Cherie and TJ - Keeping it real together in bio-memoir

[Cherie]

I'm not quite done. I read to page 281, which is the chapter called Kilcoyne.

His story has moved from a more factual state to much more personal and I finally can feel a connection with him. His college stories are so much more human and allow us to feel more of his person than his fear. His birthday night experience was awful, wasn't it? I can't imagine having to sit next to him for 9 hrs in the back of that van! What an amazing experience the Habitat for Humanity week was and then to hear that he took over coordinating the program the next year! Wow. His confession to Alicia was sad and his Tijuana story almost made me cry. 22 or 23 pages left for me tomorrow!

[Tejas Janet]

Yes, you're so right about the book becoming so much more compelling as he opened up and shared his story in a far more emotionally intimate way. It really casts a different light on the earlier distance that we felt before he opens up doesn't it? Like "ah ha," now I understand, and it makes perfect sense.

[Tejas Janet]

l wonder if it might have been the only way he could tell the full story?

[Cherie]

It may have been, TJ, and I am glad he did tell it - his story, I mean. Looking at the picture on the back cover of the dust jacket makes me want to meet him and shake his hand.

I'm grateful for whatever notion made me add it to my TBR list, and I'm grateful to you too, for choosing the Memoir genre and for making the connections to our TBR cross over titles and suggesting that we read this book. I'm grateful to Janice for coming up with such a unique challenge and paring us up! Who knows IF and when I might ever have gotten around to reading it without GoodReads and this YLTO group. I would have missed it.

I thought the last chapter and the Epilogue really pulled everything together to make his story and his experience so much more understandable! How amazing that the Finnish embassy would answer his email about Madam Eva and allow us to know about her and her story and actually enable Lev to go back to the house in Vienna, with the red door, and revisit that little room where they kept the children's jackets!

[Tejas Janet]

You are so eloquent, Cherie. I couldn't agree more about being grateful for GR, YLTO, and Janice for this challenge!!

[Tejas Janet]

When I read eBooks I typically highlight quotes or passages as I go along. it helps me review the book's significant events and passages. So here are a few just from the final chapters.

"The closest thing I have to a birth certificate is a copy of your newspaper from the day we stepped off the plane in West Lafayette and began our new life." What a way to try to strip a person of their rightful identity.

"We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us
to do something and to do it very well." —Prayer of Oscar Romero

[Cherie]

I thought it was interesting that his sister insisted on tearing up her exit visa after she became a US Citizen.

I remember reading and thinking about the birth certificate lines too. What do they use for Passport and Identification now though? - is what really struck me.

I thought the prayer was well said. Do something well but you cannot help everyone.

[Cherie]

I posted my report in the reporting thread. Don't forget. :0)