Title: Better Days Ahead

Author: Charlie Valentine

ISBN: 0977218708

The following review was contributed by:  NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews       

To read Norm's Interview With Charlie Valentine CLICK HERE

Charlie Valentine’s ambitious debut novel Better Days Ahead is a testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit to survive; no matter how bleak and difficult life may be there is very often a silver lining ahead.

Valentine creatively mixes time, place and voice to narrate different strands pertaining to four American families living in different parts of the country during the 1950s and early 1960s. In addition, Valentine carefully develops histories for her characters that depict different but not unfamiliar heart-wrenching themes, thus providing the reader with an emotional connection with the story.

As we get into the novel, we realize that there is an attempt to create a single narrative out of a choir of voices all fighting for our attention. The effect is impressive, as Valentine devotes one chapter at a time focusing on each of the families’ secrets. During the first three quarters of the novel our four stories are not connected, thus keeping apart the protagonists. It is not until the final chapters of the novel that this ultimately changes as Valentine ties it up in a nice neat package.

We are first introduced to Sarah Robbins who lives in Cleveland and who becomes involved with a prominent local Judge, Henry Kinslow.  Initially, Judge Kinslow is Sarah’s legal guardian, as the result of Sara being left an orphan at the tender age of sixteen. Kinslow manages to gain complete control of Sarah’s inheritance that turns out to be more substantial than he had anticipated, which incidentally, he partially misappropriates for his own benefit.  Once Sarah is no longer a minor, the deceitful Judge enters into an adulterous relationship with her and deceives her into believing that he will shortly leave his wife and children and marry her.

Judge Kinslow is also indirectly responsible for helping further Sarah’s singing career when he convinces a local businessman, Sam Donahue, not to open a buffet-style restaurant, but rather a first-class supper club. Donahue follows the Judge’s advice and also accepts the latter’s offer of financial help. Unfortunately, during her career as a night-club singer at Donahue’s supper club, Sarah falls prey to alcohol which proves to have a devastating effect on her life.    

The next of the families we meet are the Dvoraks from Detroit. Neil Dvorak is a pleasant and naïve gentleman that unfortunately has twice chosen the wrong wife, first marrying Janet, who becomes the town slut. One day Neil shockingly discovers Janet in bed with another man. Eventually, the couple agrees to a divorce, as Janet finds another mate, however, she insists on taking with her their two daughters. Neil’s second wife, Anne, turns out to be psychologically unbalanced and quite a handful, as she badly mistreats their daughter Victoria.

Our third family is the Drakes from a small town in Alabama, where racism is rampant and wife beating is alive and well. Dolores Drake is married to Thom Drake, an alcoholic and a bigot. On the day Dolores is about to give birth to their youngest son Ethan, she is forced to find shelter in the home of the only individual that will come to her aid, which turns out to be an African-American, Ruthie Jackson. Ruthie, however, lives on the wrong side of the tracks and during the 1950s Whites never entered this section of town. Remember, this is the deep- south during the horrendous segregation years.

Finally, we come to the rich and sophisticated Strattons, David and Karen who live in California. David was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he marries his high-school sweetheart, Karen, after attending four years at an out-of-state university.

Upon graduation David is offered employment by one of his father’s friends, Theo Bachman, who turns out to be quite a cad and who indirectly almost causes the break-up of David and Karen’s marriage.   

At times the novel feels like a daytime television saga complete with tantalizing themes of adultery, racism, child and wife abuse, embezzlement, employer manipulation, corporate “hanky panky,” alcoholism, and all of the other “goodies” that have crushing effects on families and where we have melodramatic characters standing in for the forces of good and evil.

For the most part, the novel’s momentum is sustained throughout and the story will keep you reading long into the night. However, the weakest aspect of the novel is that the concluding chapters are a trifle too coincidental and hence the plot’s credibility is overstretched. If you are wondering how you are going to keep track of all of the characters, Valentine does provide us at the very onset with a list of all of the who’s who. And yes, there will shortly be a sequel-stay tuned.