Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a poem, if you can handle it.
Review: The first part of the book is the easiest to read, and really the most enjoyable, but the rest does leave you with alot to think about in a well done manner. This book is not meant to be a page turning thriller, but to read more like a poem, where one has to take the time to stop, re-read, go back, and ponder, and if a reader can handle through this style of reading, instead of expecting to go simply from point A to point Z without pause it is a great book. Contrary to most of the other reviews I found the middle third interesting once I got into it. Judith's diaries did not seem long at all. I thought they very consicley chronicled her time at Hayden, and her feelings toward everyone in her life. Cooley does an excellent job of staying concise yet fleshed out. She also does a very good job dealing with the big and small issues, WWII, The Holocaust, as well as in individual relationships of the characters and not making it seem pretentous. I disagree with those who say that the parallels were to distant and made too obvious. In life no parallel is total, just emotionally valuable. Matthias realizes this, and learns, and transforms from these parallels, though I felt this was more because the writer felt forced to adhere to the formula of an ending transformation for the protagonist, than because it fit the character. Matthias seemed like much too smart a man to act so frivilously and on the spot. The one problem I had with the book was the idea that Matthias has read the Emily Hale letters. Not that this is implausable, given his position, but so much is based on their content that at the end of the book I was left thinking "but wait, they really are sealed up till 2020, the author is making this up." This left me pretty deflated since most of the revelations the characters make seem focused on the fact that Eliot has revealed in those letters a lot about his conversion to Christianity, and his his relationship with his wife. For all we know he could have mailed Hale something as random as the phone book. For me this really took alot of the life out of characters that otherwise would have felt as real as the people next door. It is possible to write a book on history not yet discovered, look at books on the Holy Grail, etc. Cooley just doesn't do a good job of it. Next time I hope Cooley can find something more concrete to base all her characters actions on.
Rating:
Summary: incisive dialogue
Review: The strenght of this novel is its true-to-life dialogue. If you like to suck on the marrow of insight, you will enjoy this book.
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