Sunflower Forest

harrowing and horrible and wonderful tale of a woman who went mad after being raped if I remember at Ravensbruck camp for breeding superior Aryan babies. It is a tale of how she believes a child's her own in modern day times, when it's not her child. Her remaining daughter's haunted by the fact that her mother murder's someone over her deluSional state and it's a harrowing and haunting tale of the daughter's ostracism after the mother murder's. It's so raw, it's delightful, iT makes me feel like I'm there. It's really one of the best books. I've read many Torey Hayden book's cover (many!)to cover.This is by far her best, and her only novel I believe that's based on a true story. MY mother's adopted and German, and there are many tales there, and I wonder how similar my mother's tale is to some of those here. Wonderful. Keep it up..

As someone who has read the nonfiction work of Torey Hayden with enthusiasm, I was surprised to come accross this gem of a book in a second hand bookshop.Although not a quick read, each chapter makes you think and review the lives of the characters in the story, and their place within their own family. Through Hayden's descriptive and detailed storytelling, you see how difficult it is for a family to cope with events in their past, such as living through the Holocaust and the horrific effect of past World Wars on parents. You also see how a family learns to pull together after a saddening event.I enjoyed this harrowing, deeply moving, well-told story of a family learning to live with their past in 1970's USA. It made me reflect on my own position and responsibilities within my own family situation.

This story is set in Kansas in 1978. The protagonist, Lesley is at the opening of the story a 12th grader who has an unusually high level of maturity. In fact, she seems more believable as someone upward of age 25 than a minor still in high school! Lesley has plenty of issues to mature her. Her mother, Mara, a Hungarian WWII Holocaust survivor slips into a hazy state between delusions and reality; her sister Megan, then 9 whom I found spoiled and obnoxious is an added major challenge. I found Megan irritating, most insufferable and unpleasant and just could not like her. The girls' father, O'Malley, is a gentle, loving man who tries to smooth things over for his family. Mara, always a tad unstable, relives the atrocities she survived during the war years. Captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in a breeding farm, Mara loses the two sons she bears while in captivity. Her second son dies shortly after birth and her first son, Klaus, is whisked away never to be seen again. Mara never accepts losing this first child; once released, she spends the remainder of her life searching for him. Matters reach a critical head when Mara spies a neighbor's child and insists that he is Klaus. He goes along with her because he enjoys the attention and gifts he receives. Lesley tries to monitor Mara and balancing Mara and Megan (I thought Megan was just plain loathsome) is a juggling act that proves daunting. Mara is never able to accept the reality of her life and is ultimately consumed by her fantasies. The family sadly picks up the pieces after her death and Lesley decides to visit Wales, the place her parents talked about so fondly. Shortly after graduation, Lesley travels to Wales and is taken in by a young Welsh family. She learns that the place Mara spoke about so longingly, The Sunflower Forest was yet a distorted form of beauty. Although the Sunflower Forest is nothing like Mara's accounts, Lesley is still able to see beauty in the most daunting of conditions. It is in Wales that she accepts Mara, warts and all and even forgives her. It is in Wales that she learns about a side of her parents that had previously been undisclosed. It is in Wales that Lesley redifines beauty. It seems from the reading that Lesley learns that beauty can be wishes or feelings as opposed to what traditionally appeals to the eye. Her response to the mountains is similarly symbolic; the mountains, solid, grounded, seemingly insurmountable are naturally beautiful. Lesley metaphorically scaled many a mountain in the face of dauting odds and appears to identify with them. The mountains can be interpreted as a contrast to Mara; whereas they are fixed and grounded, Mara was sadly far from stability. Armed with this added wisdom, Lesley is able to feel more acceptance of others and share what she has learned. Despite Mara's mental fragility and the havoc she has caused, she unwittingly helped Lesley develop a more inclusive sense of "beauty."

I just found this in the library and it is GOOD!!! It was really a good story. Sad but it's so real. I love the way Torey Hayden can describe exactly how people feel. She really knows that part of being human. I didn't want this book to end.

This book, just like all of Torey Hayden's books, was moving and thought-provoking. The characters were real and one can easily relate to them. I loved it.