It’s a rare reader’s experience, finding 2 books within a few weeks that are compelling, well-written and thoroughly enjoyable. For me, the sign of a good book is the excitement felt at the end of a busy day, when all that’s left is heading upstairs to comfort and wrapping myself first in the warmth of my bath, then into my quilts and my story. It’s like the characters beckon me to continue finding out their tale, I settle in, open the pages, greet them with a hearty “Good evening! I missed you!”
Such is how I’ve spent the last 2 weeks reading 2 stellar books. Neither are recent releases, neither are part of my incessant lists, one was recommended and leant by a dear friend after discussing our favourites over a Montreal dinner, the other discovered on the shelves of my local library. All the sweeter to have come upon them so haphazardly.
Gone to Soldiers, by Marg Piercy, (a new author for me), is the 800-page tale of 12 or so characters set in WW2 France, Germany and the US. I never read war stories, or stories that have violence and gore in them, literary descriptions of pain and evil distasteful to me, and reminding me too much of the waste that is our current TV rosters. I opened it with trepidation, and following my usual ritual, read the back cover, study the front cover, read the Library of Congress info, the dedications, the thanks, the reviews. This approach to my reading gives me context and flavour for the world I am about to embark into. I then come upon an index of character descriptions, my roadmap to who will unfold and find that the book is structured chapter-by-chapter according to character. So I am faced with a decision – following the author’s progression or reading each character’s story by skipping all of the in-between chapters about the others. Hmmmm.
Ms. Piercy is a prolific author, well-awarded, well cited. By Chapter 2, and the second character, I am hooked. Gone to Soldiers tells the tale of the French Resistance, the Nazis, the camps, the spiriting of Jewish children through the Pyrenees to safety, the times of love, of hate, of war, of the human spirit. The massive government subterfuges, “cryptanalysists”, choices between life, liberty or death, the impossible situations entire nations, described through its people, faced each and every day for what seems like generations. It is a story told with heart, with detail, and is one that won’t leave me for a while.
When I finish a great book, I often spend a couple of nights reading newspapers or magazines, unwilling to let go of the world I have just experienced. Almost like I need time to say good-bye. Silly, I know. Thus it is, knowing the end was nigh, that I visit my local library to find a selection of readings to follow Gone to Soldiers.
And it is here that I discover Jonathan Tropper. A New York author with wicked wit, The Book of Joe is an irreverent look back at adolescence and the experiences and choices made. Twice in this book, I laugh out loud, not snicker, not chortle, but a loud OMGHAHAHA escapes from me. Parts of me are on these pages! The premise being that we all are less than stellar at times in our lives, we are all balding in one way or another, that you can ‘be an asshole and still be a nice guy’, how you reach that point in your life where you can make changes, redeem yourself, close the open wounds, make amends. This book tickled me! And as Marc often comments, one of the rare times I read (and enjoy) a male author.
After my 800 page journey through WW2, this slim 300 pager was the perfect antidote, a romp, as spring comes upon us. I read this one in 2 nights! And now I really have to get some gardening done.
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