Alex Saltykov Saltykov itibaren Poulton-le-Fylde, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire FY6 8JL, İngiltere
A snapshot of average American people with seemingly average, American problems. Nice pacing and character development, but I was dissapointed with the plot ending.
Satire is often funny. In this book it grim and contemptuous. Flaubert condemns complacent provincialism and excessive urbanity equally, through a host of unpleasant characters. This book is justifiably famous for its racy and lurid passages concerning love affairs, and its cruel exposure of false or forced unions. Is it worth reading? Yes; it is eloquent on the subject of human folly. Yes; it has an engaging story. But it is not happy.
Evans' has outdone himself with this touching and heartwarming story! I firmly believe this will be a novel you won't soon forget. On the back cover, he explains how he got the idea for this story: "The idea for 'The Sunflower' came to me while I was on a humanitarian mission deep in the Amazon jungle of Peru. I had taken my teenage daughter there, with hopes that she might learn some life lessons about gratitude and love. After more than a week of helping the native tribesmen, my daughter was visibly moved by the pain and poverty that surrounded us. As we left the small village, she said to me, "It's not fair, Dad. We have so much and they have so little." I asked her what she had learned from the experience. She thought for a moment, then said, "We love those whom we serve." Though the experiences we had in Peru were enough to fill many books, the most memorable of them was at a small orphanage that rescued street children. On my third trip there, one of the caretakers told me about a friend's wife who had just died from ALS-a degenerative disease that brings on gradual paralysis and eventually, death. From his friend's anguish, caring and watching over his beloved as she was slowly taken from him, the man shared with me a powerful truth he had learned about life: love is stronger than pain. I knew I had found the central theme of my book. 'The Sunflower' is both an adventure and a love story. It is a story about sacrifice and faith. But most of all, it is a story about hope." Now...from inside the dust jacket: "Just a week before their marriage, Christine's fiance calls off the wedding, leaving her heartbroken. With hopes of helping her through a difficult time, Christine's best friend Jessica enrolls them both on a humanatarian mission in Peru, to work at an orphanage called El Girasol-The Sunflower. It is while working at the orphanage that Christine meets Paul Cook, a successful and charismatic American doctor who has fled the States after one fatal day took away his career, his faith, and the woman he loved. Unplanned events lead Paul and Christine into the jungle of the Amazon, where Christine must confront her deepest fears, and she, and Paul, must both learn to trust and love again. Filled with powerful lessons of faith and hope, 'The Sunflower' is an evocative novel about the redemptive power of love from one of the world's most beloved storytellers."
It has some good advice for those looking to have nontraditional careers, but it DID feel like only about half the book applied. Still, it gives something to think about.