REVIEW

6 a : a critical evaluation (as of a book or play)

I don't think I've ever posted one of my Goodreads reviews to my blog, but I finished a book last night that deserves a blog post of its own.  Just in case there are any friends out there who read this blog, but aren't on Goodreads, here you go:

All Clear by Connie Willis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Right off the bat, a few things to indicate how highly I think of this book:


1) I am a master of delaying gratification when it comes to finishing a book, yet I stayed up an hour an a half past when I was tired last night to finish this book.

2) I cried so much during the last 100 pages that I had to switch from regular tissue to the lotion kind because my nose was sore.

3) I gave it five stars, which I do not do lightly.



I loved this book even more than its companion Blackout. Blackout was a great book as well and it roused emotion while also engaging my mind. But in Blackout my favorite characters were the Londoners surviving the Blitz. In All Clear, I fell head over heels in love with the historians who were trapped in 1940s London more than a century before their birth. There's Polly, who traveled twice to WWII England, once as a medic, then as a shop girl. There's Eileen whose first assignment ever leaves her stranded in England after a period of nursing evacuated London children. There's Mike, who came to the 1940s to observe heroism and ended up a hero himself. I came to love them all. A book with great characters often equals a great book for me.


But All Clear has even more because it can be read as one of the most beautiful metaphors I've ever encountered for how God stands outside the bounds of space and time, yet inserts himself into our lives because he loves us so much. I have no idea what Willis' faith is or isn't, but truth rings true no matter. And this book contains truths about what things in life are worth sacrificing for. Truths about whether life is a comedy or a tragedy. Truths about what friendship is and how it shapes us. Truths about how far love will go to rescue.


So should you read All Clear? Yes, yes, yes. Read Blackout first, but I don't have the words to convey how good I think this book is. Read it and see for yourself.



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