FAITH’S PORTRAIT
By Jude Liebermann
ISBN978-0-9660653-6-7
Lee Books
Fiction/suspense
213 pages
4 ½ Portraits out of 5
Claire, at twenty-six years, has been in pain since she was hit by a car when she was sixteen. She still remembers the man's face as he looked down at her. He paid her hospital bills but hadn't even tried to comfort her as she lie on the ground. She knew his name, that he was very old, and learned he had out-lived five wives. He shouldn't have been driving as his sight was bad. Claire learned to live with her pain at home with her parents. When she saw a "For Rent" sign on a house while driving by, she was immediately drawn to the place. It was huge, rather run down, but Claire knew she had to have it. She wanted to be self-sufficient. Though she walked with a limp, often used a cane, she wanted to be on her own. She rented the place. After she moved in she found a dumb-waiter that went to the attic and basement. She also found some hidden stairways. While in the attic she found a portrait. That too drew her. She wanted to know more about the picture. She hung it in the living room, asking the Realtor if he knew who she was and if it was all right for her to remove it from the attic. The Realtor told her that Mrs. Pruitt, the house's owner was very old, in a nursing home, and that the portrait was that of her daughter who died just after her marriage at age seventeen. Claire continued to search for other things of Faith's and came across the girl's diary and wedding photo. She learned Faith had not wanted to marry the man her parents chose for her. Claire started to dream of Faith and the accident that had taken the girl's life just three days after her marriage. She decided to remove the portrait from her sight as it was starting to affect her thinking, but when she touched the canvas, something happened. She was no longer herself, she was somehow transported into another realm, into the 1930s, into a pain-free body, and into more problems then she ever dreamed possible.
Jude Liebermann has written a compelling novel with equally compelling characters. In this book both love and hate transcend time, and some things are not exactly what they seem to be. Ms. Liebermann's detail to life in the depression era help make the story believable. Claire, being in Faith's body, and with her more modern thinking, causes some waves, and her parents just do not understand her anymore. Though the story has some tragic parts, it is not a dark story, there are moments of humor, too. There are definitely good guys and bad guys. Can someone from the present go back and change the future? To find out, read the book. I'm sure you'll all be surprised by the ending. I was.
Jeannine D. Van Eperen, Reviewer, gottawritenetwork.com
Feb. 24, 2008
