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The Promise
Do miracles really happen? Can fairytales come true? Is true love possible? And how does God fit into the equation? In 1967 during the turmoil of the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement, fourteen-year-old Connie had been thrust into a world of her own turbulence. She is stripped away from her parents, home, friends, and even her clothes. She finds herself wrapped in a towel, her hair dripping, listening to the long deep gulps of the drain swallowing the remnants of her old life. In losing everything, the miracle of The Promise comes back into view for Connie. One part of The Promise is that God will never leave her. The other part is about making fairytales come true, finding love, and creating the life she longs for. She held onto her dreams with the encouragement of God and the quirky friendship they shared.
271 pages, Paperback
First published January 4, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 18, 2021
The promise is a beautiful memoir written about a young girl named Connie. The memoir is set in the late 1960s, Pennsylvania. Connie is raised in a children’s home as her mother is mentally unstable to care for her. As she runs away from the house to find her alcoholic father, she still struggles to find peace with the matter. The story is a coming-of-age notion of a young girl’s friendship with God and how she turns to him for help at just 11 years of age.
The story is about finding love, living life to the fullest, and holding on to one’s dreams no matter the odds. The author spends delicate time writing her memoir making sure every detail has been noted, and as truthful as her words are, the tale was just as beautiful.
I particularly enjoyed how Connie grew and developed. She begins very naïve, and the tragedies she endures make you really bad for her; however, Connie isn’t one to give up, and her dreams and ambitions are what take this memoir to another level. Some parts touch the profoundly personal side of things, and to be able to openly discuss that is a testament to who strong Connie is.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read memoirs and material that make you think afterward.
The story is about finding love, living life to the fullest, and holding on to one’s dreams no matter the odds. The author spends delicate time writing her memoir making sure every detail has been noted, and as truthful as her words are, the tale was just as beautiful.
I particularly enjoyed how Connie grew and developed. She begins very naïve, and the tragedies she endures make you really bad for her; however, Connie isn’t one to give up, and her dreams and ambitions are what take this memoir to another level. Some parts touch the profoundly personal side of things, and to be able to openly discuss that is a testament to who strong Connie is.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read memoirs and material that make you think afterward.
May 20, 2020
Memoir is so fascinating because truth is stranger than fiction, and I love reading how someone failed and still triumphed because that dynamic speaks to my screw-ups. When I run across a self-published memoir, I give it a chance because those stories are so satisfying.
So it with Connie Rife’s The Promise: A Memoir. It’s a rewarding story of a young woman who overcame great odds to live a happy life. Set in Pennsylvania in the late 1960s, the story revolves around Rife’s quest to find her father first and then make a life with a husband. Rife endures her mentally ill mother, being dumped in a children’s home, running away multiple times and eventually finding her alcoholic father. Even with a sometimes undependable parental figure in her life, she perseveres to ultimately find a fairy tale ending.
The Promise is a mix of a coming-of-age story and a spiritual memoir, complete with references to the turbulent race relations of the era, groovy fashions and that decade’s conflicts between tradition and counterculture. As a spiritual memoir, The Promise begins with a “flash of lightning” ah-ha moment with God, with whom Rife describes as having a quirky friendship, and then documents the quest to maintain faith and find happiness.
As for her writing, Rife effectively summons the voice of a teenager, which I know from experience is difficult to do when you’re decades away from that age. In the epilogue, Rife recounts how she accomplished this feat:
“The real healing came about through the writing of my story. Each time I’d rewrite it, the deeper the healing would go, and the better I’d feel about the person I’d become. It is my fourteen-year-old self who tells the story. She wouldn’t leave me alone until our story came to an end.”
The emotional details Rife captures so well involve the complicated territory of the human heart, and as a result, her story will touch yours.
So it with Connie Rife’s The Promise: A Memoir. It’s a rewarding story of a young woman who overcame great odds to live a happy life. Set in Pennsylvania in the late 1960s, the story revolves around Rife’s quest to find her father first and then make a life with a husband. Rife endures her mentally ill mother, being dumped in a children’s home, running away multiple times and eventually finding her alcoholic father. Even with a sometimes undependable parental figure in her life, she perseveres to ultimately find a fairy tale ending.
The Promise is a mix of a coming-of-age story and a spiritual memoir, complete with references to the turbulent race relations of the era, groovy fashions and that decade’s conflicts between tradition and counterculture. As a spiritual memoir, The Promise begins with a “flash of lightning” ah-ha moment with God, with whom Rife describes as having a quirky friendship, and then documents the quest to maintain faith and find happiness.
As for her writing, Rife effectively summons the voice of a teenager, which I know from experience is difficult to do when you’re decades away from that age. In the epilogue, Rife recounts how she accomplished this feat:
“The real healing came about through the writing of my story. Each time I’d rewrite it, the deeper the healing would go, and the better I’d feel about the person I’d become. It is my fourteen-year-old self who tells the story. She wouldn’t leave me alone until our story came to an end.”
The emotional details Rife captures so well involve the complicated territory of the human heart, and as a result, her story will touch yours.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews