Casualties

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Casualties is one of those thick novels you never want to put down, that you look forward to getting back to, and that you don't ever want to be over. In just 6 pages, Ruth becomes a real person. On the 1st page, she’s on the phone with her assistant complaining about the failures of her nineteen-year-old son who is fourteen hours late for his birthday dinner. On the 2nd page, we learn that she has a dream. And that she has a sense of humor. As Ruth waits, she tries to stay calm. The author taps into something we've all felt--waiting for someone hour after hour, knowing we shouldn't say the hurtful thing, but we’re human. Ruth is human. We make mistakes we can't take back. On the 5th page, Robbie announces he’s joined the Marines. Now he’s done something he can't take back. On the 6th page, “Ruth hears the uncertainty he is trying to hide. She hears it and, in a flash of instinct, understands that he is asking her not to hear it.” I'm so interested in these people now--each of these flawed characters who exists in my world of lasagna and Death by Chocolate cakes. And finally Ruth thinks, "He’s put himself out of reach. The balance between them has shifted. Then, through the tears, through the loss threatening to engulf her, Ruth feels something that frightens, but also exhilarates her. She is relieved." Ruth is honest with the reader. This character is going to let me in to everything, and I don't want to miss that.