What reading is all about. We all are connected in ways we'll never know. Van Booy is an extremely talented writer you have never heard of. ( )

Good SF Chronicle review. Aug 18 2013

Series of interrelated short stories about unseen connections among people. It is written in short chapters focused on one person’s experiences, rotating among five main characters. The overarching storyline is oriented around one man’s actions during WWII that ripples through the lives of many. By the end, the reader understands what has happened and how these people are connected.

This is a poignant story that had the most impact after completing and reflecting on it. It portrays the importance of the acts of a single person, even when that person’s self-perception is one of insignificance. This is a book that is best read fairly quickly, since it is difficult to recall all the connections if it is spread out over too long period of time. ( )

This book is perfectly titled, for it is a series of seemingly unconnected persons stories, ah, but they are connected in the subtlest and most profound ways. Each story is interesting in its own right and each of the characters comes to life vividly in Van Booy’s hands. There are moments of startling brilliance as well.

And as he stood there, not moving, his heart opened upon the many fields of dead, with their helmets on and their eyes pretending to see.
Love is also a violence, and cannot be undone.

I found this to be poetic and vivid imagery, and I sat and pondered that last line for some time before I could move on. I believe he was saying, in the midst of all this hatred and evil, there was also love, and its effects were indelible.

And, this, about following orders:

He did what they told him to do. He would have done anything they told him to do. He hid inside the pronoun “we”.

How many people make that excuse, then and now?

The construction of this novel is unique and marvelous, there is a sense of mystery as you begin to try to connect the carefully laid clues, there is a sense of real satisfaction as they begin to reveal themselves and the story fleshes out into the mosaic made from all the parts, that only God can see. As I am sure Van Booy wished, I closed this book wondering how I might be connected to others and never know.
( )

Ik heb zelden een boek gelezen waarbij de personages op zo ’n natuurlijke manier met elkaar verbonden worden.

In het eerste deel is de link tussen de personages heel miniem. Het contact is slechts een futiliteit binnen al wat zich in hun leven afspeelt, maar toch belangrijk genoeg om het zich nog lang te herinneren.

In het tweede deel van het boek raken de personages sterker met elkaar verbonden, maar toch blijft het veelal gaan om het toevallig elkaar even ontmoeten zonder elkaar later nog tegen te komen. Dit kort elkaar ontmoeten heeft bij sommige personages zeer verstrekkende gevolgen.

Af en toe staan er mooie rake zinnen in het boek. Bv. “’s Avonds kijkt hij meestal televisie. Dan valt hij in slaap en kijkt de televisie hem.”

Ik heb dit boek erg graag gelezen en mijn honger om snel verder te lezen was groot. ( )