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Shea, Suzanne Strempek ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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SELLING THE LITE OF HEAVEN
Shea, Suzanne Strempek
1994 15255 ABOUT THE BOOK Selling the Lite of Heaven ANNOTATION The dutiful daughter of Polish-Catholic parents works at the Fast Foto, watching other people's lives develop into full color. When her fiance leaves her at the altar, she is left with only a diamond ring. The local Pennysaver announces "The lite of heaven isn't as brite as this engagement ring, " which encourages her to begin her journey to true romance. FROM THE PUBLISHER There it was in The Pennysaver - nestled among the other classified ads bravely singing out their romantic wares - each cleverly written heading masking a story of broken dreams. But who would believe hers? Who in her small western Massachusetts town would believe that the dutiful only daughter of Stanislaus and Edna, having against all odds and her mother's expectations finally found true love, has not only been left at the altar but for it? That she's a woman who has been left for God? Fittingly, her holy alliance with Eddie Balicki had begun in church, just after he mysteriously abandoned the big city and moved back to his boyhood town. One glimpse was all it took. His hands were folded in a way you only see in First Communion photos or in portraits of the Pope - fingers meeting exactly and pointing toward heaven, thumbs crossed and locked....With his eyes closed, he looked like he should have been a statue up on the altar, reeling in the ecstasy of what he already knew about heaven. But now the worst has happened. In one ghastly moment on Good Friday, her brightly lit future, her technicolor dreams, have turned to black and white. She has died, and he has gone to heaven. It is one thing to call the caterer, cancel the hall and the band, return the gifts. But selling the ring is another matter. One by one the prospective customers come to view, appraise, and haggle, treading through and over the life of the woman whose earlier days had been ruled by a simple rhythm: up and off to watch other peoples' lives develop in the machine at Fast Foto, then home to eat cabbage with her very Polish, very old-world parents. There's a beefy man shopping for a ring while patiently waiting for his fiancee's mother to "croak" so they can inherit the family manse. Then there are the browsers, the women looking to fill an afternoon and to gloat over someone else's misfortune. And finally, there is Randy, who glows almost as brightly as the ring, and who, despite the demands o FROM THE CRITICS Publishers Weekly Shea's first novel is a delightful foray into the quirks and quibbles of the Polish-Catholic town of Chicopee, Mass. The unnamed narrator, ingenuous yet unflappable, is the 32-year-old daughter of immigrants who have slathered her in Vicks and mild exasperation. Still living under her parents' roof, she is abandoned by her fiance, Eddie Balicki, after, shortly before the wedding, he asks a statue of the Blessed Virgin if he should become a priest and, as Eddie puts it, `` `a minute later, she nods. Twice . . . . It was a miracle.' " But never mind: Eddie, ``the kind of person who might straighten his sock drawer before company comes," was as a boy the sort of kid who played Holy Communion with Necco wafers. So the heroine returns candle snuffers and Corning Ware, cancels caterer and band and places an ad in the Penny Saver for her 2.5-karat, pear-shaped perfect diamond. Over the next 17 months, the pursuit of the right buyer fills out her days of knitting and living vicariously through the images she views while working as a film processor at Fast Foto. More than 60 prospective buyers respond to the ad, including the once-jilted Maria Dusza, who'll ``be back when you're ready," and Randy, the Quick Stop clerk whose dreams of an old-fashioned store embarrass his intended but who keeps checking on the ring. When the ring is stolen, the narrator comes to terms with what she wants to do and executes her plan in a particularly joyous conclusion. Rich, funny and gentle, this debut is one of those read-in-one-sitting novels that could be a real sleeper. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group 0-671-79864-2 / 9780671798642
Hardcover As New Condition New York
Price:
19.18 USD
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