I may have to buy my own copy

I think I summed up my feelings about Summer Of My German Soldier pretty succinctly on my blog.

                   *  Wow
                   * I'm glad she didn't put a glossy, sugar-coated finish on it and
                   * One of the most depressing books I've ever loved.

Everyone knows the story, right?  After all, it was first published in 1973 and has been on teen reading lists ever since then.  But it turned out, I didn't know the story--or less than a tenth of it.    I'd read a spoiler so I thought I knew the ending, but that wasn't the ending.  It ended several chapters past the "spoiler ending", and the book's ending was the sort that didn't really end, just stopped.  If I were Bette Greene, I'd write a sequel.

The story is not "teenage girl has a summer romance with an escaped German soldier."  That would be trite and formula and this is anything but.  It's a girl; her screwed up, unfeeling, psychopathic parents; her colored cook; her town, country and religion; and her soldier...who's not really a soldier at all.  He's just a smart, sensitive, guy who ended up in the army because that's where everyone ended up.

Recommended.  To everyone.