[.ca] Sittin' in the Front Pew: A Novel (ISBN 0345494903)

Realistic Novel:
A very good read. Started off a little slow to me, but that was because I wanted to hurry up and see what happened next. The author did an excellent job of conveying the emotions of each of the characters. And the story was also very realistic as far as the personalities of the characters.

Just too real:
Ms Brown has taken real situtions and put them into words. I laugh and cried with the Naylor sisters . I was touched by Edward Naylors charater and his intent on keeping his secrete, but by also doing what was right by all of his daughters. The wake and the funeral were the most real. I felt as if I was there attending the services with the Naylor sisters . One by one going to view there dad. I was fill with emotion as each one of them had to go through the viewing for the first time. Most of all when you read this book everyone will find at least one friend of the family or a family members they can identfy with Ms Brown really took us back to our family roots when it comes to dealing with family and a funeral. It was all to real.

Jerry Springer, here we come!:
I listened to the book on tape which went a long way toward keeping the characters straight. The funeral planning was endless! How could such a wonderful man raise such a bunch of nitwit daughters is beyond me. The only daughters who appeared halfway normal were Dawn and Nina. Uncle Thomas seemed like a throwback to the pre-civil rights era. I thought the characters were basically unbelievable, almost caricature-ish. The whole Nina thing seemed contrived (child support for 18 years and nobody noticed the money being gone? seeing her every Christmas? attending her graduation? giving her away at her wedding?). Just when I didn't think it could get any weirder, the book ended by having Nina embraced into the family bosom (breast implants and all) adding to the unbelievability of the whole thing. I would have stopped listening on Day 99 of the funeral planning but had so much time invested in the book (and nothing else in the car to listen to) that I finished it up. Oh, how I wish I would have cut my losses and listened to some good old country and western music station (which I hate). Other than that, it was a good book.

It Made Me Cry:
I just got finished reading "Sittin' In The Front Pew" and it broke my heart literally. As I read the book I thought I was reading about me, my father and my sister that I just found out I had in 2002, but it didn't take my father dying for me to find out, he just called me and told me, because she tried to contact him. This book was so touching and true to life. Even though I never lost anyone that close to me, it made me feel that this is what people really go through when they lose a love one, especially one they hold a torch for. I took a star off for Ms. Parry's reference to people acting like they were raised in the projects. Which way is that, I would like to know? I was raised in the projects and was raised very well. You can be raised in the suburbs, inside a house with a fence and still have not home-training, its not the surrounding its the parent, whether it be one or two in the household. Later!!!!!

Excellent!:
At first I had a hard time getting started with this book. Then I couldn't put it down. By the end, I was almost in tears! Great read!