Press Release
A Sweet, Simple Hug Was Seen From a Bedroom Window.
What followed was a 2-Year investigation into the lives of the family across the street.
Almost Like Praying, Joel Samberg’s new novel, released by Black Rose Writing
Castroville, TX—Joel Samberg, author of seven books, including a popular exploration into the career and legacy of singer Karen Carpenter, has a new novel that explores the mysterious and emotional relationship between family life imagined and family life realized.
Almost Like Praying is winning fans because of its moving portrayal of the challenges, secrets, and consequences inherent in one distinctive suburban household:
“A compelling story of a family we all can relate to. The members are flawed, yet entirely likable, particularly one young one girl who is the touchstone for all that’s good in this suburban clan.” —Gary A. (Montana), author and musician
“Dolores is painted as both victim and perpetrator by her constraints and her cluelessness. Ultimately, that leads to an act of truthfulness that opens her soul. Through the author's wry insights, we recognize ourselves and our own families.” —Jackie H. (Idaho), radio host, poet, and songwriter
“In this novel--which has an Ann Tyler large-family vibe to it--when Dolores says ‘I hate this house!’ it summed up for me her complete inability to be happy despite the fact that almost everyone around her, even with their own problems, appears to be managing. Until, of course, the startling conclusion, when the family dynamic changes considerably.” —Tom L. (Connecticut), commercial landlord and retired real estate broker
“This is a heartfelt, heartwarming, and hopeful story filled, ultimately, with love. It's more than a story, in fact. It's a revelation into hearts and minds. Especially into the heart and mind of a character named Dolores. Dolores, open yourself up to more family love!" — Fran L., BookPleasures Reviewer
“A beautifully written, absorbing family saga that will appeal to readers looking for a contemporary fiction story about the various ways family life can turn out. Every layer reveals something new. Watching the characters grow kept me coming back.” — Thomas A. Literary Titan Reviewer
Almost Like Praying is published by Black Rose Writing, a dynamic Texas-based independent house whose list includes the bestsellers The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride by Joe Siple (first-place winner of the PenCraft Award) and The Wise Ass by Tom McCaffrey (with more than 2,100 Amazon reviews and a Silver Reader’s Favorite Award).
At the beginning of the new novel, Dolores Farrell of Sherborn Massachusetts has her future all planned out: she'll marry an attorney, have sons who will become attorneys, daughters who will become patrons of the arts, and live in the shadow of Harvard University, thereby continuing her privileged purebred Irish-Catholic legacy.
But that’s not quite how things work out. Isn’t that the way it is for so many of us? Just how much are we able to fine-tune our hopes and plans for the future?
Dolores, who becomes a Long Island housewife married to a chain-smoking pharmaceutical salesman, must watch as her five children adopt lives and lifestyles quite different from what she had imagined. One daughter becomes a shock jock, another a waitress. One son becomes a cop, another a cartoonist. Much to his mother’s discomfort, the cartoonist is also missing a leg due to a terrible childhood accident. That hadn’t been part of the plan.
One day, the boy who used to live across the street and is now a journalist oversees Dolores hugging a six-year-old, dark-skinned girl named Maria--and smiling! That just does not seem like something the somber-faced Dolores Kelleher would ever do. Almost Like Praying consists of three separate stories that the curious journalist reconstructs: one about the family's Massachusetts and Long Island roots, the second about the troubled early adulthood of the eldest son, and the last which details the relationship between Dolores and Maria—and a startling revelation that emerges at the end.
“When I was growing up, one of my friends had a mother who to me seemed humorless and severe,” Samberg says. “I always wondered about her. She became Dolores. Also, whenever my family drove through the Bronx, I’d look at the ramshackle apartment buildings and wonder how the kids who lived there would fare in my own middle-class neighborhood. One of them became Maria. Almost Like Praying came out of these combined recollections.”
In addition to published books, Samberg has written for dozens of magazine, including Connecticut Magazine, Pittsburgh Magazine, Moment Magazine and others. His 2019 novel, Blowin' in the Wind, features the journalist who, as a boy, grew up across the street from the family in Almost Like Praying.
To reach the author, contact JoeltheWriter@comcast.net. To reach the publisher, contact sales@blackrosewriting.com.
Publisher: Black Rose Writing (Blackrosewriting.com), Release Date: April 26, 2022
ISBN 978-1-68433-936-5
Available from Amazon.com, Black Rose Writing, and other online booksellers.
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Article in the Long Island Herald about Joel Samberg's compulsion to write. Click here. _____________________________________
Interview on "The Jim Masters Show." Click
here.
