They say, before you can truly love someone, you must first be able to love yourself… The same can be said of other things as well, such as forgiveness, acceptance, and respect. But owning up to yourself isn’t always easy, especially when your past is flecked with what you consider unthinkable things. “Lara’s Shadow” by Alan Fleishman is a riveting story about two unlikely lovers trying to overcome the unthinkable things from their pasts so they can enjoy a future together. Set primarily in 1963, not even two decades after WWII, the story follows American-raised US Army Lieutenant Eli Schneider as he serves in Germany and falls hopelessly and helplessly in love with plain-Jane German shop girl Lara Kohler. The problem? Eli is Jewish, and he hates Germans—and, given his family history and the temporal setting of the book, he has pretty good reason to hate them. And, so it is that “Lara’s Shadow” focuses on Eli’s struggle to rise above his tightly held beliefs, hatred, and prejudice and find peace with a people, to forgive the majority for what a minority did and fully embrace one woman despite what may or may not “run in her blood.” But, alas, Eli is not the only one with dark issues he must face—Lara, too, has tightly held beliefs, and plenty of secrets, that are holding her back from loving, forgiving, accepting, and respecting herself and those around her, including Eli.
“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.
“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.
Four Stars