In Closing- Gone for Good

Well overall, I enjoyed reading this book... it was my kind of book.... the only part I did not like was the Sheila/Norah.... I agree with Florit... it was just unbelievable... I like believing that the events that take place have a ring of truth to them.... that was just a bit much for me.

It has been great blogging.... I feel like I am part of the 21st century... we must do it again... next time someone else can run the blog discussions.... see ya.... have a great school year!

Julie/Katy

Hi... okay... we don't know alot about Julie, but I gather that Julie was basically a typical teenager. She also seemed to have a " connection" with John Asselta a.k.a the ghost. It seems that she got turned around by Sheila Rogers when she went to college. I don't quite understand why she never told Will that she was pregnant... maybe she knew how "non-committal" he was and she figured why bother...on the other hand... maybe she was embarrassed about the whole thing....I could not figure that part out.

Katy... now can you imagine growing up looking just like your sister... that reminded me of Nicole Simpson and her sister( can't remember her name) but she looks just like Nicole with darker hair, so that is how I imagine Katy... she looks just like her sister. That must be a bummer to walk around and your parents have difficulty looking at you. Anyways... she had "hutzpa" I mean, she knew all along that Ken had killed her sister, and she was just trying to get to him somehow. The only thing that I did not understand was, the fight that took place in Will's apartment... I still do not know if that was really staged. The author made her character really tough for 18. I mean she took a hell of a beating even if it was staged!!!

Squares/Wanda

Okay... before I actually found out who Squares really was ( background ) I felt he was the most "real" character in the book. I mean... he seemed to MAKE Will face reality. BUUUUT as I continued to read, this character has some really deep character flaws! I mean who doesn't, but I found his to be paradoxical even oxymoronic!!! He was a skin head... Nazi sympathizer... I presume in his youth... I have no idea... how he turned into this "Yoga" Guru...( I stopped at this point to go back and see if the author clued us in on the transformation) I know that he became popular after some celebrity "discovered" him from his squares workout, so I guess his celebrity status was serendipitous... but at times I thought that maybe he was working for the FBI- he was a very mysterious character... lots of blank spaces. Even with all of his "realness" he still had demons that he had difficulty facing. I mean he wanted Will to face reality, but he was not real good at it for his own life and situation. He seemed to connect with the street kids even better than Will... he knew how to "hook" them.... Will did not seem to be savvy on the street. Squares fit right in.... so I am concluding that he was probably very much like the street people... Will did not come from the street.

When he found out that Wanda was pregnant... I was not sure if he did not want the child because it would be mixed... or b/c he did not want a child with a black woman... you know... some people are okay with black people and white people together BUT they DO NOT want them to procreate!!! So... I was not sure what his reasoning was... maybe he felt he would not be a good father because he did not have a good example or an example at all.

I am sure that Wanda knew about his background(I hope ) ... I totally sympathized with her reasons for wanting to have the baby... as far as she knew she could not have any children. What a surprise...I just don't know if she should have left the decision up to Squares as to whether or not to keep it.... I mean... if you never thought you could have a baby and now you are pregnant... this is probably your last chance... but maybe she was just too fragile to not have Squares support. What I wonder is how you have a baby under these conditions... you know... he has a past and so does she... maybe that was the problem.

Sheila a.k.a Norah

Now... I have issues with this character!!!! Where do I begin!!!! First of all...I can intellectually understand why an abused woman would want to disappear. So... I guess in order to do that, you have to lie on a regular basis to avoid being found. What was soo unreal to me... the writer, Harlen Coben, relocates Norah to another country to avoid being found by her husband.... that was not realistic for me. Maybe that actually happens, buttttt it was a stretch or me. Okay once she gets there she hooks up with the REAL Sheila and Ken. Okay it is plausible to switch identities. No problem there.BUTTT to return to the states and look up the brother, WILL, that was just too far fetched for me. That was Hokie!!!!!!!! So... how real is your love when you are interjecting yourself into someone else's life based on false pretenses??????? I guess my problem is more with the author than the actual character. That is why I said that Sheila a.k.a Norah should have stayed dead!!! I just did not like that part of the plot!!!!!

