In Rebecca Morrow's poignant, sensual and ultimately hopeful Corinne, a woman in her early 30s returns to her hometown and the fundamentalist Christian family that cut her off when the church cast her out in her senior year of high school. There she finds newly divorced Enoch, the boy who turned her life upside down one fateful night and the man she's never forgotten.
Readers with experience in fundamentalist Christianity will recognize or even relate to much of Corinne's and Enoch's journeys, as well as those of their families. Corinne is no longer part of the church but still connected to it through family and upbringing, and Enoch's moral code pushes him to confess his involvement with Corinne, causing the church to shun him. Though Corinne is satisfied with her decision not to seek the church's favor, Enoch is unwilling to give up the love of his life or the community and faith so integral to his identity. Morrow (a pseudonym for a bestselling author) delves into fundamentalist culture, both the stifling patriarchal strictures and the comfort of community and purpose, but readers on the outside will easily connect with the universal craving for belonging and connection. She focuses on the emotional relationships between the characters, but the novel is surprisingly physical and includes awkward--and, at times, uncomfortably realistic--intimate scenes, complete with discussions about birth control and pleasure.
In Corinne, Morrow delivers two complex characters navigating faith, family and over a decade of longing and regret in order to find their way to their own definition of a happy ending. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer