Afraid I'll have to take the middle road on this one. It is obvious early writing & the characters are not whole-ly genuine. However, especially to it's contemporary audience, I think it got the point across. I felt cold & lonely after reading it even though I didn't entirely suspend my disbelief. Thor >Jordie rants about A Boy in France: >"The letter from the parent is such an obvious emotional tactic >that it turned me off completely, I didn't trust the author. >It's like a politician screaming about the children of the >loggers in hopes of saving the forest industry and showing >pictures of them crying, hijinx, weapons and plastic >flowers. Makes me bitter and cold and inspires me to >write something real." > >Real??? I suppose your idea of real is _Reservoir Dogs_. > >A Boy in France was simply a slice of life of a soldier in France during >WWII. I suspect that such soldiers often did, in fact, get letters from >home, and said letters did have emotional impact on their recipients given >the dangerous, messy circumstances. Hard to believe, I know. In any case, I >didn't feel emotionally manipulated reading it. > >While we're on the topic of emotional tactics, I am so bored with this >"look >at me I'm real because I'm a bitter and cold cynic and you can't pull the >wool over my eyes" posturing that has become so popular these days. This >has >been done ad nauseum. This is the fucking mantra of the 1990's! Nevermind >real, how about writing something original? > >-Sean _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com