The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristen Harmel

Long lost love, mysterious connections to France and Jewish holocaust victims and a family stunted by an inability to give or accept unconditional love is the recipe for success in Kristen Harmel’s The Sweetness of Forgetting.  Harmel slowly unravels the life of Mamie, the grandmother/matriarch of her family.  We learn early on that Mamie is sinking into the haze of Alzheimer’s, but she is not so far gone that she does not realize that she needs to right the wrong she has done to her family since coming to America when she was 19.  Living a lie her entire life has ruined the happiness that could have been hers.  Choosing to hide her true identity has only caused Mamie to live a half life.  Plagued by guilt, she is convinced that it is because of her failure to make her parents believe the Nazis were coming that they and all her siblings perished.  She is convinced that it is because she begged Jacob, her secret husband, to go back for her family when she made her escaped that he was taken and killed in the German camps.  And sadly, because of this hidden pain, she is convinced that she is to blame for the emotional wall that existed between her and her daughter.  So before it is too late, Mamie decides she must get her granddaughter, Hope, to go to France and find out what happened to all her relatives and especially Jacob. In a lucid moment, Mamie writes Hope a letter explaining all that she has kept hidden for 60 years.  So begins Hope’s journey to piece together her family’s history.  Through some almost unbelievable connections, Hope is able to find a long lost uncle and Mamie’s long lost soul mate, Jacob. This is a touching story where we are shown the harm that is caused when you shut yourself off from emotional connections for fear of failure or pain.  Harmel wove the story together through Mamie’s flashbacks and through the wonderful characters and their revelations and dialogues.  As a reader, the happy endings were heartwarming and uplifting.  This is a good book for book clubs.

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

Wow, wow, wow, wow and wow!!  There are few books that stop me in my tracks and cause me to really think about who I am and what I believe about the human race and our treatment of each other, but Sarah Blake’s The Guest Book did just that and more.  As a former English teacher, I often come across books that I believe would be great novels to read and discuss and write about, and Blake’s book is one in that catagory for sure.  The interesting thing about this book is that there are so many themes, so many great characters, so many social issues I would hardly know where to begin if I tried to use it in a class.  There are at least 7 characters who are deserving of in depth discussion.  These characters are so real it is easy to find yourself thinking about them long after you put the book down wondering if you are like them or how you would react to them if you met them face to face.  Likewise, there are so many social issues that beg for illumination and exam.  The rise of Nazi Germany, capitalism, racism, class distinctions, sexuality are all integrated into this story of three generations and are all handled with a deft hand by the author.  And certainly there are themes such as feminism, family dynamics, and racial inequality that are ageless and which demand discussion and reflection.  This book was not one that I would describe as an easy read.  The author spent eight years writing it and clearly it was a act of love.  I was struck many times by the way Blake interweaves three different generations within one page of writing.  Truly a magnificently drawn story.  This is the book I will recommend throughout this year.  Great read!!