Official Review: The Sense of It by Linda DeGree

[DC Brown]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Sense of It" by Linda DeGree.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Sense of It: Living for Peace by Linda DeGree follows the life of Marjorie (Margie) Jean Elizabeth Mensen, through the letters she wrote to family and friends. She wrote extensively from her days as a high school senior through college and a few years afterward. It was the late 60s and early 70s, the Vietnam War was raging, and many young people were protesting the war. Others were going into the military directly out of high school. Her brother was drafted in his senior year.

This leads to a rift in the family. James felt his religious beliefs would not allow him to kill. He tried to flunk the physical for the army, but even with a broken ankle, he passed. He decides to evade the draft and disappears from the family. Margie was heart-broken, but she kept to her plans of going to college to be a teacher.

She graduated with honors and decided to leave Iowa and go to an internship in New York City. Here she worked with UNICEF and became an advocate of world peace. As she considers the opportunities, she writes her heart on paper to friends and family, keeping a carbon copy for herself.

As I read the book, I found her letters folksy and entertaining. I noticed she repeated phrases and paragraphs, perhaps because of the carbon copies she mentioned keeping. The book did not seem professionally edited. Beyond the many grammatical mistakes, the content of the letters did not follow the date they were written. For example, in a letter dated March 1970, Margie writes to her brother that she's been crying, trying to find a way to get a message to him. The next letter is dated February 13, 1970, and is from James. He has gotten her message and tells her to quit crying. From this, one has to assume he told her to stop crying about two weeks before he knew about it.

The book waxes and wanes in its dependence on religion, so those sensitive to religious rhetoric would want to be aware of that. It has no violence, profanity, or explicit sex. This book would appeal to younger readers, those who like romance novels, someone who enjoys gentle coming of age books, and those who would like to know what it's like to grow up in the mid-west and have family support in everything you do both financially and emotionally. To me, it felt like a Barbie edition of life, not reality. I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. I would've given it more stars if it had been well-edited, and the timeline clearer.

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The Sense of It
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[Shabram22]

Besides the low points you mentioned, this book sounds like it would be a very emotional and heartfelt book. I wonder, is this a nonfiction book? Great job on your review!

[Miraphery]

The book seems to be an emotional one and I don't think it's my kind of book. Nice review though

[Dannyphery]

Not really a fan of emotional books so I think I'll let this one pass...
Thanks for the review though

[fadjei]

Despite the grammatic errors, this sounds like a great story. I love to read about historical time periods through the eyes of someone who was actually living in the time it occurred. You really get a sense of how people were feeling about what was going on.
Thanks for the review!

[DC Brown]

Besides the low points you mentioned, this book sounds like it would be a very emotional and heartfelt book. I wonder, is this a nonfiction book? Great job on your review!

It truly reads like nonfiction, it has real emotional pull. It's actually listed as historical fiction.

[MrsCatInTheHat]

It sounds like this book can help people relate to the conflicts of the time period.

[ohlendorfbe]

I just finished reading this book, and I agree with you completely. It's a nice coming of age book, with some serious discussions of the VIetnam War, and war in general. Having grown up in Iowa at exactly that time, I could relate to many of the events and feelings discussed. However, it definitely needs to be proofread some more!