|
Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
|
Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
People Who Say Goodbye are those who go off to fight in World War I and don't come back, children who die of diphtheria, measles, influenza, and other epidemics of the time, or simply people who appear in a child's life and then move away and are heard from no more. P. Y. Betts (the P. is for Phyllis), born in 1909 and just five years old when WWI began, is adept at putting things completely from the child's point of view. She solemnly describes funeral parades for soldiers and the rituals for a child's funeral and the questions she asks her mother about death. Her young and lively mother gives irreverent replies, and it is this spunky mother and her difficult rich family along with a patient and charming father that provide much of the humor and interest of the book. The observations of Betts herself on her life as a child of this era are detailed and telling. The book starts off slowly but picks up in pace and interest. I wish Betts had written more because I was very sorry when the book concluded.