Girl with a Future - Book Review

The cover illustration of the novel, A Girl with a Future by Canadian author Parker Ames, is an intriguing, modern portrait of a young girl with a vivid personality and contemporary issues. This memoir-style fiction is a coming-of-age novel about Angie Cohen. Parker writes her story in the third person, which works great for Angie’s complicated and tragic story as a teenaged girl suffering from grief over the loss of her father to cancer. Angie also struggles with the problem of her dysfunctional mother’s inability to provide direction for her future.

During her father’s illness, Angie takes over his business as a coffee machine vender. Through it all, she is determined to attend college as a business major. Her future is all planned out but she soon discovers that providence isn’t that accommodating.. She faces multiple setbacks to her career goals and drops out of college. Along the way in her search for meaning for her future, she doesn’t recognize the self-education she is receiving. She explores many options as she confronts obstacles to her plans. She takes off to Paris, where the drama of a bar scene provides lessons in making poor decisions and self-destruction. Questionable relationships and indecision lead her to “hit bottom” emotionally several times before she can extricate herself from the party mentality and begin to mature.

Angie’s quest for direction and a purposeful life fall into predictable phases as she faces loss and despair, then opportunity and hope. As a teen, she begins journaling. Initially, her journal entries record daily activities. Later she is able to express her feelings and insecurities. The writing becomes cathartic. She writes about what she doesn’t want in life. Here she records her first goal; to own her own business

Angie’s fear of the unknown is gradually overcome as she releases fear and opens herself to possibilities. She matures through her struggles to gain purpose, accept responsibilities, and enjoy gratification. In the conclusion, Angie’s friend, Samuel, tells her, “All of us live in the past in one way or another. We have these experiences that shape us and change us and then everything that happens after that is reflective of that past.”

Angie’s father’s words: “Work hard. Be smart. Do your best. Don’t quit. And enjoy yourself” could be a motto for all young adults searching for a purposeful life. Although Angie’s exploits may not be typical, the novel’s plot explores the indecision, heartache, and hope many young people face.

A great coming of age novel about the path of a young woman finding her individual identity, learning her own priorities and what she needs in life to be happy.  A Girl with a Future is a novel that reflects on both how easy it is to internalize negative forces, and how powerful a woman can become by resisting them.