Just finished watching this. Anaheim in June is going to be some fun.

I don’t expect a work of historical fiction to be anything but one-sided, especially a work that is highly personal like this one. Some authors will work in a variety of viewpoints and make it clear that a situation is more complex than one generally thinks, but that’s usually someone writing about a subject that is highly familiar to the reader, such as Nazi-occupied Europe or the Salem Witch Trials. Even so, how many books do we have about Resistance-type heroes during WWII, and evil collaborators? But how many about regular people who had to make some difficult choices that led to them being called collaborators, or to them fighting for the Nazis?

I agree about the characters being, basically, caricatures, but I thought that was intentional–it fits seamlessly with the illustrations. The not-quite-real feeling to the characters is part of what makes the book feel otherworldly to me, as mentioned above.

The book On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (highly recommended acc’t on the price of war) does mention the spitting on pgs. 278-280 (paperback ed). Also the book Homecoming by Bob Greene, a compilation of letters, shows both good and bad about the vets’ return in their own words. It did happen.

As for how this relates to Gary’s book, well, there’s no question that there are a few scenes I would change. Personally, I would include a scene where Ernie Eco is running up the road with a snarling dog attached to his rear. But I can’t hate the whole book because he left that one thing out.

Anyway, I don’t want to derail the conversation, so if you want to continue the spit/no spit discussion, holler at me on my blog at rosefiend.livejournal.com, or at some other virtual place if you prefer.

Thanks!

Since it sounds like many here have yet to read this one I won’t spoil it with any story specific criticism yet but I would love to hear from someone who found this distinguished.

A little sad Amelia Lost got no recognition, but hopefully all the discussion it got gives it some name recognition for being used in schools and public libraries in the future.

Katrina – I’ve no doubt that the majority of protesters, and particularly the well-organized ones, supported disabled vets. But as a child in California at the time, I remember all too clearly how horrific the attitudes could be on both sides of the fight, and how disorganized some of the protests were. Mob mentality is not fun to witness. Scenes like that happened. Most protest movements are like that – so many good people doing the right thing, and then a few who get too caught up in their own views.