Pam

I would recommend this book. The author did a suburb job of characterizing the conflict and emotions of people on the precipice of starting life after graduating college. Confusion, depression, anger, wanderlust are familiar feelings for many who struggled with leaving the (financial and emotional) security we have in college -- vis-a-vie our parents -- to go out and face the world and all of its unknowns. The young characters in the Marriage Plot experiment with their new-found independence seeking knowledge and understanding only to find an affirmation that not having all of the right answers (or any answers at all) is a permanent condition. As a writer, Jeffrey Eugenides torments the read with the raw feelings of depression and failure with only the smallest pinholes of hope. Assuming that was the intention, it's perfectly sad.

Daniel Silva didn't disappoint as this story weaved its way through the storied history of the Holocaust to the affairs between Israel and Iran then back again. It flowed easy and the main character, Gabriel, served as both an easy to love protagonist and narrator of the past. I was on the edge of my seat when it could have been so easy for Silva to kill off a decent character, the Russian Mikael, but spared him to likely make an appearance in a later installment. The narrator's intonation the female voices was like listening to a drag queen but otherwise took on the smooth, debonair attitude of Gabriel with expected accuracy. Very enjoyable to those seeking a decent historical fiction.