The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
Summary: College
student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for
an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief
biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing
home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing
in Joe's life is ever the same.
Iverson is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few
months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending
thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder.
As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot
reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict.
Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering
the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his
dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother
vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory.
Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and
Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher.
Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?
Angie's Comments: I really enjoyed this book! The friendships are really
a good part of this book: between Joe and Carl, Joe and Lila, and Lila and Jeremy.
The mystery is not very mysterious, but the fun is in discovering the truth and
seeing Joe’s determination to do right by his brother Jeremy and his
interviewee Carl. In one or two places, the plot is a bit strained (like how
the diary was deciphered), but otherwise the book was fast-paced and
believable. Joe and the others discover that things aren’t always what they
seem. The ending is very happy. I recommend this book for fiction readers who
like developed characters, a little mystery, and happy endings.
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