Straight Up

by: Lisa Samson

Published by: WaterBrook Press

Reviewed by Michele Heather Pollock

We all hope that there are people in our lives who, were we to stray from our true path, would be there to love us enough to try to steer us back. And there are plenty of books written about characters that reach that point of no return, that breaking point, only to be drawn back safely at the last possible moment by those that love them. But what if they couldn't draw us back? What if we went past that point of no return and were now "beyond saving"? Is it ever really too late

In Straight Up, Lisa Samson moves beyond the normal story, the one where we watch a character destroying herself, only to be saved by her caring family or friends. Georgia is a wounded woman who has chosen drinking over a marriage and career as a jazz musician. Her parents have died. Her husband is gone. Only an uncle in a far-away city seems to care about the course of her life. When she moves into her uncle's house, we are tempted to hope that salvation is just around the bend. But this novel is anything but predictable. When Georgia drinks herself into a coma, as readers we are as reluctant as Georgia's uncle to believe that she is beyond saving.

We don't touch the real heart of the novel until we hit a place past where most novels would end: the main character is beyond the reaches of other human beings, beyond the saving of her body, where she must struggle with herself and God and find her own answers, her own solace, and face her own death.

Armchair Interviews says: A book that draws you into the story and Georgia's life