A Heartwarming Tale from a 'Leave It to Beaver'-ish Era
Open Heart is a book that truly seems to be written from the heart. Anyone who grew up in or spent a lot of time in the American Southwest Desert will relate to the details such as citrus tyrees with their trunks painted white (when artificially trimmed into neat spherical-shaped canopies.) The medical terminology and casual slang (the surgery does not start at a certain time, but rather the doctor "cuts" at such and such a time) add the authenticity of someone who knows the operating room very well.
In an era when dystopian fantasies of battling empires, planets, or at the very least members of so-called royalty reign, this book calls up memories of American families in decades past. Simpler times. More innocent times in some ways, or at least they seemed that way without everyone's secrets posted on social media. It seems that adjectives such as sweet are a good fit for this book. I was torn between a three and four-star review, and I went with four because I think it is a worthwhile book which will be a relatively easy read and could surprise readers with some worthwhile life lessons. It might be easy to pass this book over as I started to with my rating only because my reading habits had also conditioned me for more shocking action, tragedy, and psychological thrills.
In an era when dystopian fantasies of battling empires, planets, or at the very least members of so-called royalty reign, this book calls up memories of American families in decades past. Simpler times. More innocent times in some ways, or at least they seemed that way without everyone's secrets posted on social media. It seems that adjectives such as sweet are a good fit for this book. I was torn between a three and four-star review, and I went with four because I think it is a worthwhile book which will be a relatively easy read and could surprise readers with some worthwhile life lessons. It might be easy to pass this book over as I started to with my rating only because my reading habits had also conditioned me for more shocking action, tragedy, and psychological thrills.