The Floater by Sheryl Sorrentino Insightful Yet Fun!

"Oscar...lowered his voice and said,
"Well you gotta open it. And whatever it
says, it'll be okay. We both know that
much."
"No it won't!" Norma cried.
"C'mon now. Is it the end of the world if
you failed the bar exam?"
"No, but my whole life depends on my
passing."
"Now, that just silly," he said softly. "Your
life's way bigger than that, and you know it."
"Is it? If I failed the bar exam, this whole
EEOC thing will be for nothing. Four years of
law school will have been for nothing!
There won't be any lawyer job or back pay.
It'll mean the firm was right about me all
along--I'm just some dumb, low-class spic
who's not good enough to be an attorney..."

The Floater

By Sheryl Sorrentino


The cover of Sorrentino's novel, The Floater is eye-catching and fun, but there are surprising scenes behind it that are thought-provoking, revealing...and so very human... Readers enter into the life of one woman, Norma Reyes. While she may not in any way match your own personal profile, she and her friend, Oscar, do well represent today's life style. In fact, it is "kinda" scary just how much you may find in this novel to relate to...

Sorrentino places us squarely into the hardship of Norma's family life, including flashes of memories from her father's abuse. And how that affects intimacy issues in her adult relationships. But a very important part of her story is the extensive harassment and discrimination she found when trying to enter the legal profession.

Once I finished the novel, I wondered whether there was just too much that happened in Norma's life to be believable, but while you are reading it, it feels real and the emotions displayed easily pull you into the story. No matter what, the author has bared the

internal lives of, especially, two people who are trying to find a stable relationship and be able to maintain it. That struggle is sometimes more than bearable, isn't it?!

Norma had just graduated and taken the bar exam, although she had not yet received the results when she applied at a large firm at which she had worked the previous summer. She and her boss at that time had developed a good working relationship and Norma was confident of being accepted there.

She was, but not as a lawyer...

Needing the money, Norma became "The Floater," a secretary who moved throughout the firm whenever and wherever she was needed.

She soon began to feel the humiliation and pressure routinely given to the support staff... and more...

While at the same time, Oscar shared a letter he had been given, that documented the intent of the firm to discriminate against her. Later, it was Oscar, after they had acknowledged how they felt about each other, that supported her in filing a discrimination charge against the company.

I loved the ending of this novel, showing what was really important in making decisions for the future. But I was amazed at the complexity of the lives revealed, for instance, as Oscar, a divorced man with two children he loved, tries to deal with his own family responsibilities while attempting to meet the needs of the woman he now loved. At the same time, if Norma was to move into any type of personal relationship, she had to confront her past demons, especially about intimacy, and work through all the pain and fear of the past and learn to trust.

This is a remarkable story in many ways, delving deeper into the internal lives of people than most books, while yet sending a message of potential growth and love even though it comes later in life. I enjoyed that frankness not with a peeking tom mentality, but rather from how much we learn that people, no matter what sex, age, race or profession all have the same emotional burdens that we seem to think can only happen to ourselves...

That leaves a very satisfactory feeling in closing the book, The Floater, by Sheryl Sorrentino...


GABixlerReviews

A practicing attorney herself, Sheryl Sorrentino is the author of two previous Indie titles: Later With Myself: The Misadventures of Millie Moskowitz (a work of autobiographical fiction that tells the riveting story of the author's devastating pregnancy at age twelve), and An Unexpected Exile (which takes readers on a relentless, romantic ride with Risa, a 29-year-old Jewish fashion merchandiser, and Arturo, her charismatic Sandinista pursuer). Ms. Sorrentino is also an editor for California Continuing Education of the Bar's treatise series; a frequent contributor to the Alameda County Bar Association's Business Law Section newsletter; and a Goodreads Author and blogger. She lives in the California Bay Area with her husband and daughter.

Review: Checkered Fences Shares Checkered Romance...

Checkered Fences


By Alma Hudson
Eloquent Books
ISBN: 9781606931912
87 Pages

Checkered Fences, fiction based upon a true story by Alma Hudson, takes us back to the 1970s. The time is right, but one of the main families in the story probably should have lived sometime about 2000 or later. They are a white family. Diane Jones, the main character, is an 18-year-old African-American honors student, but she was also working as a nanny for Jerry and Ann Shaw... Diane's mother also worked for the Shaws.

Diane had a strong, traditional family. In fact, her father had picked out his wife by seeing her hard at work in the fields, and claimed her as his bride. So, it wasn't a surprise to Diane or her mother when Diane's father started to bring home young, suitable men so that Diane could pick her husband.

Except Diane was not interested in getting married at this time. She wanted to go on to school, Her father made it quite clear that if she got herself pregnant out of marriage, that he would not support her.

Diane looks back on her childhood's happier times and knew she loved her father dearly, but there was never enough money and the children started working early. Christmas came and went, and there were never any presents. The only thing Diane ever received were taunts from neighborhood children about what they got! She also shares the type of discrimination and fear she faced as a young girl at school, only to come home to fear her father when he got drunk and abused her mother. Until she got brave enough to speak back to her father, to prevent his beatings.

So when her father crudely told her about sex and what the boys would want from her, it wasn't surprising that she decided she didn't want anything to do with all of that; so she got as much work as she could find in order to earn a scholarship or money for college.

When her mother told her about the nanny job, it seemed a wonderful opportunity. Not only was she hired immediately, but she was given extra money to take the kids out for lunches and she was given the keys for her to drive one of the family's cars. Diane was amazed how she was being treated, but she knew better, she continued to act professionally and kept a distance from the family as would most employees.

But then their son David came home; Diane and David were immediately attracted to each other. Diane, however, was the one who kept insisting that a relationship was impossible, while David just pursued her...

It was the 1970s, but, to this day, Diane believes that God placed David in her life for a reason, ending her book with 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8...Love never fails...

No, this isn't the usual kind of love story; or is it? Two people meet each other and fall in love. Should their race differences have kept them apart? Should their families have disowned them and forced tradition on their children? If these questions are those that you have asked, or if you just enjoy a romantic story, I recommend you check out Checkered Fences by Alma Hudson. There is a main answer provided her in this story. It began a lot earlier than the 1970s though...it began when the book of Corinthians was first written...

G. A. Bixler