RomanceEverAfter

Book Reviews Cafe

Contemporary
Review by Donna DeFalco

Suburban Renewal
by Pamela Morsi
Mira, February 2004

In "Suburban Renewal," author Pamela Morsi takes a microcosm of family life and sets it against the national and worldwide events of the past 25 years.

The AIDs crisis, the Challenger explosion and the unemployment of the 1980s, among other events, are explored in the context of how they affected the lives of ordinary people in small town America. The story is told through the eyes of two people: Sam, a poor kid raised by his grandmother, and Corrie, the pharmacist's daughter, raised in privilege.

The two begin their lives together in a less than auspicious way, she's pregnant. Corrie gives up her dreams of going to college to stay home with baby No 1 and soon baby No 2 follows. Sam tries to make ends meet by starting his own business in the oil boom of the 1980s. The book follows Sam's and Corrie's struggles to support their family not only monetarily, but also with their strength and common sense.

In the end, Sam and Corrie weather life's storms, providing a loving example for their two children and the community in which they live. This is a sweeping saga of one couple's efforts to stay together despite economic hardship, the loss of loved ones, and the changes that can occur over the course of a marriage that has lasted a quarter of a century.