My first Wally Lamb book! I enjoyed his conversational tone of Felix Funicello and found it very easy to sink into the story, like a lovely warm bath after a long day. Felix's feminist views surprised me a little, but I appreciated his voice. I liked the shades of the past coming to see him and the part film played throughout the story. I love movies, believing they are like visual books brought to life, and have been teased for getting wrapped up in them, the characters and story. Books are always better, but I love the experience of movies. I am looking forward to reading other books by Wally Lamb. ( )

Not for me. No plot and underwhelming characters. ( )

Wally Lamb is one of our best. This book, however, seemed like he was searching for a plot and never quite found it. That said, I'll be first in line for his next one. ( )

This is the first Wally Lamb book I've read. It will not be the last! ( )

Felix Funicello is back from "Wishin' and Hopin'" though in a darker and more issue-oriented story encompassing the past and present. In present day, he is a divorced film studies professor and movie connoisseur on good terms with his ex, Kat and enthralled by his young adult daughter Aliza who is making her way in NYC as a writer. However, Felix is propelled to the past by some ghosts of movie stars and a prestigious woman director. He is able to view the film of his childhood in 1959 by entering it and reliving a day with his older sisters Simone and Frances, walking through his hometown with all the familiar places and characters. "That's what movies are right? Thousands of still pictures taken months or years or decades before -- streams of images burned onto celluloid that are reeled in front of a lamp and projected onto a screen, allowing us the illusion that they're alive. Flickers of light and dark. Brightness and shadow that won't stand still -- like life itself." (3) He returns again in 1965 to view a family crisis centering on his sister Frances, and like many families of the era, especially those with deep immigrant roots -- here Italian, not much is explained or openly expressed. Felix is chosen for this experience because he is "educable" according to ghost director Lois Weber, so what he needs to figure out is the bigger lesson here. Given that the book is dedicated to "feminists everywhere of every era" and that Frances struggled both with body image and sexual identity, that's part of what he is supposed to learn, which helps him understand both his feminist ex-wife and his post-feminist daughter. Skillfully interwoven is the true history of the Miss Rheingold advertising campaign, a beer company that had the public choose its spokesmodel from the 40s to the 60s (predecessor to St. Pauli girls?) and lots of other nostalgia and reflection upon time and its impact on society and culture. Felix reflects: "If the future is inevitable, then maybe it's best that we're blind to it." (162) He concludes with a treatise: "what do I believe in? Equality. Forgiveness. Compassion. Social Justice. I believe in the value of family, whether you define it as your blood relatives or the people you draw to you -- which is to say that I believe in love....I believe too, that art -- literature, painting, music, film --
has the power to illuminate the human condition.....How could I not believe in ghosts, and what they have to teach us about how to learn from the past, fully inhabit the present, and embrace the propulsive thrust of the future...." (252) This is a folksy story with a bit of a Mitch Albom feel, though with a little more bite and substance and another song-title title bullseye. ( )