Carry Me Home - Kling
Simple. True. Honest. Healing. Carry Me Home tells the story of two brothers, the one who went off to fight a war and came home a different man and the other left behind, learning all about life from the experience of it all.
The characters are simple, honest and true. The story is not unfamiliar, the ravishes of war on the heart and the home are not undisclosed topics any longer. But the way she reveals the truths about war, about life through the heart of a simple brother feel as honest and true as can be. We are not left with the sense of damage, but a faith in healing. Images of homes destroyed by the war are replaced by those who survived it, by those who overcame. The battle of returning to normalcy when nothing is normal is confronted and we're left with the sense of hope for the future. Love and life both last. Despite it all.
It's a good book, uncomplicated in its context, but one that touches the heart nontheless.
In all, I have to say that what struck me the most was the father's relationship with his mentally challenged son. Earl (Earwig) isn't severely disabled, but he's slower than most and in moments when his parents, especially a father in the 1940's might take a heavy hand or a harsh word with him, his dad just leads him gently and graciously through life. Allowing him to be exactly who he is and this, in turn, allows them all to allow their older son be exactly who and what he needs to be to sort out his war experience. It's a story about brothers, to be certain, but somewhere deeper yet is a great story about fathers, too.
The characters are simple, honest and true. The story is not unfamiliar, the ravishes of war on the heart and the home are not undisclosed topics any longer. But the way she reveals the truths about war, about life through the heart of a simple brother feel as honest and true as can be. We are not left with the sense of damage, but a faith in healing. Images of homes destroyed by the war are replaced by those who survived it, by those who overcame. The battle of returning to normalcy when nothing is normal is confronted and we're left with the sense of hope for the future. Love and life both last. Despite it all.
It's a good book, uncomplicated in its context, but one that touches the heart nontheless.
In all, I have to say that what struck me the most was the father's relationship with his mentally challenged son. Earl (Earwig) isn't severely disabled, but he's slower than most and in moments when his parents, especially a father in the 1940's might take a heavy hand or a harsh word with him, his dad just leads him gently and graciously through life. Allowing him to be exactly who he is and this, in turn, allows them all to allow their older son be exactly who and what he needs to be to sort out his war experience. It's a story about brothers, to be certain, but somewhere deeper yet is a great story about fathers, too.
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