Belong to Me...

This is a book about how people become yours simply because you choose to love them. The characters are real individuals... so unique that their 3 dimensional qualities remind me of the writing of Charles Dickens. There isn't a sentence that comes out of the mouth of any of the characters that doesn't truly belong to them.

Marisa de los Santos is so talented in her ability to express emotion and especially the elusive emotion of love that her writing made me want to weep and cheer at the same time.

"When he looked up, he said, 'Clare told me about Christmas.' And I swear the boy's face began to shine. I recognized what I saw there; that a person's name could be infinitely precious, that just saying it could make you feel singled out for glory."

My favorite passage is about when one of the characters is six years old. Everyone is swimming at the community pool, but she is afraid of the water and cannot join in. Her eight year old future husband comes up to her and says kindly, "you're missing the whole point of summer," and offers to teach her to swim. And, she talks about how his touch made her feel safe and how she learns to swim and then she says, "When I was no longer six years old, when I was a grown woman whose belief the possibility of safety, while far from shattered had suffered the inevitable hard hit or two, Teo's touch did not displace fear as absolutely as it once had. But it was still true that his skin on mine worked a kind of instant, inexplicable possibly chemical magic. When he touched me, the world fell into alignment -- a laying on of hands, a chiropractic of the soul-- the threat of drowning evaporated, and hope cast its light. I know this sounds dramatic, but what would you have me do about it? Some things are dramatic. Put it this way if you prefer; under Teo's touch, I could believe in happy endings. Or middles. Or beginnings."

There are so many good books, but one of the qualities of great book, in my opinion, is one where the great beauty of the language and the truth of it makes you want to open your heart a little wider and be just a little better. So, if you're looking.. this is one of those rare books.