SOUVENIR
Therese Fowler
Ballantine Books
Fiction
ISBN: 9780345499684

• About the Book
• Read an Excerpt
• Author Interview –– February 15, 2008

In her poignant fiction debut, SOUVENIR, Therese Fowler fashions a story guaranteed to wring tears, provoke controversy and strike fear into the heart of any web-surfing teenager’s parents.

After an idyllic romance in her teens with her soul mate, Carson McKay (the proverbial boy next door), Meg Powell marries for money to save her family’s Florida horse farm. That she is conflicted and has thrown caution to the winds is evident from the prologue, where the morning of her wedding she makes love with Carson. Frustratingly (for the reader), Meg is unwilling to tell him the truth. She has rejected him to become a martyr for her family.

Fast forward a decade and a half plus some change. Meg is trapped in a loveless marriage with Brian Hamilton, the banker who cajoled her to take “the deal” that saved the farm and cost Brian and his father $387,000. Once Brian married Meg, we discover that he has become an absentee husband and dad, spending more time on investments and his golf swing than developing any intimacy with his wife or relationship with his daughter.

Meg is now an obstetrician, but she is losing her strength and isn’t sure why. Cue ominous music. It appears something is wrong, and the reader will grasp the seriousness of her affliction when her delivery of a baby goes awry. Meg’s diagnosis will change her marriage, her relationship with her daughter and how she wants to spend her life.

Meanwhile, Meg’s daughter, Savannah, a honeymoon baby (questions immediately pop into the reader’s mind), has carved out her own private world apart from her parents. Spoiled and naïve, she has met a handsome older hunk on the Internet and is making surreptitious plans to meet him and have sex for the first time. Meg and her husband Brian, caught up in work and their own leisure pursuits, are oblivious to the drama unfolding with their daughter. Cue more ominous music. Bad stuff is definitely ahead.

Meanwhile, Carson has become a rock star (suspend disbelief a bit here) and is living the life of the rich and famous. He is engaged to a much younger woman, Valerie Haas, a beautiful svelte surfer who lives a high-energy lifestyle that makes him…tired. He already has been through all the accouterments of the rock-and-roll culture --- drugs, money, wild sex --- but something is missing from his life. And the reader won’t have to guess what that is. His songs reflect the love he has lost with Meg, and he has never quite gotten over her. While Carson thinks he loves Valerie, there is plenty of insecurity about his upcoming nuptials. But he reflects: “A man could get used to just about anything if he set his mind to it.” Women of a certain age may love the idea that Carson can’t get his first romance out of his mind. Even a beautiful and sexier young woman plus money to burn aren’t enough. Sigh.

Tough times are coming (all that ominous music playing in your head was a clue), and the fallout from Savannah’s Internet experiences will make parental readers immediately lunge to unplug their teens from their computers. Although the novel is not in any sense moralistic in tone, it nonetheless could open some good discussions between parents and teens. Moms, keep an eye on what your kids are doing online.

The most controversial part of the novel is Meg’s resolution regarding her diagnosis and how she spends her final months of life. But agree or disagree, there are enough moving scenes, poignant letters to Savannah and plucked heartstrings to make you reach for the Kleenex.

SOUVENIR is a smooth read, full of romance, vicarious thrills (especially in scenes between Carson and his fiancée) and thought-provoking scenarios. Book clubs will find plenty to discuss here, and middle-aged women with teens will resonate with the mothering and marital dilemmas. No matter what you think of the ending, Fowler’s story will keep you reading until the last paragraph.

    --- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby. Contact Cindy at phrelanzer@aol.com

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