*Giveaway Bonus*The giveaway is closed. The winner of the eBook copy of Edge of a Dream is Ciprian Hriscu.
Enjoy the review!
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Rija never wanted to come to America, but when her husband Josef finds a way to get her, her mother, and their daughter out of war-torn Sarajevo, she knows coming along is better than staying behind. Unfortunately, Josef ditches them in less than a year, forcing Rija to figure things out in a country she still has much to learn about.
Edge of a Dream officially begins two years after Josef's disappearance.
Though Rija doesn't want to become a cleaning lady, her rent is too far behind for her to be too picky about where she works. Plus, she has a six-year-old daughter and a mother to provide for. Fowler hires her as an independent contractor on the spot. As long as she avoids him in any private area where he can easily get his hands on her, the job is a great way for her to start her new life - a life where she can get by without Josef and the welfare checks.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Josef and Sergei are working a shady job for a man named Nick. Nick gets the twelve-thousand, they get a cut. The first part of the mission, collecting 12k from the Japanese businessman, goes well. Things don't get really bad until Sergei and Josef split apart and Sergei makes the unfortunate mistake of leaving the money with Josef.
All Josef had to do was hold the money for an hour. Instead, he sees a pretty girl at a second-rate casino, takes out five-thousand from Nick's money in order to impress her, and then loses that money almost instantly.
This is when my hatred for Josef shot through the roof and my tolerance hit the bottom. Sure, readers should pretty much detest him the moment they learn he's the type of scum who takes his family to America and ditches them without a word. That bothered me, but not as much as his carelessness. Seriously, why couldn't he have waited until after Nick gave him his cut to chase a pretty girl? Why put his and Sergei's lives in danger for something so very stupid? Even if he was feeling confident, that was a move that reminded me of that scene from Pulp Fiction when Vincent leaves his gun on the kitchen table and gets shot with his own gun as a result.
Stupidity on that scale seems earned. From that point onward, I felt like any terrible thing that happened to Josef was earned. I wanted to feel sorry for Josef. As the story went on, there are a series of flashbacks that explained all the bad experiences Josef (and Rija) lived through in Sarajevo - the war, the death of his mother, sending his beloved sisters off to a place he wouldn't be able to see them...
I understand that not all characters can be careful or intelligent. I understand that characters, like people, are varied. Regardless, I just couldn't grasp Josef's thinking process.
Josef was my main problem with the story. I really liked Rija's point of view. Through the tribulations she faces, we readers get a great view of what it's like for an immigrant to live and cope in America. I felt like I learned a lot about the war in Bosnia, a war I never gave much thought to beforehand, and I enjoyed the important role love and willpower played in the plot. Rija, her mother, and her daughter go through a lot, but they never stop trying or supporting one another.
Up until Josef takes revenge on Rija for changing the locks on him, the story doesn't feel like it has much of a plot. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Edge of a Dream excels as a Slice of Life tale, a story generally dedicated to what it's like being an immigrant in America and trying to cope. Plus, the sentences flow easily, and the book itself is an interesting read.
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| Author Lee Fishman |
Find Lee Fishman
2 comments:
This is an interesting book, or is it a damn good rewiew, both situations start curiosity. Nice job!
I was clawing and forgot to write email: cipbtro[@]yahoo[.]com
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