The intersection where truth collides with deception takes place in a hospital emergency room in Stones and Glass Houses. After 30 years of loneliness and excuses, two families are set free by the piercing alarm on a flat line monitor. As the trail of deceit unravels, five lives change forever because of the arrogance and weakness of a man who claimed to love them. Gary Friedman weaves a riveting tale that offers a bird’s eye view into the complexity of humanity and love that jumps off every turned page. How will they move on from the mangled heap of lies? It's a story that has similarities to real life dramas and tremendous heartbreak. A loving father and husband lives for years, and even decades, under the roof of what appears to be a loving home but not all is as it appears. There are a few oddities and strange behaviors that largely go unnoticed, ignored or dismissed in favor of other more good or even loving behaviors. As the years and decades slip away the deceptions continue and at some point the deceit will start to crumble away in favor of a terrible, unforgiveable truth. They say truth will set you free but in this story by Gary Friedman, truth threatens to rip apart the hearts and lives of two families brought together by a man who both loved and deceived all of them.
In reading the first pages of this book, it was difficult to follow where the author was trying to take me. He told the story in the first person of several of the characters and the dialogue seemed disjointed from any formation of a plot, which finally took form after a few chapters. At that point, the tale gripped me and kept me glued to the pages. In a catastrophic, emotionally wrenching life changing event, two families are brought together; strangers now tied together with a common thread that has been there unknown to them for three decades.
Gary Friedman has given us a story that should reinforce the importance of understanding our humanity and how each of us navigates life and how we learn both the beauty and the ugliness that is out there. Loved the book and look forward to more from Mr. Friedman.
I give Stones And Glass Houses 4 out of 5 stars.