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Sep 22, 2010 Irene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Come Sunday, Isla Morley’s doleful debut profoundly orchestrates the excruciatingly merciless emotion we call “grief.” When a tragic accident claims her precocious three-year-old daughter Cleo, we vicariously examine how a mother’s conventional daily life collapses instantaneously.

Abbe Deighton and her husband Greg, an uncharismatic pastor of a small church in one of the poorest areas of Hawaii innocently encounter one of life’s most unjustifiable catastrophes: the loss of a child. Abbe endures Come Sunday, Isla Morley’s doleful debut profoundly orchestrates the excruciatingly merciless emotion we call “grief.” When a tragic accident claims her precocious three-year-old daughter Cleo, we vicariously examine how a mother’s conventional daily life collapses instantaneously.

Abbe Deighton and her husband Greg, an uncharismatic pastor of a small church in one of the poorest areas of Hawaii innocently encounter one of life’s most unjustifiable catastrophes: the loss of a child. Abbe endures her cavernous grief by isolating herself, while totally contemptuous of any and all well-meaning attempts to alleviate her emotional and physical distress. Greg subconsciously tethers himself to pastoral responsibilities, unaware his methodical sanctuary in grieving further alienates him from his unapproachable wife. Grief is obstinate in its indeterminate passage; marriage often succumbs in its presence.

While engaged in excessive and exhaustive introspection, Abbe unintentionally regresses to her emotionally conflicted South African childhood as a disquieting conduit to assuage the painful facets grief presents. The tormented angst-ridden evolution opens doors to eventual resolution when Abbe returns to her homeland. There she unknowingly sheds her shroud of blame and guilt, and surprisingly acquires an abrupt yet mystifying strength to confront the fallacious deceptive memories long believed, and the deeply imbedded secrets left unexplored. Within the tumultuous confines of a presumably democratic, yet vastly constricted South Africa, Abbe permits forgiveness to triumph.

“Your past is always with you---be friends with it and it will help you find a good future.” –Page 269

Isla Morley depicts a realistic portrait of the all-consuming madness that often accompanies unrelenting grief. The compositional structure was appropriately consistent with the subject matter. While it was a distinctively emotional read, it provided valuable reflective components. After my nine-year-old brother’s accidental drowning, as witness to my mother’s unspeakable descent into this inviolable agony, I can attest to the brutal accuracy and painful reality that Come Sunday characterizes.

"Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them". - Leo Tolstoy

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Apr 09, 2009 Julie marked it as to-read

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May 19, 2020 Maria marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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