Now... if Norah REALLLYYY loved WIll, don't you think she could/should have come clean once she had to go underground!!!! What does that say about her character!!! I did not like this character in the plot!!!! I guess you see that!!!!

Will & Ken

Hi... Okay... here is my take on Will. I think that Will was a good guy that believed and looked for the good in people. He was not judgemental. He seemed to accept them as they were. I could not help but think of him in terms of us because of his job and the population of people that he dealt with on a daily basis. I mean didn't you feel like some of the "clients" he talked about were our students? But I digress!!! On the other hand this non-judgemental perception that he had of people allowed for him to be vulnerable. He in some ways was a "wimp" I mean... maybe what I am calling "wimp" was the fact that he did not like confrontation. So... he avoided it almost at any cost. He idolized his brother Ken. I think he knew what Ken was... but Ken was his big brother... Maybe he had a limit created in his own mind about what he thought Ken would be capable of. Ken was just a "bad seed" He was not a good person... he was self-centered.... self preservation was his mantra!!! He seemed to use whomever could do the most good for him at the time. I know the type.... I mean... he kept Will's daughter for all of those years to avoid getting captured for the murder of her mother Julie.... what kind of person knowingly does that??? I understood his not wanting to be captured, but... 12 years Will never knew he had a daughter.... I know some of that is Julie's fault... we will get to her!!! :)

In closing

Well... from the response I think that we all enjoyed the book! I waited for a whole year... the subject matter was very different and very thought provoking. As I read, I could not help but say... why? I am a rather absolute person- yes there are times when the issued get "muddied" but in this case or cases similar, I think David was wrong for putting this in motion. BUT what do you expect when he lived his whole adult life as a lie!?! Giving Phoebe away was just one more layer of the lie... I think he wanted everything to be perfect!! Life is not perfect! Sometimes your lemons are not only sour but just rotten... how you make lemonade with rotten lemons... maybe you throw those away and get new ones or mix the two!?!

I also think that sometimes we underestimate the core of people. We make assumptions, sometimes valid based on past experiences, but this causes an error in judgement. Since David and Norah got married after only 3 months, neither one of them knew each other or enough about the other's past to make really good decisions. Am I saying that a relationship like that could never turn out right? Absolutely not! I think it depends on the people, but in this case there were sooo many skeletons... especially on David's part. Ultimately, Paul and Phoebe were the victims. Children are the victims in adult decisions. They ( children ) don't control being born, they get what they get. Paul and Phoebe did not get to choose their parents. So they were subject to alllllll of the decisions that their parents made, both directly and indirectly.

Well... that is my take on the book. I now look forward to continue with Gone for Good. As I discussed in the email we will do this one by characters. Look for the first post for Gone for Good- on Thursday! The title for our blog will also be updated to show both books!!!

Discussion Question #10

From what I can infer from Norah's description of her mother and her sister, I have a dichotomous view. What do I mean? There is a description in the book where Norah's is remembering what her mother said to her about always being a lady even if she did not marry. I gather from that paragraph that Norah was the "good"daughter. Ummm... she was kind of a prisoner of what her mother thought she should be compared to Bree. I mean it sounds like her mother wanted or expected her to be a perfect lady/wife/mother. Consequently, she complied with this. So, how would this have affected Phoebe? I think that possibly since Phoebe was less than perfect, she may have had difficulty dealing with the imperfection of her daughter. ON THE OTHER HAND.... I gathered from the display of love and affection for Paul ( as a baby and early on) that she could have been a very loving mother. I mean... it is difficult for me to answer this because by the time she had met Phoebe, Norah had gone through many changes in finding herself. Ultimately, I don't think she would have given Phoebe away...

If David had not given Phoebe away I think he may have been able to face his demons, and stop living the lie that he had created for his adult life. I think that he and Norah would have been able to grow together, and compliment each other/support in those areas that were so painful for both of them. It is interesting that he had created a life with what could be viewed as a "little white lie" by not correcting his college admission papers. He just kept layering lie after lie after lie for his whole adult life... not just with the birth of Phoebe. Maybe he just wasn't a truthful person deep down on the inside, he would lie when it wasn't even necessary, so maybe being truthful with Norah would not have changed him one bit!