As I read through the book, learning how supportive Gabe was to Jake, I had this horrible feeling that I was going to have to suspend belief and think that Jake's acute case of PTSD was going to be "cured" by Gabe's love. And while I really, really wish that were true, I know from experience--particularly from my experience with my cousin Jerry who was severely wounded in the Vietnam war--that love doesn't conquer all.
The torment Jake's sister Alice goes through is the torment my Aunt Mary Claire and Uncle Jerry went through with their son, my cousin. Unfortunately, in the mid 1960s, support services for returning vets with PTSD weren't really available, and suffering on the part of the vets and their families was the norm.
Fortunately, this is a love story, so there is a happy ending. It may not be the fairytale ending we'd all like, but it's happier than the one my cousin Jerry had since he never found his Gabe and died much too young.
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