Official Review: The Sense of It by Linda DeGree
Posted: 23 Jul 2020, 10:36
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Sense of It" by Linda DeGree.]
The Sense of It: Living for Peace, by Linda DeGree, is a gentle, coming-of-age book consisting of personal letters to and from Marjorie (Margie) Jean Mensen. The letters and original poetry begin when Margie is a senior in high school and continue into her early teaching career in the 1970's in central Iowa.
Even central Iowa was touched by the Vietnam War, when it was raging during the 60's and 70's. Many young men were drafted and sent across the world to a war they knew very little about. As our story begins, Margie's brother, James, has just quit school and gets drafted into the army. James decides to disappear because he feels that killing another person is against his religion. Margie writes to James and tries to dissuade him from that decision. What ensues is a series of letters between the two, in which Margie does some serious thinking about what James is doing as a conscientious objector. This is one of the major themes of the book. As the book goes on, Margie reveals many private thoughts about life in general. Other themes discussed are love, friendship, and reaching maturity. The story continues into Margie's college days, a summer as a UNICEF intern in New York City, and her search for a teaching job.
My life in many ways paralleled Margie's. I also graduated from a small high school in Iowa in 1970. I went on to a small college and received a teaching degree, and like Margie, I was also unable to find a teaching job for the first year. I also had an older brother who was drafted for the Vietnam War. This is where our similarities end, because my brother did go to Vietnam for several years. I know all about life in the midwest, Iowa in particular, during that era. In fact I have been to many of the places mentioned in the book. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.
The thing that I disliked the most about this book was its rather disorganized state. In some places the letters were actually out of order. There was a considerable amount of repetition among the different letters, where Margie tells her friends the same stories over and over. This style seemed too disjointed and redundant to me. There were also numerous grammatical errors, as well as missing or misplaced words, which were a distraction to me as I read.
All in all, The Sense of It by Linda DeGree was an enjoyable book for me to read. I enjoyed the historical aspect, as well as the way that it mirrored my life in so many ways. However, its disorganization and many errors detracted from my enjoyment somewhat, so I will only give it 2 out of 4 stars. A professional editor could really improve this book. If you enjoy historical fiction about the Vietnam War time period, you might want to give it a try.
******
The Sense of It
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Sense of It: Living for Peace, by Linda DeGree, is a gentle, coming-of-age book consisting of personal letters to and from Marjorie (Margie) Jean Mensen. The letters and original poetry begin when Margie is a senior in high school and continue into her early teaching career in the 1970's in central Iowa.
Even central Iowa was touched by the Vietnam War, when it was raging during the 60's and 70's. Many young men were drafted and sent across the world to a war they knew very little about. As our story begins, Margie's brother, James, has just quit school and gets drafted into the army. James decides to disappear because he feels that killing another person is against his religion. Margie writes to James and tries to dissuade him from that decision. What ensues is a series of letters between the two, in which Margie does some serious thinking about what James is doing as a conscientious objector. This is one of the major themes of the book. As the book goes on, Margie reveals many private thoughts about life in general. Other themes discussed are love, friendship, and reaching maturity. The story continues into Margie's college days, a summer as a UNICEF intern in New York City, and her search for a teaching job.
My life in many ways paralleled Margie's. I also graduated from a small high school in Iowa in 1970. I went on to a small college and received a teaching degree, and like Margie, I was also unable to find a teaching job for the first year. I also had an older brother who was drafted for the Vietnam War. This is where our similarities end, because my brother did go to Vietnam for several years. I know all about life in the midwest, Iowa in particular, during that era. In fact I have been to many of the places mentioned in the book. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.
The thing that I disliked the most about this book was its rather disorganized state. In some places the letters were actually out of order. There was a considerable amount of repetition among the different letters, where Margie tells her friends the same stories over and over. This style seemed too disjointed and redundant to me. There were also numerous grammatical errors, as well as missing or misplaced words, which were a distraction to me as I read.
All in all, The Sense of It by Linda DeGree was an enjoyable book for me to read. I enjoyed the historical aspect, as well as the way that it mirrored my life in so many ways. However, its disorganization and many errors detracted from my enjoyment somewhat, so I will only give it 2 out of 4 stars. A professional editor could really improve this book. If you enjoy historical fiction about the Vietnam War time period, you might want to give it a try.
******
The Sense of It
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon