Mary and O'Neil

Rating:
Summary: An astonishing portrait of how we live
Review: Years into the future people will mistake these years (1999-2001) as only about technology, fear, rigged elections, etc. But if this book lasts (and it should), people will see that regardless the external climates of countries and politics, the drama of one's life is one's life. There are few authors writing today who so honestly handle their characters. The prose is, to use that overused term, illuminating. But it is a prose that serves only to lead the characters' direction, never to blind the reader with its wattage.

This book is so phenomenal that I bought a copy for all of my upper-division English students at the college where I teach. Since then, students have come to me of both sexes, shy and proud, to tell me how they raced through this book, ravished. The sports jocks of the class wept, the class cynic thought he'd lighten up a bit, the class beauty carried it close to her person long after finishing it.

Submit to this book and be thankful for literature.