Those Sharp Times...

Have you lived through a Sharp Time? The death of a loved one? The death of a dream? A loss that turned your world on its end? I would imagine that Mary O'Connell sees The Sharp Time as those lonely and painful days, weeks, months, perhaps years, after the loss, the "Event." I think Sharp Time is an accurate description. In those times, especially the times after an "appropriate period" of mourning has passed, when you feel those pains, those suprise attacks, that zing at your heart, or in your stomach, the pain is sharp, indeed. And it feels sometimes like your walking or lying in broken glass. Well, that's my take on it, anyway.

Sandinista! Jones only has her mother. She never knew her dad and has no brothers or sisters. It's just mom and Sandinista!. Until her mother is killed, an innocent bystander, on a street corner, on her lunch break, when a motorist jumps the curb. Now it is just Sandinista!, named after The Clash album.

Sandinista! is having a tough time of it as it is, and when a complete wack-job teacher flips out on her in class, she walks out of school and waits for the school to do something, anything, about this teacher. She spends a week working at the Pale Circus, a vintage clothing store, where she meets Bradley, a college student working there during his winter break. They form a good friendship, sharing their individual hurts and helping eachother heal. I found the search for faith in this book to be so well done. I don't know if O'Connell is a Christian, but man, this was a real book, that Christians will love and people of other faiths will appreciate just as much. What a neat book. What a really, really, really good book. It is a beautiful, blessing of a story.