Title: A bit of a mess
Review: Russell's third novel is as chaotic as the guerilla war of its setting. There is no clear protagonist, nor anything like a linear plot. The novel has as many major characters as any by Michener, but with only half the pages and covering a span of two years, not hundreds. Just when someone becomes interesting, Russell's onto someone, or back to someone we've forgotten, who's by the way no using an alias (make sure to refer often to the reference guide at the front of the book). With only 40 pages left in the book, a major new character literally drops from the sky. Why? And why should we care?Russell's prose is, as always, beautiful, and the themes she explores are rich and provocative. The title refers to a on old Hebrew saying: No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves, there is always a thread of grace. This is more of a patchwork quilt, but filled with grace nonetheless.
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