Allan McEvoy McEvoy itibaren La Mesa, Venezuela itibaren La Mesa, Venezuela

This was a fave as a kid. I read it over and over again.

The hero of this isn't Billy Beane, it's the scientific method.

Of all the books I’ve read over the years, Irretrievably Broken is one of the few that has made me really stop and think about my life, both past and present. The story starts out with a mother (Ruth), her daughter (Nora) and her granddaughter (Bettina) taking a cross-country trip from Seattle to DC. They stop along the way to pick up an old friend (Mary). Ruth is of German descent and lived through the Holocaust. During her childhood she befriended a girl (Frieda) who was Jewish and helped her escape sure death at the hands of the Nazis. Nora grew up during the Viet Nam War with its protests of which she became a participant in. After college she took a summer off to travel around Canada, living off the land. Bettina is the daughter of Ruth’s son who fell in love with and married an African American woman. They moved to Germany and when Bettina’s mother died she came to America to live with her Aunt Nora. Mary is an old friend of Bettina’s mother and father as well as Nora. These are the characters. All have deep secrets that have been kept for years. These secrets are revealed throughout the trip. The stories about Ruth living in Germany during WWII are heart wrenching. She talks about how she rescued Frieda and at what expense it was to her as well as her brother who was in love with and planned to someday marry Frieda. Nora reveals the hardships of living off the land and how she was rescued by an Indian (Max) after a bear approached her. Her stories of Max becoming her soul mate, their hardships, marriage and finally divorce are painfully beautiful. Bettina is a lost young girl looking for family and family connections. Her hopes and dreams of finding at least one relative from her mother’s side of the family will bring you to tears. And then there is Mary. She joins up with the trio with plans to continue on to Germany to meet up with Bettina’s father Adam. Mary has a secret too but doesn’t want to disclose it to anyone other than Adam. This book has taught me that life is like a chain. Everyone we meet becomes a link in our chain. Some links may be weak, but the strong ones keep the chain from breaking. And as memories and secrets are shared with those strong links, they become even stronger. This is a wonderful book that I highly recommend.