True Believers

Bond. The latest novel by Kurt Andersen, True Believers, is set in the 1960s and the present. Protagonist Karen Hollander has been writing a memoir and trying to recall many of the details of her radical activities in high school and college. She and two close friends in high school were James Bond fans to the extreme. In college, their opposition to the Vietnam War led them to radical activity. Andersen dribbles out this plot in ways that kept me curious and entertained. He develops complex characters a layer at a time and captures the ways in which the past can feel present both in terms of personal bonds and in the impact of action in the past on life today. Trust and belief are explored in how things happened in the past and what that means for today. Readers who are patient with slowly paced stories, and who enjoy intelligent writing are those most likely to enjoy this novel. Rating: Three-star (Recommended) Click here to purchase True Believers from amazon.com.