American Music By: Jane Mendelsohn

Story of the unexplained occurrences between a Veteran of the Iraq war and his physical therapist. When she massages his back she is struck with visions of things she believes he has seen. After a session he is also plagued by memories he didn't remember having. The book is confusing at first because what is happening isn't explained real well, I had to read the summary for that eureka moment. As it turns out, the veteran is able to glimpse parts of other peoples lives from the therapy. The therapist and patient are aware that the other also sees the visions. At first I believed that they were lovers in past lives and are able to remember by being together. The power of love and all that jazz. Then maybe 20 pages from the end we learn that the visions they see are actually the stories of their ancestors. Personally I thought it was too jumbled. The author intermingles the visions with the background on the characters and since there are several different people in the visions it is hard to keep them straight. Fascinating idea, but I didn't feel it was executed effectively, and wouldn't actually recommend this book, though Oprah did. it wasn't until the end that I was able to understand what was going on and then the layout made sense.