“Lara’s Shadow” explores the intermingling of many different extremes—love and hate; past and present; nature versus nurture; and obligation versus deliberate choice. It also tackles topics like shame, family relationships, honesty, ignorance, and truth. Indeed, “Lara’s Shadow” is quite ambitious as far as the issues it concerns; but, as ambitious as it is, it is also insightful, and, to each of these topics and intermingling of extremes, it brings fresh insight, familiar adages, and a story that’s well worth the read. That said, for me, the book did raise some concerns.
I’m not sure who Fleishman’s intended audience is, but his use of military terms, slang, and rank sometimes confounded me and detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story. Granted, I understand the book is set during a tumultuous, controversy-ridden time in in history, but, nonetheless, it is predominately a story about love, forgiveness, and redemption, some of which is lost in technical talk. Also, the story was a little unbelievable (as in, hard to believe) at times. In particular, Lara was afflicted with so many troublesome secrets, from start to end, that it all seemed a bit implausible—and, the ending, itself, seemed too expected, though unlikely, for my liking.