Title: Forgiveness
Author: Douglas Thiel
Publisher: Amazon
ISBN: 9798372702936
Pages: 273
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewed by: Arthur Thares
Hollywood Book Reviews
It is unlikely that you will ever read another book like this one ever again. This is the kind of book you don’t just finish because it stays on your mind for hours when you’re done. Everything about Forgiveness is perfect, but not many books are. There is much to unpack about a book that is unlike any other and doesn’t come close to being solidly in any genre. With this book, you get an incredibly realistic story which will surely bring tears to your eyes a few times along the way.
First, this story is not linear in the traditional sense. A few sections jump back and forth, but that is only one aspect of this story’s timeline. Think of it as a scrapbook of the main character, Petie’s life. It starts in a troubled home where an honest misunderstanding changes the course of Petie’s life and drives him to run away and join the military. You are regaled with a few inventive stories from the main character’s time in the military before you jump to him as an LAPD officer. This is where the bulk of the story takes place before the end races to the finish. Not everyone will love the cadence of this book, but it is a breath of fresh air which can be described as something to experience.
Something incredibly interesting about this book is its heavily influenced by philosophy. Each chapter begins with a full page about philosophy, and multiple characters have philosophical backgrounds. Pete himself takes a Philosophy class toward the end of the story. There are many difficult scenarios in this book, but author Douglas Thiel masterfully gives them the weight they deserve while not giving them too much unnecessary detail. Somewhere else he excels is in character building. Despite how much this book jumps around, you meet many characters, which the author could do the bare minimum to describe. However, he does a fantastic job of giving every character in this book a name and a unique description.
Forgiveness is one of those once-in-a-generation books that breaks all the rules but somehow works. The disjointed jumping between scenes may sound like a deficit, but it is a strength. Nothing about this book should work, but it does on every level. There are elements of this story that may not make it everyone’s cup of tea, but it deserves to be recognized as brave and bold storytelling. Forgiveness is a book that takes chances, honors our nation’s heroes, and tells a fictional story that feels all too believable.