Recommended Reading.

      When I finished reading Norwegian by Night, Derek B. Miller, MJV, giver of a multitude of books, said, the sequel ,American by Day, was even better. So, of course she sent it to me, and, of course she was correct. Sigrid Odegard, a Norwegian police officer, is an important charcter in the first book but the primary one in the second. She travels from Norway to America to search for her lost brother, and thereby hangs a tale.

     Miller's books are fun, filled with fascinating reflections, in the form of a thriller. Some literary critics, of which I am not one, may be put off by the long soliloquies, but they are so full of insight that I liked them. Some of the scenes stretch credulity but that contributes to the humor. In American, the missing brother has an African American girlfriend.  That relationship and race relations are central to the book. In a defining moment in their relationship reflecting on the difference between Black and White experience she says, "Your skin is a shield...My skin is a target." P. 244. 

    Reflecting on American consumerism Odegard thinks, "How can the winners prove that they've won if they can't have more than the losers?" P. 312.  One of the author's gifts is full bodied and fascinating characters, e.g., Odegard, or the American sheriff who is Jesuit educated. The danger of bad theology is clearly illustrated in the central conundrum.  

    It's a very readable book with much food for thought so I recommend it.

Takk for alt,

Al