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Interview with the author
Dr. Gibbs Williams, Ph.D., is a noted psychoanalyst in Manhattan with fifty years of expertise in issues of individual identity, isolation, self-esteem, anxiety, anger, substance abuse, mental health, and others. He has written a number of original papers and several books, including Demystifying Meaningful Coincidences and Attitude Shifting. His broad base of knowledge in the field, along with his work on behalf of many patients over the years, makes him a particularly viable choice to interview the author of Almost Like Praying because of one of the book's main characters, who emotional makeup has roots in some of the areas central to Dr. Williams' work.
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Dr. Gibbs Williams | | Joel Samberg |
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Gibbs Williams: How did the story at the heart of Almost Like Praying make its way into your head--particularly the characters of Dolores and Maria, both of whom drive a major portion of the narrative?Joel Samberg: First, when I was growing up, one of my friends on the block had a mother who to me seemed humorless and severe. I always wondered about her. Why was she so icy? I mean, she wasn't a bad-looking woman, from what I recall. Trim. Well-attired. Pleasant to look at. But she had a hard-as-nails façade that could make any kid want to run away. Well, she became Dolores Kelleher in Almost Like Praying, who has five interesting children, but plenty of secrets and disappointments. Secondly, whenever my family drove through the Bronx from our home on Long Island, I’d look at the dilapidated apartment buildings and wonder how the kids who lived there would fare in my own middle-class neighborhood. One of them became Maria. Almost Like Praying, which is to a great extent about the relationship between Dolores and Maria, came out of these two combined recollections.
GW: In all honesty, there was one aspect of the novel that touched a little too close to home for me, in terms of emotional memories, which made it a little challenging to grow entirely comfortable with the book here and there. Does that surprise you?
JS: Well, if I may steal your first three words from that question, in all honesty, it thrills me. It's a genuine confirmation that the characters in Almost Like Praying will be as real as real-life people to readers, and that the things they go through are as real as real-life family situations. But I must note that you said "here and there," which I'll take to mean that the number of uncomfortable parts paled compared to the number of comfortable parts. Or, to put it another way, whatever hit too close to home for you wasn't nearly enough to make you stop reading.
GW: True enough. I certainly did want to see where it all was heading. After all, I'm a psychologist, and the complexity of Dolores's persona was something that intrigued me. She ends up being a perfect example of how we all have the power to shift our attitudes by facing our challenges, instead of running away from them. She's also an example of how we often create our own destinies in a way--that not everything is luck and chance, but manifestations of who we are. I've actually written books on both of those subjects.
JS: What that says to me, Dr. Williams, is that it's entirely possible to create fictional characters that speak to actual psychologies simply by being honest in our depictions. Sure, there's some literary flourishes and dramatic license, but my goal is always to make both the flourishes and the licenses seamless. So, thank you for that.
GW: You're welcome. Speaking of which, the story here is completely distinct from your previous novel, Blowin' in the Wind, and even the construction is a bit different. But there is a constancy to your style, in terms of scene progression, natural dialogue, and a few other elements. Is that something you specifically work on?
JS: One major character, Dolores's son Michael, is a skilled cartoonist. I'm not--but I'll make believe he's giving me permission to use a famous cartoon character in order to answer your question. As Popeye said, I am what I am. Whatever basic, overall style I have is something that developed decades ago. I guess it follows me from project to project, changing only to achieve a specific effect or support a distinctive idea. By the way, the characters in Blowin' in the Wind live across the street from the Kelleher family in Almost Like Praying, and two of those people actually make appearances in the new novel. So although both books are very different, there's an inherent relationship between them because of shared friends and being members of the same small Long Island community.
GW: To my way of thinking, Joel, the title has multiple meanings, such as truth being almost like praying, hope being almost like praying, and two central characters having met in a play in which a song lyric is "almost like praying." Am I correct in my assertion?
JS: Spot on, Dr. Williams. Two main characters in Almost Like Praying, Dolores's son Doug, and Maria's mother, whose name is also Maria, meet and fall in love during a community theater production of West Side Story, and that relationships sparks a plot development that is central to the novel. When Doug sings that line from the song "Maria," he may not know it at the time, but he's enunciating a phrase that, in ways large and small, plays a part in the lives of so many people around him. And of course, the title of my previous novel was also song-related, so there was a neat little tie-in there, too. And I just completed writing another novel that also has a song-related title, It's called Remember Me to Herald Square, which is a line from "Give My Regards to Broadway." But after that, I think I'll move along to a different methods of coming up with titles. I mean, I am who I am, but I can change. A little.
GW: Thank you very much, Joel
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