Direct link to this page is here: http://tinyurl.com/twoweekssincemy Robert Barry Francos: "Definitely a quick and enjoyable read, that makes me want to seek out her other works."
Text © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen
| Two Weeks Since My Last Confession
By Kate Genovese
Mountain Valley Publishing, 2009
368 pages, $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-934940-63-1 But first I digress… The central character of this book, Molly O’Brien, was born on October 19. Not only is that my mom’s birthday, but it’s also the day I started reading this! How much of a portent is that?
The focus of the novel is the large, Boston-based Irish-Catholic O’Brien family, who smacks of a Kennedy political mien. As the siblings grow up from the 1950s through the mid-‘80s, this story pinpoints mostly on three of them: Molly, Susan, and their brother Sean, highlighting their relationships, interaction with each other, the power of their family, and their participation with Catholic Church. In this, Genovese’s third release, she uses her background in nursing to cover a multitude of sins including a large number of social ills, such as teen pregnancy, prostitution, PTSD, and abuse, such as drug, physical and sexual. As we meet Molly, it is the late ‘70s and she is in rough shape. She wonders how her life came to this point, and so we begin a flashback to her birth. | Growing up, she was one of eight kids, and the one with the strongest will. And yet, her mother’s ferverant religious zeal tears at her and wears her down. She acts out again and again, and a memory of an uncomfortable series of nights at home keeps her out of the house, leading her into more and more trouble. Genovese shows the reader step by step, making us desire to help and yet feel powerless.
This is also a story of its time. The effects of teen pregnancy or spousal abuse then would not have the same effect on a political family now. Also, with the present technology and celebrity family media fixation, there would be less chance for the political head of a family to be able to pull as many strings to keep family laundry more secretive.
While very little of the story takes place within the Church proper, its pull is felt on nearly every page, hence the title. The shunning led through the Church’s influence on its parishioners to unwed mothers through the pressures of confession and supposed forgiveness, is only conceded on the parish’s terms. This is its form of abuse most prevalent throughout these pages. |
As a storyteller, Genovese knows how to keep the reader interested in what happens to the people this story revolves around, and in fact, I wouldn’t mind a second book about the rest of the clan that gets more of a peripheral glance. For example, two of the sisters see beyond what troubles Molly, and stand by her. What makes them tick, I wondered, since they were raised by this same intense family?
Despite the good storytelling, there are a few concerns that plagued me. First of all, the ending seems just a little too feel-good and pat. Also, by placing the time of the novel, Genovese avoids HIV/AIDS, though I doubt this was meant intentionally.
My biggest problem with the book though, and I realize this may be nit-picking, is that like many self-published works (it can be bought on-line though, from numerous sources), it needs more solid editing and proofreading, as it’s rife with grammatical errors (for example, the word “seen” is used rather than “scene”). There is also the occasional clumsy sentence structure that could easily be picked up by a dedicated line-editor. The story and author deserve that, especially in this instance, when the narrative is so solid. I do like that while the abuse is aplenty, much of the physical stuff is left kind of vague, thereby relying more on story than on mere shock value. This seems to give the tale more validity, as life is vague, especially when one looks at memories many years later. | | Despite the high drama, there is a good and firm story here that is enjoyable to follow, and I must admit it was enough of a page turner that I kept reading more often than most books I’ve read recently. Definitely a quick and enjoyable read, that makes me want to seek out her other works. Posted by Robert Barry Francos |
| OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASES FROM KATEGENOVESE.COM When Molly O’Brien comes into the world in 1951, she never imagines that her life will turn out the way it does. Born into a wealthy family in which her father is a senator and her mother a devout Catholic, Molly receives a good upbringing and has all the reason in the world to be happy. Yet somehow, at the age of thirty, she is addicted to heroin and hasn’t been employed for years. Her father believes that the corrupting influences of society are at fault, while her mother is convinced it’s Molly’s own depravity that has caused her ruin and her failure to stay in the Catholic church. Her older brother Sean, however, knows who is really to blame: he holds the family secrets that have caused all of his sister’s problems and are leading her down the harrowing road to drug addiction. And ultimately he knows that he and his parents are the only ones who can lead her out. A dramatically written family saga, Two Weeks Since my Last Confession is the story of one woman’s survival in the face of serious childhood abuse and addiction. More than this, it is a tale which chronicles the triumph of the human spirit over its enemies — not only external enemies but also the ones we find within ourselves. |
Love between a man and a woman is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and spiritual exchanges between two human beings. It is also one of the most tragic, particularly when alcohol, drugs, dysfunctional families, and a life-threatening liver disease are thrown into the mix. LOVING JOE GALLUCCI is one such love affair. It is the poignant romantic tale of Meg Flaherty, daughter of an eminent Massachusetts senator, and Jimmy Romano, a blue-collar boy always trying to prove himself to the imperious Flaherty clan. Taking place over a period of thirty years, the novel chronicles the tumultuous courtship and marriage of the couple as they progress from heavy drinkers and IV drug users to sober and respectable members of their community who must nonetheless pay the price for the reckless acts of their younger years. When Jimmy reaches middle age, he goes to the doctors one day and discovers that he has Hepatitis C, a deadly inflammation of the liver caused by an HCV virus that drug users often get through needle use. Now, with a family and a wife whose fidelity to and love for him are extraordinary, Jimmy is forced to fight the last and biggest battle of his life, or else die a death caused by the destructive demons of a past he thought he'd conquered many years before. More than anything, LOVING JOE GALLUCCI is a story of redemption and resurrection of the Romano family through the triumph over adversity, and through faith, hope, and unconditional love. In its final analysis, this book is a call to arms against a liver disease so subtle and yet so damaging that it could perhaps be called the AIDS epidemic of the twenty-first century. | |
| When sixteen year old Kate Genovese went to visit her sister Denise in the hospital in 1968, she claims "something clicked that very moment, I wanted to make Denise better again, heal her shattered body and make her laugh... I couldn't put words to my feelings, but I knew I wanted to do more then just visit" That day Kate discovered her calling in life, nursing, and spent the next thirty years on an adventure that has been at once rewarding and devastating, tumultuous and spiritual. Her memoir poignantly describes the adventures of her nursing career, beginning with her trialsome days as an LPN, where she lost her nursing license because of a drug addiction, her recovery, and going back to school once again to obtain her RN. The memoir meanders through the eighties and nineties, where she writes about her experiences with insurance companies and federal medicare systems, which have proven to be somewhat flawed in the method in which they fund patients. Interspersed within the memoir are hilarious anecdotes about nursing "mishaps" magical accounts of patients having near death experiences, and tales of strength, hope, and courage in a world of sickness and death. |
Direct link to this page is here: http://tinyurl.com/twoweekssincemy Talk to author Kate Genovese: http://kategenovese.com/contact.html Publisher: http://www.mountainvalleypublishing.com/twoweeks.asp |