Lisa Samson, Straight Up

Straight Up

Lisa Samson

Waterbrook, September 2006, $13.99

ISBN: 1578568862

Georgia Bishop is a talented jazz pianist, but like everything else she tried, she failed. When her father dies her last anchor died with him. She quits her job at the Grotto Church, rejects her estranged spouse's Sean's efforts to reconcile, and moves into her dad's Baltimore condo with no plans, except to further atrophy in alcohol there.

Georgia's cousin Fairly Godfrey has made a success as a New York based design expert, but since her spouse Hart died, she feels lonely and despondent. She heads to Baltimore where misery loves miserable company, which being with an equally depressed Georgia definitely is. However, instead of spiraling further downward, the two women begin to gain some equilibrium from Solo, a Congo expatriate with two kids who worked for Hart, from Sean's refusal to quit, from their uncle, from each other, and ultimately from God, who through his grace wants Georgia and Fairly to be all that they can be.

This is a terrific Christian inspirational character study starring two delightful yet depressed women, who have watched loved ones die and ergo lost faith in the Lord and in themselves. What makes this excellent drama refreshing, besides a strong ensemble cast who seem genuine, and two fabulous female leads, is how Lisa Samson deals STRAIGHT UP with the God's plans for the two cousins, who both want to quit on life until they begin to understand why they are alive.