourn takes place under the guise of a substitute teacher. At the end, the reader must answer the question, ‘Is Sarey Strong really a mystic or has her writing just been a compulsive neurotic obsession?’”

Susan O. Sullivan