I love historical fiction. Here’s what I’ve learned during my most recent foray into a historic friction trilogy that encompasses events around the globe during the 20th century.
10 The audio version of Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy is an excellent listening choice for someone going through hand exercises for 7 weeks. The best time to start listening is when moving uncooked elbow macaroni from here to there piece by tiny piece for twenty minutes every two hours loses its luster and becomes common place.
9. On the other hand, an audio book is not the best medium for tracing several, intertwining family trees that span a hundred years.
8. An uncommon word like “fracas” can be used only so many times before it starts to stand out awkwardly.
7. If I had to choose between living in the communist countries of East Germany, Soviet Union, and Cuba, I would choose Cuba. Because it would be easier to live under communist oppression where it’s warm.
6. Fictional historical characters and leaders, unlike real ones, always have reliable political instincts.
5. According to this historical fictional author, any kind of sex is okay if you think the world is ending within twenty-four hours.*
4. Several excellent high school history teachers, along with personal experience, extensive reading of historical fiction and biography for the past 40 years gave me a good foundation about the following 20th century events: WW1, the League of Nations, the Great Depression, WW2, the West Berlin airlift, the Marshall Plan, the partition of East Germany, and the Civil Rights movement.
3. Unfortunately, the Spanish Civil War was a total miss.
2. Ditto for the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis. How did I miss the fact that the world was on the brink of nuclear war when I was six years old?
1. On the other hand, six is a good age to be when the world is on the brink of nuclear war. Because in October of 1962, six-year-olds were consumed with who they would be for Halloween rather than the end of the world. Proof positive that ignorance is bliss.
*I don’t plan to apply this lesson in real life.
What lessons have you learned from historical fiction? Leave a comment.
