Reviews
Review Excerpts
Wilmington Star News (NC) – February 20, 2010
“Letter to My Daughter” is a short but gripping novel. Bishop – who earned his MFA in creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington – manages to dodge the nostalgia of the middle-aged and get back to how painful high school really was, in the ’60s or any other time: The first time your heart is broken. The first time you’re really humiliated. The first time you betray someone you love. What’s amazing is that Bishop – a sometime actor turned globetrotting teacher – is a lifelong, childless bachelor. Still, he somehow gets into a teenage girl’s head and roams around in there like a native. You believe in Laura; her voice never hits a false note.
— Ben Steelman
Lafayette (LA) Advertiser — February 14, 2010
Letter to My Daughter explores the modern relationship between parents and teens, juxtaposed with the stormy adolescence of the Baby Boomer generation. As Laura pours out her heart through writing, we learn of her early heartbreak, when her parents forced her apart from the young man she loved and the disastrous consequences that followed. That parental worry about what is best for a child, a fear that can be both protective and destructive, remains universal.
Bishop’s debut novel will tear at your heartstrings, giving an amazing insight into the difficult lessons and tribulations of adolescence, particularly among women.