Review of Deceptions and Betrayals (Paperback)

Despite the title of this brief memoir, the story of Marty Wurtz's life is more a story of triumph--so much so that she might have titled the book Deceptions, Betrayals, and Triumphs. While Wurtz glosses over a lot of material in the course of this 50-year review of key events in her life, her ability to overcome the chief "deceptions and betrayals" is the glue that holds everything together in this encouraging narrative.

Wurtz has had a lot to triumph over: a selfish and controlling father, an abusive first husband, and manipulative in-laws in her second marriage (although her husband this time was, as Wurtz puts it, "her prince").Throughout, Wurtz fashions a narrative that resonates with the endurance of one individual over adversity.

More remarkable is Wurtz's ability to do what only a handful of writers have attempted, and at which fewer have succeeded: to write engagingly about oneself in the third person. Charles Dickens accomplished as much in David Copperfield and Great Expectations, as did Laura Ingalls Wilder in her Little House books.What makes this feat so hard to achieve is the difficulty in gaining the distance from one's own experience required to write in a point of view that is so predominantly objective. The level of accomplishment in Deceptions and Betrayals is such that one does not realize, at first, that one is even reading a memoir.

Best of all, Deceptions and Betrayals does have the obligatory happily-ever-after ending, and because Wurtz writes with such skill about the trials she has had to overcome, we end up feeling as if our own problems seem a little less, while our own ability to face them seems a little more.This, perhaps, is why the "triumph-over-adverse-circumstances" theme, from David Copperfield to Little House, to Angela's Ashes and beyond, continues to attract such talent, and such appeal.


Product Description
This is not your average run of the mill autobiography, far from it!Deceptions and Betrayals is a touching and inspiring story with astounding events and triumphs.Marty shares her story of survival with wry wit and humor.Beginning during World War II and touching on the Vietnam era, Deceptions and Betrayals spans over sixty years of highs and lows, tears and laughter.This autobiography reads like a carefully crafted novel, finding grace in straightforward honesty.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Deceptions and Betrayals (Paperback)