Review: "It's a war. Everybody's crazy."
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 9, 2011
This was for me a very powerful story. I felt it evoked the WWII era extremely well and plainly shows how people carried life-long scars from this time. It was so sad to me that this woman loved so deeply for so long. At the same time, I had to wonder if things had gone differently would she still have loved this man. Time and disappointment have a way of making the past look far better than present reality. This was a woman who was unlucky in love, so the man who never had the opportunity to disappoint her had to look very good. This brings up another question of whether her marriage failed because her husband couldn't live up to a ghost or would it have failed anyway? That's what's wonderful about his story. It caused me to think and question many things, not just about this particular story, but how it carries over into so many other stories.This story is very well written--almost too well done. The author clearly keeps his distance even though the subject is his own mother, but does at the same time clearly shows how much he and his siblings loved her. I don't want to give too much away, but I found it heartbreaking that because of what his mother never knew, her deathbed wish was completely off the mark in terms of achieving her real wish. I keep asking myself how I would feel if I'd followed her wishes only to find out what her children after it had been done. The answer is I would feel just awful. Really, I find that the author went in search of knowledge of this man and the relationship that develops between his children and the author and his siblings just a bit creepy, though it was insightful to know how this relationship had directly impacted the man's children. For me, it would all just be too much to want to know. Inquiring minds want to know, however, and all of it together makes a very interesting, heartfelt, even educational story. Who knew it could be so easy to find out so much about a person knowing only a first name, a first initial of a last name and the state they originally lived in? Who knew the letter Z would have such significance? I'm so glad that there are people who can do such amazing things with so little to go on!I highly commend the author for telling this story. I don't think I could have written about it, but I'm glad the author did. There are likely to be literally thousands, if not millions, of stories like this one. WWII was a crazy time and people threw themselves into love unlike they'd never done before, tossing off conventions like mad. This is a story that is certain to resonate with Boomers, who wonder what secrets their parents have or may have carried from this era. Overall, great story.