Our elder son and daughters visited for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We were so glad to enjoy their company even if it was for only one night. For Christmas Eve we had our traditional simple Hungarian meal focusing on sausages, baked beans, potato salad and dessert. Christmas Day we feasted on ham and all the trimmings.
Recently we received interesting comments from one of our readers. She felt the characters were “exclusively simplistic” in their interaction among one another and ”the atrocities committed in Manila during WW II deserved more attention.” Further, she said we were not trying to give the reader “a meaningful understanding of the nature of war.” The intent of the novel was not to delve deeply into the psychology behind the thinking of the characters. Each fictitious character is a composite of one or more actual internees recollections of their ordeal in Santo Tomas. None of our research revealed complex relations among the internees and we weren’t looking for that. In addition, our intent was not to delve deeply into describing the atrocities that occurred. If the reader was interested in the atrocities committed during WW II they can do their own research. Lastly, the novel is not a treatise on the causes and nature of the conduct of war. Our main concern was to make the reader aware of a little known footnote of the war in the Pacific and how innocent civilians suffered and survived a brutal three year internment before being rescued.
We want to wish all our readers a happy and prosperous New Year! 2011 was a rough year for us and we look forward to 2012 to be a definite improvement.
We look forward to receiving more of your comments.
