Review: Touching story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2014
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a non-reciprocal review.(There will be spoilers).After finishing the book, I have to say Theresa and Gino make the story for me. Peter is all right. I felt like a lot of his stuff was just there, although there is some payoff at the end.But Theresa and Gino are great characters. They feel real, and the way they handle their son's death is portrayed very well. How they treat and feel about each other is realistic, too. They feel like a couple who has been apart much of their life, and who are trying to adjust to living together. While they don't hate each other or anything, they do have some resentments over their choices. And even though they're detached from each other there is still a hint of something there.I liked when Theresa worried that Gino would get upset if she spent money on herself, and being pleasantly surprised when he seemed okay with it. Gino seemed like the type who didn't talk a lot but he still wanted to support her.There were parts that offered too many details. For example, discussions about whether to go to X restaurant or Y restaurant. I also never felt like I really knew much about their family in the afterlife. They were mostly a bunch of names for me, while I did get some impressions of the people who were still living.But overall, I found Theresa and Gino to be great, deep characters going through an incredibly hard situation. I really wanted them to be okay in the end because they both seemed like they deserved it. I liked how they could be detached, but neither was ever portrayed as being horribly wrong or something - they just made some different life choices that the other didn't agree with.For example, Gino serving in the military for so long, which kept him away from his family. On the other hand, Theresa constantly letting people mooch off of her and giving away their money. Neither was a bad person but you could understand why they would get irritated.It's a touching book. I'd recommend it for anyone who is looking for a somewhat sad story of a family dealing with the grief of a lost son.