Steven Wright - “I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where’s the self-help section?' She said if she told me it would defeat the purpose.”

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Hard to Follow

Right now things are so busy for me that I am only able to read in the spare few minutes I can create for myself here and there. Usually, I am embarrassed to admit, this time comes in the bathroom...either in the tub or while taking care of other business. LOL Anyway, I am in the process of reading Secret Father by James Carroll. I am 75 pages into it and am still trying to form an opinion. The plot is certainly intriguing, but I AM finding it a little hard to follow in places. It is difficult at times to determine which character is "speaking." Below is an excerpt from the book jacket. If it sounds interesting to you, grab a copy and read it with me! Anyone is welcome to join this blog!

"It is 1961. Khrushchev is hurling threats, a US spy plane has been shot down over the Soviet Union, tensions are rising, Berlin has been cut off from the West: it's only a matter of weeks before the wall will be erected. The United States and Americans abroad face dangers they had never imagined. ------ Three teenagers from an American school in West Germany travel to Berlin to join a May Day rally on the Communist side of the divided city. Propelled by naive ideals and in rebellion against preordained futures, they stumble into the center of an international incident. Paul, the father of one boy, and Charlotte, the mother of another, set off to rescue their children from the East German Stasi, which has detained them. Over the course of a weekend, Paul and Charlotte struggle with personal secrets, growing passion, and the weight of a generation that survived World War II only to face the loss of its children to the engulfing paranoia of the Cold War."