What is it about? Grace Votaw Duniven sang songs that she wrote at country picnics, and slept in culverts or on the back porch of her friend Sadie's house. I first met her through my new husband's letters he wrote to me the winter after our marriage when the Berlin Wall Crisis separated us and I stayed behind in our apartment in Utah and he went to Missouri. Finally, in the spring of 1962, the army moved me to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, and soon after the move I met Grace Votaw Duniven in person in a back alley in Licking, Missouri.
What did I think? This is a funny short story that only takes a few minutes to read. I'm sure it's based on something Ann actually experienced. The character Grace, is just that: a real character. Although I wish I could have had more information on who this woman really was and why she acted the way she did, the story was delightful. Pick it up for less than a dollar.
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What is it about? When Svetlana Garetova flies with her four-year-old son from Moscow in Russia to Salt Lake City in America for a visit with Jimmy Rafael, she becomes very ill. He nurses her to back to health, but when she recovers, she realizes with horror that she has missed the deadline in Moscow to pay protection money for her businesses. Her distraught mother tells her that she would be safer in America, and when Jimmy says he will marry her, she accepts his proposal even though she barely knows him and has some misgivings. On their wedding night, she discovers who he really is, and that she and her son are almost prisoners in his house. She must find a way to escape, and people to help them.
What did I think? Although Ann says at the end of the book that some events have been dramatized. The story is very real. That's what makes Ann such a good writer, she writes with such honesty and truth. I know situations like this, it actually happens a lot in Mexico. And I also know that there are some wonderful people out there willing to jump at the chance to help. The story will make you laugh and want to cry and some of it might scare you. But, it's a must read.
Buy it here for $0.99
Ann will be so happy to see your reviews, Clarissa!
ReplyDeleteI have my copies and am on the verge of reading mine too! Yay!!!
ReplyDeleteTake care
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Clarissa - Oh, I'm so glad you liked Ann's story! Isn't she a great writer?
ReplyDeleteHi Clarissa - thanks so much for the succinct reviews of Ann's stories and the thumbs up. I'll be looking to read them soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to read that Ann is so respected as a writer - I have her 'In the Mirror' here to read and must settle to do it ..
They sound intriguing .. thanks and if yo're having Thanksgiving - Happy Day today .. cheers Hilary
I've read "Imprisoned." I couldn't agree more. I'll be posting a review of it before long.
ReplyDeleteI read An Ozark Memory and found it delightful. There are alot of amazing characters out there who never see the light of day. Grace Votaw Duniven is certainly one of them.
ReplyDeleteI posted my comment before it was finished. I'm in the middle of Imprisoned and like it a great deal. It reminds me of my MIL's story. She met an American soldier in Japan after WW2. He lured her into marriage and to America with a wheel barrow full of lies.
ReplyDeleteSvetlana is a courages and stong woman.