Day: June 1, 2024

Boy Meets World Character Review: Alan Matthews

The schedule for the Character Review posts will be changing to Friday (or Saturday at the latest from now on).

*I apologize for the less-than-regular posting as of late. I can only do so much in a day.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television show Boy Meets World. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the program. There is something to be said about a well-written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

Fathers on family sitcoms are usually one of the following: paragons of parental perfection or clueless when it comes to their offspring. It takes a smartly drawn character and a capable actor to make this person seem real and not a trope. In Boy Meets World, Alan Matthews (William Russ) is a husband and father who is trying to do right by his family. Married to Amy (Betsy Randle), they have three kids: Eric (Will Friedle), Cory (Ben Savage), and Morgan ( (Lily Gibson (nee Nicksay)/Lindsay Ridgeway)and Joshua (Daniel Jacobs/Uriah Shelton).

A former member of the Navy, Alan started at the bottom while working at a grocery store. Rising up the ranks, he stayed at the same grocery store to support his family. After having enough of working for someone else, he opened his own nature store.

Though Alan does his best, he, like all of us, is imperfect. He can be pigheaded and spoil his children (Eric specifically) past the point of necessity. But even with those qualities, Amy and the kids are a priority.

To sum it up: Alan is the parent that reflects both a reality and a wish, depending on your childhood. He is the television father who represents the reality of life, which as we all know, is never easy.

Which is why he is a memorable character.

The Boy with the Star Tattoo: A Novel Book Review

War has a way of changing lives as few things can. Though we survive physically, the emotional scars last forever and the path we take going forward is forever changed.

The Boy with the Star Tattoo: A Novel, by Talia Carner, was published in January. In 1942 in France, the Vichy government has a goal of making the country Judenrein. Claudette Pelletier is a young woman who loves romance novels and earns her keep as a seamstress. After briefly hiding a Jewish man and his father, a brief affair leaves her pregnant and alone.

After the Germans invade, Claudette has two strikes, her disability, and her half-Jewish child. She has no choice but to leave the country and her son behind. After the war, she looks for the child, but he is nowhere to be found. Unknown to her, he is presumed to be orphaned and has been taken to pre-independence Israel by Youth Aliyah.

Decades later, in 1968, Sharon Bloomenthal is grieving the loss of her fiance and worried about her aging grandmother. An opportunity to join the then-secret Cherbourg Project allows her to take a break from reality in Cherbourg France. Led by Daniel Yarden, Sharon suspects that he may have something to do with her late mother and that his history in the country is closer than expected.

As Danny focuses on the task at hand, Sharon becomes fixated on the small clues of his past. When the puzzle is finally completed, she has two choices: tell him the truth or keep it hidden.

I enjoyed this novel. It took a bit of time for the narrative strands to come together. When they do, it is a moment that is both expected and unexpected. Weaving two different stories in dueling timelines with multiple characters is a task that not every writer can successfully complete. The author does so in a way that is compelling and entertaining.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

The Boy with the Star Tattoo: A Novel is available wherever books are sold.

P.S. Today is the anniversary of the Farhud. Never forget.

Ghosted: A Northanger Abbey Novel Book Review

Ghosts can be more than a soul who has not left the mortal plane. They can represent parts of our past that would rather not deal with.

Ghosted: A Northanger Abbey Novel, by Amanda Quain, was published last year. In a nutshell, it is a YA gender swap modern reboot of Northanger Abbey. Hattie Tilney lost her belief in the supernatural a long time ago. Though she attends Northanger Abbey, which is supposed to be the most haunted high school in the US, she thinks that it is nothing more than a well-told tale.

After the death of her father, Hattie has become the defacto parent for her younger brother. Her older sister is out of control. Her mother has become a workaholic and is emotionally distant from her children. She is then challenged by a new classmate, Kit Morland.

Thanks to a ghost-hunting scholarship, Kit has been able to transfer to Northanger Abbey. She has been asked to help him get settled. Paired up on a year-long project, Kit’s goal is to prove that ghosts exist. Hattie’s job is to prove that they are a myth. Along the way, she starts to realize that opening up to others is not such a bad thing.

I liked this story. As with her previous book, Quain perfectly balances her tale with Jane Austen‘s original text. Switching the genders of the lead characters, along with their perspectives gave Northanger Abbey a fresh angle that appeals to both long-time Austen fans and newcomers.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Ghosted: A Northanger Abbey Novel is available wherever books are sold.