Which character’s life and choices do you relate to the most? Which has stuck with you after finishing the book?
I related in some ways to the female characters, but my life really hasn’t resembled any of the characters’ to the point that I fully relate to them. I did appreciate and understand how Eddie achieved a place of acceptance and peace in his own life, and felt the ending was perfect. “Poor Ivan. Whatever form he was in now, wherever he was.” We should all be as generous in spirit as Eddie came to be toward Ivan.
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I related to the era, but I didn’t really relate much to any of the characters. The author drew me in enough though that the characters, each in their own way, all stuck with me a little after finishing the book.
I loved the character of Eddie - his gregarious, generous self was someone I would very much like to know. None of the other characters resonated with me at the same level - not even close. I enjoyed reading the chapters about them, but will not remember them and would not like to know them.
I didn’t truly identify with any of the characters, but like Judith V, I fell in love with Eddie as I watched him grow and redeem himself and have such a generous heart. (I’m not sure I would/could ever forgive Ivan. Eddie is probably a more evolved human than I am.) He was the most human (and humane) character and the one we got to know the most, and though we cycled through all those characters, to me this was Eddie’s book and he was the protagonist.
Eddie never forgot about Ivan but he managed to pull his life together. He adopted a more positive outlook on life. He was always perplexed about Ivan’s disappearance but over the course of his life he wished him well.
I thought Cara and Astrid’s stories were most interesting. They were both on the sidelines but the event stayed with each of them in different ways throughout their life. Often times we don’t have awareness of the sideline characters so it was interesting to see how they played out in this story.
I am glad to see I am not the only one who could not relate to any of these characters. I enjoyed Astrid and Cara’s stories and they would probably be the ones I would remember most.