GOD IS EXPENSIVE

Author Frances Kogen spent the final 20 years of her life writing a novel about her mother--a story they were both too afraid to share in their lifetimes. Frances passed away in December 2011 of pancreatic cancer, but her talent and legacy live on in her book, "God is Expensive," a manuscript which her family discovered only after she died. "God is Expensive" is a work of historical fiction. The time period is 1890 to 1932, but the ingredients of her story are of the moment: racism, feminism, stock market corruption, murder, and poverty. The story follows Mara Ney (real life: Miriam Vey) , an adventurous child from an outport fishing village in Newfoundland. She moves to China to become a Christian missionary. There she meets and marries a Chinese man and has his child. Due to bigotry and backlash, her sponsors retract their support, and she is forced to send her son away to live with family in Canada as she starts anew, single, in California. She soon marries her second husband Frank Keaton, with whom she has two more children. Several significant events in world history are featured throughout the novel: The Boxer Rebellion, Black Friday, and The Great Depression--in which her family loses everything and blames it on one man. In front of a judge and jury in open court, Frank Keaton shoots Motley Flint, the Bernie Madoff of the 1920's. Mara is left with two little girls and an overwhelming shame. "God Is Expensive" was written as a novel to honor Miriam's vow to God not to speak of the experience. The Los Angeles Times once named Miriam Vey the "most unfortunate woman in the US." This is her story.