the game of opposites

It's rare that I finish a book.

1.)  As much as I love reading, I'm too distracted by other things to get a book read quickly (the husband, the dog, the cat, the tv, the computer, school work, so on, so forth).  There are only a few exceptions to this rule, all series books that are just fun -- Harry Potter, Twilight, Sookie Stackhouse.

2.)  I have a horrible tendency to start a book, really get into it, and then not finish it.  Each year, I try to make it my goal to rid myself of this habit, and I fail each time.

So I surprised even myself when I read -- and finished! -- The Game of Opposites  by Norman Lebrecht.  I checked it out from the library, renewed it nine (yes, nine) times, and then finally picked it up.  I loved it so much, I bought it used online.  It took me awhile, but I plugged ahead and I finished!  And I definitely recommend it.

It's fiction, the story of a man who survived a Nazi concentration camp and tries to rebuild his life afterwards.  He rebuilds the town next to the concentration camp, and forges relationships with people who lived there and watched those prisoners walk by on their way to work each day.  And, true to the title, Paul, the main character, is full of contradictions and opposites.  There were a few times that I finished a chapter and just had to put it aside for awhile, because it just affected me -- which doesn't seem to happen very often when I read fiction.  The book didn't end the way I thought it was going to.  But, thinking about it some more, I'm beginning to think it actually did end the way I thought it was going to all along.  And that's probably what I liked the most about it -- that, like the character, I second guessed myself through the entire book.