Tomorrow Is Forever

Rating:
Summary: Pain, mystery, love and war philosophy
Review: I first read this book in German in the 1970s. It deals with a woman's pain suffered by the loss of her fiance to WW1 war efforts. She goes on with her life, gets married and starts her family. Years later an odd German man with disabilities enters the family's life. Suspicions mount in the woman's mind... is this the fiancee she lost years ago? She is just not sure. Meanwhile, this stranger becomes a mentor to her children and herself. While war philosophy abounds in this book, I see it primarily as a wonderful love story, one of the greatest I ever read! Gwen Bristow's style is gripping, a great read!

Rating:
Summary: A womans view of war
Review: I first read this book in high school and looked many years for a copy as an adult. I re-read it and although it was a little dated I enjoyed both the story and the depiction of generational and gender views of war.

Rating:
Summary: A truly great story
Review: I read this book years ago when I was around 10 or 12 years old. I won't go into the plot because other reviewers have already done so, but this was a story that takes place between World War I and World War II. A woman's first husband is supposedly killed in the first war, but what got me was he wasn't killed -- he loved her so much he gave her up and had himself reported as killed -- because he did not want her to sacrifice her life waiting on and taking care of a cripple. I thought this was incredibly beautiful. There's also a chapter later in the book where her oldest son is about to go off to World War II and he asked the crippled German what was about and why we had to have war. This made an impression on me that I've never forgotten my entire life -- even though it applies strictly to the war with Hitler, I will always remember the part about when a child is killed (or murdered) the murderer is destroying the future. That child may have been the one to grow up and find a cure for cancer, or heart disease or whatever. Because the child was killed before having a chance to grow up we may never know what we've lost. Another way to put it is, if you kill a child, what if that child you killed was the one to grow up and maybe save the life of your own child. This made me realize how truly terrible prejudice and hatred can be and today I can't pick up a paper and read about something happening to a young child without thinking about this book and wondering what could have been. Believe me it's a truly remarkable book.

Rating:
Summary: A truly great story
Review: I read this book years ago when I was around 10 or 12 years old. I won't go into the plot because other reviewers have already done so, but this was a story that takes place between World War I and World War II. A woman's first husband is supposedly killed in the first war, but what got me was he wasn't killed -- he loved her so much he gave her up and had himself reported as killed -- because he did not want her to sacrifice her life waiting on and taking care of a cripple. I thought this was incredibly beautiful. There's also a chapter later in the book where her oldest son is about to go off to World War II and he asked the crippled German what was about and why we had to have war. This made an impression on me that I've never forgotten my entire life -- even though it applies strictly to the war with Hitler, I will always remember the part about when a child is killed (or murdered) the murderer is destroying the future. That child may have been the one to grow up and find a cure for cancer, or heart disease or whatever. Because the child was killed before having a chance to grow up we may never know what we've lost. Another way to put it is, if you kill a child, what if that child you killed was the one to grow up and maybe save the life of your own child. This made me realize how truly terrible prejudice and hatred can be and today I can't pick up a paper and read about something happening to a young child without thinking about this book and wondering what could have been. Believe me it's a truly remarkable book.

Rating:
Summary: Pain, mystery, love and war philosophy
Review: While this is probably my least favorite of Gwen Bristow's books that I have read, it is still such an excellent book. The story of the wealthy wife of a movei producer with the perfect life, until everything is turned upside down by an odd German man who had been severly hurt in the war, Tomorrow is Forever is a wonderful read.