Human Struggles and Rose Colored Glasses

"...I think I love you, Cal."
"I'm not good."
"Because you're not good."...

This was perhaps my favorite part of the book. The entire story was wonderful. This little part between Abra and Cal made me feel that it was love in its purest form. Abra loves Cal for who he his, not who he could be. It also shows that Cal is human, and we see that a lot throughout the book. He struggles with the ugly side of himself, the side he doesn't like. He hates that he's mean, but he can't help it. He wants to be good and loved like his brother, but he's not.

Cal's demeanor initially made me think he was a bit of a brat. He probably was, but he looked at the world and saw it. Aron looked at the world through rose colored glasses that shattered when he found the truth out about his mother. He got a swift kick in the pants of reality and hated it, so he joined the army. He followed Adam's footsteps in his demeanor toward Abra. Instead of seeing her, he put her on a pedestal and created an image of who she was rather than seeing who she actually was.

I came out of this book liking Cal more than I liked Aron. I felt like Aron was trying to hide behind an image that he had created of his mother and refused to allow anyone to let that be destroyed. In anger, Cal destroyed that image and walks away feeling incredibly guilty for causing his brother to join the Army. Aron had this child like attitude that just never seemed to leave.

One of the best scenes in my opinion is the moment when Adam really sees Cal and they have a heart to heart moment. In that moment it seems like Adam is going against the attitude his own father had toward him, but that was backpedaled on quickly when he essentially did the same thing to Aron that his father did to him. He refused to see that Aron wasn't happy about college and wanted to do something else.

Lee is an awesome character. When he left to go start his own bookstore, I was sulking because I didn't want him to leave. Thankfully, he came back a page and a half later! :-D Samuel was also an amazing character. His insight to life was amazing. In his last moments with Adam he forced Adam to know the truth of his wife and it brought Adam out of a 10 year funk. It made me sad to see him die, but I think his wisdom added on to Lee's own wisdom whenever he needed to step in.

Katie, you chose an amazing book! :-) I really enjoyed it and I can see why it's one of your favorites! Fantastic job!