Customer Reviews

Hidden Lives

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Marvin Albert's "Hidden Lives" is an ambitious novel. It starts in Paris in the early 1920s as an unorthodox American artist tries to make a living and confront his long-lost father. He finds that his father has Alzheimer's and starts to fall in love with someone he shouldn't: his half-sister. In first part ends as the hero kills his lover's husband after most of his paintings are destroyed maliciously in a fire. The middle has the hero escaping prison and trying to find himself as a member of the Foreign Legion and later an advisor to a Berber chieftain. This part was great as we get a real feel for the High Atlas mountains and the Berber culture. The hero is then sent on a journey to save the chieftain's son by sending him far away, and as a reward he gains enough riches to lead a third life, as a chateau owner/art collector in Provence where he is reunited with his lover/half-sister and his daughter/niece. Thei happiness is short-lived as Germany invades France and they fight for the Resistence. This part gets bogged down in logic errors and such. Then a crucial choice has to be made as the German occupiers threaten mass slaughter as reprisal for "terrorism" and well...a parting between the hero and his long-time friend occurs and the ending is rushed at. Still good enough to recommend.