Window To My World

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Dancing on Glass B&H Books (August 1, 2011) by Pamela Ewen



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Until recently retiring to write full time, Pamela Binnings Ewen was a partner in the Houston office of the international law firm of BakerBotts, L.L.P., specializing in corporate finance. She now lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband, James Lott.



She has served on the Board of Directors of Inprint, Inc., a non-profit organization supporting the literary arts in Houston, Texas, as well as the Advisory Board for The New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans; Pamela is a co-founder of the Northshore Literary Society in the Greater New Orleans area. She is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women.



Pamela’s first novel, Walk Back The Cat (Broadman & Holman. May, 2006) is the story of an embittered and powerful clergyman who learns an ancient secret, confronting him with truth and a choice that may destroy him.



She is also the best-selling author of the acclaimed non-fiction book Faith On Trial, published by Broadman & Holman in 1999, currently in its third printing.



Although it was written for non-lawyers, Faith On Trial was also chosen as a text for a course on law and religion at Yale Law School in the Spring of 2000, along with The Case For Christ by Lee Stroble. Continuing the apologetics begun in Faith On Trial, Pamela also appears with Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, Darrell Bock, Lee Stroble, and others in the film Jesus: Fact or Fiction, a Campus Crusade for Christ production.



Pamela is the latest writer to emerge from a Louisiana family recognized for its statistically improbable number of successful authors. A cousin, James Lee Burke, who won the Edgar Award, wrote about the common ancestral grandfathers in his Civil War novel White Dove At Morning.



Among other writers in the family are Andre Dubus (Best Picture Oscar nomination for The Bedroom; his son, Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog, a Best Picture Oscar nomination and an Oprah pick; Elizabeth Nell Dubus (the Cajun trilogy); and Alafair Burke, just starting out with the well received Samantha Kincaid mystery series.


My Thoughts:
“You’re making bad choices, with consequences that you won’t be able to control.”
(p. 169)


Truer word were never spoken into the life of Amalise Catoir. Oh but that she would have listened to her dear friend Jude. But she did not. She listened instead to one of the oldest lies in human history – she was “needed” and “wanted”, and her love would “fix” the broken life of Phillip Sharp. Amalise paid a dear price for her choices.


Pamala Binnings Ewen tells a disturbing and, unfortunately, not uncommon story of relationship between two people who are drawn together out of an unhealthy “need”. Amalise’s heart wants to mend the broken man that “loves” her, and Phillip is trying to fill a vacuum in his heart that no other human could ever fill. Their relationship is tragic and, for the reader, sometimes very disturbing. Yet another truth becomes evident toward the end, and it’s one that believer’s need to remember: “You make your way through the bad times the best you can. The Lord shows us the way and we just get through ‘em.” (p. 131)


There are times that it seem doubtful that either Amalise or Phillip will survive this story. I think the title could be “Dancing on Broken Glass,” and it would reflect the true nature of the main characters and their relationship. Only God can heal the brokenness in our lives. No human being can ever fulfill that role, no matter how hard they try.


ABOUT THE BOOK

In the steamy city of New Orleans in 1974, Amalise Catoir sees Phillip Sharp as a charming, magnetic artist, unlike any man she has known. A young lawyer herself, raised in a small town and on the brink of a career with a large firm, she is strong and successful, yet sometimes too trusting and whimsical. Ama's rash decision to marry Phillip proves to be a mistake as he becomes overly possessive, drawing his wife away from family, friends, and her faith. His insidious, dangerous behavior becomes her dark, inescapable secret.



In this lawyer's unraveling world, can grace survive Ama's fatal choice? What would you do when prayers seem to go unanswered, faith has slipped away, evil stalks, and you feel yourself forever dancing on shattered glass?



If you would like to read the first chapter of Dancing on Glass, go HERE.



Watch the book trailer: