Part 3 Alexa Ferrer

This book has impacted me more intensely than any of the books we’ve read all year. Although it was a simple and easy read, something about it really got to me. There is something very hopeless, yet inevitable, about this story that I think happens to the majority of people. While there might by the exception, people who aren’t as emotionally moved by a first love, I think that it is something most people fall victim to. In Michael’s case, due to his personal and historical circumstances, it might have occurred more intensely than how it happens to the rest of us, but the feelings are the same I think. It is scary to think that something that happens so young in our life can impact the rest of our lives to the point that we will never be able to escape it. I’m sure it isn’t as common for people to be as affected by their first love as Michael was, but I think it is still very real and relatable.

            The part that got to me (meaning the moment I started crying) is when he went to visit her at prison for the first time and noticed she smelled like an old woman. Michael spent every year of his life since she left him imagining her and daydreaming about her endlessly. I think he had this idea in this head that if they would cross paths again everything would be better because she is the one. She was the only woman that felt right and was right for him, despite the abusive side of the relationship. I wouldn’t even call it abusive anymore now that I know more about Hanna and what she suffered and went through. I think the saddest part about it all is just when you think there is hope for a happy ending, they both realize it’s not the same. Once there are high hopes in place for something and it leads to a hopeless disappointment, I don’t think there is anything worse than that.