Good Afternoon Book Club Babes:
Our meeting today was a
great one, in spite of getting off to a rough start! First off, the Pinery
Club was being cleaned so it was closed down and we had to scramble and make a
mad dash to Panera's. Secondly, we were somewhat small in number (only 7 of
us), thirdly, a few of the already small group had yet to finish the
book........HOWEVER, I'm quite sure a record was set today anyway. Out of the seven people that gave it a rating
(Val, I am counting yours even though you were not in attendance) four of us
gave it a 5! The lowest score was a 3 and those who have yet to finish it plan
on emailing me their revised score upon completion of the book. Pat and Bonnie
Jean, I'm talking to you!
The first thing we established is that, had I been in the raft, I SO would
have eaten all the chocolate and once it was gone I would have then exclaimed
that, "we're all gonna die!!!" Cindy assured me though, that, unlike Phil and
Louie, she would have been prompt in throwing me overboard and fed me to the
sharks....
Seriously, though, what an amazing story. We were all humbled and awed by
Louie's strength, faith, hope, fortitude, and perhaps most of all, the endurance
that would eventually be required of him, in order to survive his ordeal. One
of the questions for the book was, Was Louie a Hero and what does Heroism mean
to you? It was a great question and we discussed it at length, concluding that
he absolutely was a Hero. He wasn't a hero based on the fact that he survived,
but what he did for those around him while they were all suffering as
POW's.
The struggle then continues for Louie and all WWII veterans upon coming
home after the war and then trying to have a "normal" life. Obviously, many of
these men and, without question, Louie, suffered from what we now call, P.T.S.D.
but back then was not known, and therefore, not treated. We were all so happy
that in the end he was able to find true inner peace, happiness, and God bless
his wife for hanging in there with him and helping him along the way. We also
had tremendous respect and appreciation for his family, who, never once gave him
up for dead which speaks volumes to the strong bond the family had.
So, some of the criticism, as far as the writing is concerned, was that the
first half of the book was somewhat long, drawn out, and a little repetitive.
However, those of us that read this book to the end really felt that all of
that detail laid the ground work for us to have a perfect understanding of who
Louie was as an individual, and how he would eventually need to draw on many of
those childhood experiences. For example, while imprisoned, in order to survive
he was able to steal and endure bullying. Also, his running/olympic experiences
gave him the ability to have such a tremendous focus, not to mention, the
amazing physical shape he was in at the time of his crash, no doubt, also played
a large part in his survival. Majority of us appreciated that the author was
very straight forward in her writing and really dealt with the hard, cold facts
because this story needed to be told exactly as it happened and we accepted and
appreciated that. It was definitely written in more of a jurnalistic-style,
opposed to how a fiction writer would have told the story. This brought up the
discussion of No Ordinary Time by Dorris Kerns Goodwin which, although
true, read very much like a novel and I do understand the appeal in that writing
style, which is what a couple of us where hoping for in this book.
Well, that sums up our thoughts and feelings about this book. Pretty
powerful stuff! Also, let's always remember the Veterans and the sacrifices
they made....this story was a great reminder of what they have done for
Americans.
Next month we will be reading Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin
and Pam H. will be discussion leader.
On a VERY sad note, Cindy informed us today that she and her family will be moving to Austin, TX,
in August. We have enjoyed having you in group so much and you will be missed
when your moving day comes....
Hope to see you all in February,
Kellie
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