My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“When the broken hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be.”
----Christopher Chase
Chad Gayle, an American author, has penned his debut novel, Let It Be that revolves around the life of a broken family tuning with the melody and flow of the Beatles very last album, Let It Be.
Synopsis:
Let it be is a touching tale of loss, longing, and forgiveness that chronicles the breakup of a marriage, the destruction of a family, and the struggle to come together in the aftermath of what remains.
Searching for the love and happiness she feels she deserves, Michelle Jansen leaves her abusive, overbearing husband behind and takes her two kids to Amarillo, Texas, where she begins to learn how to stand on her own two feet, supporting herself and her children with the money she earns from a low-paying job as she becomes increasingly involved with a coworker who is an even bigger fan of the Beatles than she is.
But Michelle doesn’t realize that her ex-husband is willing to do whatever he can to destroy her new life. When Michelle is betrayed by her very own son, this already fractured family will be damaged in an almost unimaginable way. Can they find forgiveness in the midst of so much sorrow and guilt, or will love give them the strength that they need to let it be?
The timeline is of year 1979 in the state of Texas, where a small happy family breaks up into two halves. Michelle and Bill have two kids, Joseph and Pam, who gets to live with their mother after the break up. Michelle is subjected to domestic violence and abuse by her husband, Bill. She along with her children moves to Amarillo where she finds a new receptionist job as well as love after a long time. Unfortunately her happiness is not meant for long when her own son betrays her by telling on her to his violent father, Bill. What happens next is for you to find out. Will Michelle forgive her son?
This is an heart-wrenching story which gripped me from the very first page and just like Beatles hit song and album, Let It Be, where just like the album's storyline, Michelle's life too moves with the same pattern. The song playing out from the vinyl record will hit you the instant you start reading this book. The prose of the book sways along with the melody of this song. Every other chapter begins with the title from Let It Be album
The writing is very polished and articulate with a strong narrative style. The shifting narration gives a lot of momentum to the book and the way the author have given voice to his characters after the start of every character is something really unique. The characters are flawlessly captured in this book through their thoughts, thus letting me contemplate with their fear, feelings, empathy and guilt.
The author have brought some strong themes through his story, like how a woman who is a victim of domestic violence finds her courage to walk away from her husband, then finding love, sacrificing it for the sake of her own children, like how a young boy cannot grow up without a strong male presence in his life. The emotions that the author have portrayed in his book are vivid and very true. It is a coming-of-age novel although the book is set in the late 70s and that is where I felt the author could have installed a bit of his 70s timeline into the storyline, instead of making us feel like it is happening today.
Verdict: A must-read for all the literary fans.
Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Chad Gayle, for giving me an opportunity to read and review his book.
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Author Info:
I love songs by the Beatles, and I like the idea of it being based around such a beautiful song <3 And family is something I find important to me as well, so it resolving around those two things is perfect for me!
ReplyDeleteThanks and I completely agree with you :-)
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