Shaffner's first work of fiction is absolutely delightful!
In this book, the author takes us to a
place we could al identify with- a place where marriages fail and
people suffer - a place where people doubt the existence of a loving God and place all their trust in themselves and their life's work.
A visit from a strange traveling salesman twists the town into tiny knots, and the citizens there have no other recourse than to examine their own faults and priorities. The salesman claims to be selling board games - games of chance. Instead he
offers hope, and reason to believe. He comes and goes with little consequence at first, but his short presence in the town sets up a deep plot of inner change for each character.
"In the Land of Second Chances" was one of the few books I have ever
read that made me feel better about the world in general. I could barely tear my eyes from it as I read, and when I finally finished the last page, I flipped through the entire
book once again, marveling at the beauty within.
The characers were colorful, insightful, and as intertwined with each other as most people are in their own real-life families. This book was a wonderful look at hope, and how it exists in all of us. Sometimes, at the lowest points in our lives, we just have to listen to someone who offers
hope to regain it when we think all is lost. And above all, there is some sort of Creator out there, some diety that made us what we are and gave us
free will. Free will to hope, or free will to give up.
The book even offers a surprise ending, one that not even the most savvy reader might see coming! Be prepared to laugh, to cry and to learn a lesson when reading George Shaffner's "In the Land of Second Chances".
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