Interesting. I learned a few things about World War II. ( )

Generally quite interesting, but unevenly so to me. I love research, but her progress was in slow spurts. The most poignant and rewarding part was the daughter's coming to knowledge and understanding of her father's love for her.

I really liked the "meaty" part of the story, about this guy's training and secret activities in WWII, but this darn book is written in a diary-like, free form, way and that was just terrible. So much extraneous chit chat between the good pieces: how her kid like animals, what they're eating for breakfast, about the guy's favorite comfy chair... gah!!!!! just skip the extra chit chat about the kids and the car and the pets and where he slept! I'm only about 1/2 way thru and I don't know if I can make it for the rest of the story. Update: I made it and I'm glad I did because much of the good stuff - the actual war time secret activities - was in the letters that the daughter finds after the father's death. But, man oh man, what a long-winded story for a little depth. Probably only 1/10th of the book was information... 9/10ths was drivel. I can't honestly recommend a boy like that, even though the wartime stories were quite interesting. ( )

"Bullets and butterflies, such a bizarre combination of hobbies. I let the lead slugs sift through my hand."

This was an amazing book. It's as much about the strained relationship between father and daughter as it is about his "secret war," and it's incredibly moving.

Tom Franks was a huge hero of WWII, but he's nobody you've ever heard of, in fact his name is practically wiped out of the records. Practically everything he did he was sworn to secrecy about, and those things, plus keeping them locked up tight, ate him alive for the rest of his life, destroying his relationships with everyone around him.

Late in his life, his daughter (who has had a deeply rocky relationship with him since she hit her teens) is cleaning up his home, going through boxes to dispose of unneeded junk taking up needed space, when she discovers some shocking items from the war; this prompts her to begin a personal crusade to find out just who was this man who was her father, and just what part did he play in the war. The book is essentially the record of these years of her struggle with the search and her struggle with family relationships.

"Now, when there's finally nothing left, the silence is at least enough." ( )

I listened to this rather than reading it. I say this only because I can't flip through to the ending and now I think I will leave the last hour unheard. I found the first 3/4 of this story to be engaging, even compelling, in some parts. Franks did deep into the family relationships that encircle her father. She remembers her intense love for him and his sweet protection and teaching of her as a little girl. But family life later disintegrates and her father becomes dependent on her. Her love, rage and disappointment tangle them up and this story is the gradual unknotting of their relationship.

Franks is driven to know about her father's war time efforts. She uses her investigative reporting skills to uncover his story, initially against his will. This eventually draws them together. For me, the story finishes before the book does. The near final chapters tell of her continued search for details to get the full truth of his covert experiences. I was happy ending it with the details he shared and the meaning she made of them. I lost interest in the final verification of the same. It left me thinking: What is more important - The "real" truth or the meaning we make of our own truths? ( )