Bought this at a library used book sale. I read a copy on audio and had this to say when I finished it:

This book is the All Fairfax Reads book for 2012. It's the book the county suggests we all read and then the author speaks at our book festival in September. I read last year's All Fairfax Reads book and adored it, so I was looking forward to this one.

Months since I read it, I'm still not so sure what to make of it. It's the story of a contest held to build a 9-11 memorial at Ground Zero. The contest had blind submissions, and the winning submission chosen--a design referred to as The Garden--happened to have been designed by a Muslim. Therein lies the problem.

Some people insist that shows the very freedoms of America we are striving to uphold. Others see it as an insult to the people who lost their lives at the hand of a few extremists. And the designer refuses to explain his design or want his design to be judged because of his religion.

The story follows several different threads/perspectives: the head of the memorial committee (who wants the project to bring him professional success), the "family" representative on the committee who lost her husband on 9-11 (who spearheaded the decision to choose the garden design), the designer (who isn't a very devout Muslim, but believes in the strength of his design), a brother of a man who was killed on 9-11 (who leads an effort to get the garden design thrown out), a reporter (who believes this story might make her career), a Muslim woman whose husband was killed on 9-11 (who speaks little-to-no-English and who illegally came to the US with her husband), and a woman lawyer (who is talented and speaks for victims... but who doesn't make all that much of a difference in the plot).

So this interesting situation is shown from all these different sides and perspectives. And I found myself siding with each character each time. They're sympathetic, strong characters who have good points and emotional connections. And when they clash, I find it hard to make up my mind as to who I want to win! It was also interesting to see how the country as a whole reacted to developments of the announcement. I found it believable.

At the end, I was looking forward to some resolution, some definitive winner, something to show me how this entire book of drama and debate should turn out. And I felt a bit let down with the ending. The final bit definitely helped me, emotionally, but I was shocked and kind of sad at the result.

I'm looking forward to hearing what the author has to say about the book and what sorts of questions/comments people have for her.

Taking to a BCinDC meetup, in case someone wants it. Enjoy!

I absolutely do NOT need any additional books in my TBR pile, but the blurb on this one was so intriguing that I simply had to bring it home from today's BC-in-DC meeting.

In some ways, this book feels a little dated. After all, we've had a memorial to the victims of 11 Sept. 2001 in NYC for many years now, so a novel about the process of selecting a design for that memorial feels a bit out of its time. However, in many other ways, this story remains a timely as it ever was.

While the memorial design is the vehicle for the story, it is the characters and their reactions to the design and its architect that are the true subject of the story. When it is revealed that the design selected by the jury tasked with deciding what the memorial should look like is a Muslim, the public reactions are swift and predictable. These reactions remind me of the outcry that surrounded the efforts to create an Islamic community center *near* the site of the World Trade Center (i.e., the so-called and inappropriately labelled "Ground-zero mosque"). And in the current political climate, I suspect that the reactions described in this story would, if anything, pale by comparison to a similar revelation today.

This novel explores the reactions of a number of characters from a wide range of perspective. Each point of view is portrayed compasionately, so that the nuance of the debate is quite clear to the reader, even if the characters can't quite see it.

In the end, the book fails to provide answers to many of the questions raised. While this might be disappointing to those who prefer their novels to wrap up the loose ends, it does have the benefit of allowing the book to avoid becoming a sermon. The reader is presented with the arguments and left to reach his or her own conclusion. Hopefully, it will give readers reason to pause and consider how these issues are reflected in our public discourse, and whether it might change their persepective on such issues.

This book was left over at today's meet-up in Virginia. I brought it to Maryland to release at the library tower in the park.

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