So I got dressed and sat down to turn on the television to see what I could find... Absolutely nothing... seriously. I have nothing but problems since Direct TV "changed" their entire programming... At first, I was losing favorite shows I wanted to view at my time choice... but then, they placed one of my favorites--Tracker--on Sundays. Only to also schedule games on that day, which ran over into the time for the supposed most watched new show... and those who recorded it, always missed part or all of the program depending upon the game! How RUDE... First they advertised the show so much that you didn't want to miss it and recorded it, but then made no provisions for ensuring that the program would be available as recorded... Let's just say that it has gotten worse as time goes by... Something is definitely wrong. They know it; I knows it. I've already said that before... But everyday a different coded message is to be used, now, or whatever... it requires I call in to fix it... Well, I had many recorded already so I was watching those during the past week as I did things that I personally needed to do other than fix my own television for which I pay... Any way, I got nothing this morning, so came to pull up YouTube. Thankfully, my Hughes Net computer system rarely fails me... I decided to pull up Jesus Christ Superstar, original version... to be my background music as I did other things...
But as soon as I pulled up the site, three songs were there... The titles pulled me in...
Yeah, I have a tendency to consider whether I'm getting a message when that happens... Truthfully, I kinda got excited... Because almost immediately I realized that my reaction to this book was meant to be thought about... I admit that I had already begun to wonder so those of you who don't believe that God talks to us can assume that it's my my mind connecting once again... Hey, whatever works for your justification... But since it's my mind I choose to believe in the Holy Spirit's presence in my life...
Especially since I had not been sitting writing, but that I was up and about, starting my day... But by that time, Superstar had reached one of the fun songs and I started singing... What's the Buzz, Tell Me All About It!... Jesus, I want to know...
Yeah, I was supposed to deal with Black Friday immediately after I finished reading...and share my personal thoughts and feelings while I was reading. Please recognize that these thoughts and reactions are purely mine and has to do with what I've been doing for about a decade... Bottom line... Something's Gonna Change...
As soon as I got online this morning, I went out to see how the ranking was for Black Friday on Amazon... Just what I thought--most were high ratings, but two individuals who's nixed the book used a specific word. Depressing...
When you see the book title, you should realize that the Black Friday that all of us know about these days, means exactly that... The book begins on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Upfront I quickly say that I'm not a Black Friday type of person. Regular shopping is something I rarely do as a day-to-day event. So you might say that I find black Friday something that I ignore...
The main character Raymond, felt the same way as I do... With a major difference, however. He had a Shrew, Battle Axe, and any other derogatory term that is considered when a woman treats a husband like dirt... How mean was she? So mean, I resented how the author had created her! Surely no woman could be this bad?
Then I got to wondering... In real life, are there such women? Remember I grew up in a fatherless home--my father had been killed in a mine accident while my mother was pregnant... But then, I began to consider the main character, the husband. I considered him, frankly, a wimp... And I also began to question just how this character was created, and the purpose in creating an obviously crazy situation...
The book opens as Black Friday has begun. Raymond and Sheila had been married for years and had two teen children, both of whom totally ignored their parents routinely, but seemed to have been turned off their father by their mother, even though they were "living the life" most would be happy with... Sheila began her morning with a migraine and told Raymond he would have to do the Black Friday shopping, specifying what she wanted for the kids... It should be noted that migraines come routinely--whenever the wife doesn't want to do what Raymond needs or wants... Here is a man who has made it to be manager of a local grocery store, but also comes home and does all of the cleaning, and apparently most of the cooking or obviously the cleanup of dishes...
Raymond hated Black Friday but nevertheless chose not to argue and left home to join the crowds, mostly women, excited, to be out and about before the store's doors opened... Raymond had kept back from the door, thinking he would wait until the crazies were already inside... By the time he got to where laptops were cheaper, he discovered that they were all gone... Further, after complaining and asking a clerk to go get more, he discovered the store's gimmick for black friday sales... Have a small number of, for instance, laptops available, but after selling out those few, more would come, to be sold at the regular price! He was disgusted enough to turn around and leave the store rather than deal with the madness of customers he was watching....
But he was a little surprised because a woman started talking to him--and agreeing what a mess it was. They talked awhile, she suggested that she had two extras computers in her car and would sell them to him... Long story short, lunch first, hotel room next, woman was murdered. Police went after Raymond...
Think about that, please...Because Raymond is an innocent man. Readers will easily accept that, even if we think his personal life is, yes, depressing... Made even more depressing since Raymond's mother was worse than Sheila and, after his father left home, she expressed to Raymond daily that he was just like his father and would never succeed in anything...
So readers are first meeting many different characters with a storyline which is in no way, somebody you enjoy meeting in a book... "Family dysfunction at its best..."
Then the police and lawyers get involved... There was NO good cops, only bad cops and a loser lawyer... I was ready to stop reading... Was the book supposed to be humorous, a satire, or, was this indeed small town USA? Add to that was an immediate need for paying a significant sum of money for a defense lawyer--which a store manager couldn't afford--and we begin to see how dysfunctional families normally are also involved with money problems...
Right from the beginning, I was seeing connections of what is happening in the United States at this time. This book was written in 2016. So I began to correlate characters with politicians, DOJ, Epstein Case, and more... ICE supposedly gathering up the crazies and sending them out of the country or being killed on the streets because of increased violence in reality...
But it was a murder mystery and was readable as a mystery. The question then, of course, was "whodunit?" But there was literally no character within the book that was not evil enough to be selected... Only question I had was how and why my grandfather's name (Phil Bixler) was chosen to be the lawyer's PI...
Evil choices abound within this story...
- Customers get screwed, but apparently didn't mind 'cause Black Friday was so much fun???
- An individual meets a stranger and finding them attractive,, decides to cheat on his wife for the first time ever, even though readers are wondering how two people so incompatible and obviously not in love, can still decide to live together...
- Stereotypical cop and prosecutors are fully disgusting and unwilling to LISTEN to the potential person of interest...
- Defense lawyers first discuss money before even considering whether they will represent you... And then demand absolute truth, even if you forgot something and didn't immediately report it...
- Dysfunctional marriages fully involved with every single situation being based upon somebody's childhood...
- The concept of retribution, payback, and threats are used in every situation, with violence of each revelation plays a significant role in "moving the story forward..."
- Even the main character's one joy, fishing, is destroyed for purposes of horror effect...
- And he also discovered that his past was a major reason why somebody was working night and day to convince the world that he was guilty....
- It kinda turns your stomach - and often did for Raymond... Maybe that's why when he was set free, he took another road that led nowhere except where they played Jimmy Buffet songs...
Like I said earlier, when I finished the book, I was not in a mood to share it, or even talk about it further. When a main character is left with nothing in his life to be able to depend upon, this reader was at first also depressed, but then as I reviewed every single character and realized that the emotional impact of each was just as devastating as millions of people are feeling all over the world, and especially for the first time in the United States, I knew more than any other time that what the republican party is doing right now will destroy the world if God doesn't intervene-- that's the great I Am Not the Christian Nationalist version...
And, for me, I needed to accept that when I was told "I've Got This..." that He meant it... Raymond in this book never met Jesus or even God the Father. I have. So I won't be, at least not as much, LOL, referring to videos to document just how bad things are... I figure that the entire world is watching. Including the Pope... And Other Christians speaking for Him... And I need some time not in Margaritaville, but in Jesus Christ Superstar... Especially when I admit, even at my age, I still don't know how to Love Him...enough to trust... I'll be working on that... In the meantime, I won't be discussing the other two books in this set...
God Bless Us All
Gabby
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