Ron Friedman

As a computer programmer, I feel like a hack smashing different ideas into a Frankenstein solution. This book says this is creativity .... this is success. Big chunk of my job is finding something that works (for another problem) and make it work for me. I'm creative!

I love the conclusion with the story of Vincent Van Gogh. And the final chapter about feedback will make a lasting impression on me. A lot of the book took effort for me to pick up and read. Some books I read like I eat (inhale) like ice cream. This was not one of them.

But overall I liked the book.

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Night Shines as Day is the story of the Feldstein twins, Danny and Dooney, and their older brother Joel, "aka Jo-El", who would like to be Superman. The boys belong to a Jewish family that is prominent and respected in a small, Northern Ohio suburb in the 1950's. The private faces of their parents, Howard and Faygie Feldstein, however, are somewhat different than the friendly, upbeat ones they display in public. At home, Howard Feldstein expresses the rage that is a souvenir of his own unhappy childhood. As he uses sarcasm, name-calling, belts, and fists on his children, his wife, Faygie, turns away, dreaming of a happier, more accomplished life. Both parents tell their children they are lucky, and everything is just as it should be. The book, which traces the lives of the boys and their parents, is written in a narrative voice that is clear-eyed, fresh, insightful, and wide-ranging as the emotions it conveys. It takes the reader to Texas, Arizona, New York City, and on a journey through trauma. The portraits of family life, characters, and the first-generation Jewish neighborhood in the post-war boom are as unique and vivid as you will find anywhere. The author's description of the feelings of children whose parents say one thing, and do another is a perfect bulls-eye. The ending is a moving, tour de force declaration of redemption. Night Shines as Day is a rich, daring, sad, funny, and ultimately wise novel that packs an emotional wallop. Don't miss it!… (mehr)