Overview
In January of 1946, the author and six other French North African war brides of American GIs left their homeland aboard a liberty ship to America abandoning everything familiar. The author was forced to leave behind her only son.Half-way across the Atlantic after surving a terrible storm, the war brides wrote their hpes and dreams on notes stuffed into an empty Cognac bottle and tossed into the sea. Just as the bottle was never discovered, neither were most of their hopes and dreams ever realized.
This compelling story gives us an inside look at life and hardships encountered by many of the estimated ONE MILLION foreign women coming to America after surviving a tragic war. It displays the amazing strength and courage they possesed to survive.
Monette Goetinck exemplifies Faulkner's assertion that survival is not enough, that we all survive, that the important thing is to endure and to prevail. The destinies of the seven war brides, as chronicled by Goetinck in a fluid prose, measure the vast space between the ephemerality of dreams and the realities of life, and make for an enthralling read.
Barbara Kraft—Public Relations ExecutiveGoetinck's colorful writing creates such a vivid picture I felt I was right with the war brides sharing all their dreams and fears and feeling all their tremendous courage. The story was so compelling I found it difficult to put the book down.
Jackie Bly—Tax ConsultantBottled Dreams is written in a most compelling and insightful manner. You are drawn into living each moment as though you are there, and the impact of the drama as it unfolds is mesmerizing. Written with passion and a deep understanding of the human condition.
Mel Bly—Former President Warner Bros. MusicMonette Goetinck has given us a story few women could, the story of seven French North African war brides and their sojourn to the United States. Her characters are vivid and believable, her scenes are well-drawn, and she writes with soul.
Sara Underwood—Canadian author