Robert Krantz, author of the semi-autographical Falling In Love With Sophia, knows how to tell a humorous and sweet tale. This story, about a childhood love that is rekindled years later, is funny, inspiring, and an enjoyable read. Interwoven stories add depth to this novel, as the hero of the story struggles with various issues.
Falling In Love With Sophia reminds the reader of the light-heartedness and family humor of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, while layered with some deeper moments. The main character, Micheal, was a successful lawyer whose life fell apart after losing a big case. As a result, he lost his job, home, fiance, everything that mattered to him. We find him years later still picking up the pieces, trying to reconnect with his estranged family and his love of the law, and we watch events unfold as fate shows the hand it played in his life, and the meaning of all these events that led up to where he is now.
Peppered throughout the book are "Lessons from Church Camp" and funny grandma anecdotes. Author Robert Krantz shares the backstory of his career leading up to "Falling in Love With Sophia":
I was a teenager attending church camp when I felt God was telling me to be involved in the entertainment business. It seemed strange to me because my family was Greek. In a Greek family, if you said you wanted to be in the movie business, it was like saying you had discovered a new and improved way to go to the moon. Everyone just stared at you like you were nuts. A few years later, I headed off to Arizona State as a pre-law major, but as fate would have it, during my junior year a movie was being filmed near our campus that I ended up working on. It seemed like my destiny was calling me again. That winter, I transferred into USC’s film program.
It was a miracle that I got it in that school, and I’m not being modest here. I knew nothing. In the first week, everyone was talking about the first student film they were making. The teachers asked if anyone had questions. I raised my hand and told them I didn’t know how to focus my camera. The students roared, but the teachers were awesome and worked with me to no end.
After I graduated from USC’s film school program, I acted in different tv shows, mini-series, movies of the week and theatrical movies. I also sold several screenplays and was grateful that I was able to be involved, but it wasn’t really fulfilling. I felt like I had more to say. So, right as I got married, I decided to write, act and produce a movie that I really cared about called, “Do You Wanna Dance?” We scraped together the money, made the movie, and it turned out great! We were getting really emotional responses from people who saw it at the screenings.
We scheduled a screening for the studios in the film business to consider purchasing it. On the night of that screening, fate intervened: during the screening, the light bulb in the projector started to dim and the sound on our movie began to warble and go in and out. It made the movie sound awful and unprofessional. No one bought the film. It was devastating. Within weeks it seemed that whatever chances I had of selling the movie were gone and almost everyone kept telling me to move on with my life and try another profession. It was one of the hardest times of my life. I felt like I had talent for what I was doing, but everything seemed to being going against me.
One day, I got on my knees and told God that I was exhausted and couldn’t go on pursuing this career anymore. There was one last distributor that was looking at the film. I told God if they passed, I would take that as a sign from Him to move on with my life. I also added some stuff about being angry, disillusioned, and bitter… I was pretty upset. Well, the company that was looking at the film ended up buying the foreign rights to it. That enabled me to show the movie in a couple of theaters in Chicago. We would get standing ovations at the end of the screenings.
We began to sell the copies of the movie literally out of my garage. That’s when I decided to start my company, Ellinas Multimedia. I began to travel the country promoting the movie. One day when I came home, my wife told me she was pregnant. It had taken us several years to get pregnant and we’d lost a bit of hope. Well, 35 weeks, and a whole lot of prayers later, my wife and I had triplet boys. For the next 10 years, I gave everything I had to my children. I was there for every diaper change, doctor visit, basketball game, teacher conference… I didn’t want to miss a minute. My company continued to grow and we diversified into other products. But, that voice of destiny still remained with me. I felt like I still had a purpose and something to say. I began to write about family, about love, about children, and about marriage. This was the beginning of “Falling in Love with Sophia”. I did this night after night until I had finished the screenplay. I tried for a long time to raise money to make it into a movie, but I wasn’t able to get all the money together. One day my wife said, “You should make it into a book.” I spent the next year working on the book. When it was done, I gave out copies to everyone I knew and some people I didn’t know. The response was strong. I think this book has a destiny to it. I believe it has the possibility of touching many people’s lives.
Author Robert Krantz previously wrote and starred in "Do You Wanna Dance?" and owns Ellinas Multimedia, an online resource of great Hellenic wares and tasty treats. He is the father of triplets along with his wife, the inspiration for "Falling in Love with Sophia". For a very limited time, he is offering a 50% discount on his book (one week) with code: PENELOPE.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book at no charge for this review.
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