Homefront

There's nothing earth-shattering being revealed by saying that the war in Iraq has caused plenty of feelings and strong emotions but for every political opponent to the war; for every cry for its end out of a protest rally; there is a person who endures the agony of separation and the eternal longing for a person they love and the constant hopes and fears of not knowing whether they are still alive at any time. Kristen Tsetsi's Homefront explores the gamut of human emotions through Mia, the young professor-turned-cab-driver whose boyfriend, Jake is serving in the war.

Through Mia, we experience the range of human feelings including love, fear, anguish, jealousy, anger, confusion and sadness - just to name a few. Mia takes us on this emotional journey with the help from some supporting characters who do more than merely inhabit her world; by virtue of their own individual personalities, they give definition to her world.

For example, one of her cab fares, a Vietnam Veteran named Donny Donaldson is an incredibly complex person who asserts himself into Mia's world by continually urging her to stop by and drink with him but, once she is there, she finds herself slowly discovering that Donny is not simply a drunk veteran who drinks his woes away as Mia finds out through the course of their friendship. He is not merely tormented by the poor reception that most Vietnam vets received; instead, Donny is more troubled because he was never welcomed at all.

Mia also struggles with how to deal with the pain in a starkly contrasting way than her friend, Denise. Denise finds the absence of her husband, William to be one that widens the divide in her feelings for him to the point where she falls out of love with him and begins a relationship with another man, Brian who becomes the focus of Mia's anger. The funny thing about these feelings Mia has is one could possibly see that it's not the relationship between Denise and Brian that upsets her but instead; it is quite possibly her inability to have such an "extra-marital" (or is it 'surrogate-marriage?') relationship herself.

Mia's anger manifests itself in the logical (towards Jake's mother, Olivia) and in the startling when she writes angrily to Jake. There are times when she seems to intentionally wants to hurt Jake in her letters and emails and even goes so far as to deliberately not write him or answer his phone calls - especially considering her anger at his calling his mother before he calls her.

Tsetsi's writing is what I would consider four-dimensional. It has all the characteristics of what I would call three dimensional: Complex and substantive characters who have a tremendous depth of feeling; a story centered on a realistic event or events which serves as the foundation for the story and; the ability to make the characters live through more than just mere author description but also through good, quality dialogue that, at times, can read almost as smooth as a scene in His Girl Friday! The "fourth dimension," if you will, comes in what the book does to the reader - especially the reader who can relate personally. If you have ever had a loved one taken from you in such an event (which The Chief has), then you recall the anguish, heartache and sorrow of such separation. When an author can get you to feel or remember things in such a vicarious manner, he or she has done far more than a good job in writing a book - they have succeeded in touching someone and making them think. This happened to me when reading Homefront.

I cannot say that you will read this book and feel exactly what I felt if you have never experienced such a horrible thing as having a loved one so arbitrarily removed from your life without a single guarantee that they will ever return. I can, however, assure you that Tsetsi will take you through a journey which I found - and recently had to emphasize to the author myself - that at times like these, we find out that it is no cliche to say that absence truly does make the heart grow fonder.

Love cannot be expressed by simply saying it - you have to feel all of the darker emotions that Mia does to know true love. This book will have a significance far longer than any war could ever last - it is about the human condition and how we persevere.