Morning Is a Long Time Coming

Summer of My German Soldier #2

by Bette Greene

The sequel to Bette Greene's National Book Award finalist Summer of My German Soldier.

Patty is now eighteen, and a high school graduate--but she cannot face her future until she comes to terms with her past. She decides to go to Germany in search of Anton's mother, desperate for a connection to the man she loved and lost. En route, she stops in Paris, where she meets Roger. And now she must think twice about her plan--not only because of what she might find, but because of what she must leave behind?

* "A compelling first-person narrative about love and human relationships." — Booklist , starred review 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, Historical, World War II, Germany

261 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Bette Greene’s award-winning classic novels will be celebrating 40 years in print!

As an award-winning author, screenwriter and news reporter, Bette Greene is read worldwide in over 16 languages. Bette continues her legacy of writing and speaking for the victimized. Within the heartbeat of her storytelling and the realism of her prose lies Bette’s demand that her readers feel what she feels and sees what she sees, taking us beyond our differences.

As the 20th century’s youngest professional news reporter, Bette published her first news story at age eight. Bette Greene’s first book, “Summer of My German Soldier”, won the first “Golden Kite” award. This same novel outsold Prince Charles’ book in his own country.

Bette Greene holds the honor of being the only author included in “Writers of Holocaust Literature”, without having been a victim of the Holocaust.

As a 21st century master author, Bette Greene uses the social media platforms to reach out and touch her readers, Generation - X, Y and Z. According to critics, Bette Greene has given a voice to the voiceless, changing the course of young adults’ literature in America.

For nearly 40 years, Bette Greene’s books have been banned, censored and challenged. The theme of Bette Greene’s award-winning library is always the same - Bullying!

Reviews

[Annette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't consider this a spoiler because I couldn't possibly spoil it any worse than the author already has. I read this book because I didn't like the way the first book (My German Soldier) ended and I was hoping that things would improve for Patty in the sequel. Boy, did I waste my time! I would love to have a refund on all of the time that I spent reading this book. I had hoped that now that Patty was 18 that she somehow would have matured over the last 6 years that transpired since the first book. Unfortunately, she seems to possess a 12 year old's mind in an 18 year old's body. She still lies and tries to manipulate her parents. She picked up a few bad habits along the way, too, like swearing, smoking, and what's up with this obessession with breasts?
The first half of the book was just simply boring. The second half of the book was about what happened to Patty after she arrived in Europe. I really had high hopes that the 2nd half of the book would be better - it was worse!!! The day after she arrives in France she meets a Frenchman, the day after they meet, they spend the night together. The morning after their first night together these are Patty's thoughts about Evangelical Preachers: "Go on preaching if you must. Preach on and on about the ferocity of all those fires just awaiting those that are tempted by the flesh. Preach on and on and forever and ever, but you'll never make me feel evil, not anymore. Because for at least once in my life, I am both loved and loving." Is this the kind of message we want to send to our young adults? That sex is love? How can you possibly love someone you just barely met?
At the end of the book Patty goes completely bezerk in a German hotel. She starts yelling at an innocent hotel employee for saying the words "I am only following the orders of the management." She screams hysterically calling him a murderer and then destroys hotel property. Is this a good role model for our young adults? After that public display of stupidity she winds up in jail. When the officer comes to let her out, he says that he'll let her out if she can behave decently. She responds with "You have no right to speak to me of decency, no right at all, for I am a Jew and you ... you're only a German." What??? Wasn't your beloved Anton a German!?! Doesn't this contradict the whole message of the first book - A young Jewish girl shows compassion for a German soldier? I just can't figure out what message the author was trying to send here. What was the point of turning Patty into a stark-raving-lunatic? The girl is seriously disturbed. What are we supposed to learn from this???

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the spirit of summer reading lists of yore, I thought I'd focus on another book that was on one of the many lists I went through. Or rather the sequel to one of those books--MORNING IS A LONG TIME COMING--the sequel to Summer of My German Soldier. Reading Summer of My German Soldier kind of wrecked my twelve-year-old self. I loved it, but man did it hurt. I was on Patty's side from the beginning and I was frankly horrified at the way her family treated her. Particularly her atrocious mother. In fact, it was probably the pains she suffered at the hands of her parents that lingered in my heart far longer than the loss of her sweet friend. I remember being outraged and bereft at the end of it, having come up hard against Patty's many injustices, both social and personal. It's a beautiful book, but man does it hurt. Fortunately, this lovely sequel went a long way toward healing that hurt. Just as it did for Patty. And every time I read it it makes me want to go to sleep and wake up in Paris.

MORNING IS A LONG TIME COMING opens six years after the events of Summer of My German Soldier. Patty is graduating from Jenkinsville High and heading to visit her grandparents in Memphis to celebrate. While there, they present her with a check for college and she begins entertaining the possibility of fulfilling her dream and traveling to Europe to find Anton's mother. Unable to set the circumstances of his death behind her, Patty longs to meet his family and explain her story to the mother of her friend. Against the wishes of her family (and the entire closeminded population of Jenkinsville), she sets sail for Europe, making a few friends on the voyage who help her come out of her shell a little and who remind her there is so much more to the world than Arkansas. In Paris, Patty meets a young photographer and English instructor name Roger who opens up another view of the world to Patty. And even as she experiences a happiness and freedom she has never known before, her obsession with Anton's death and with finding and meeting his mother rears its head, lurks in the back of her mind, pressing on her, prodding her to leave Paris and Roger for Germany and the possibilities it represents.

I love this book. It is such a simple, sweet story. And I love it as a sequel because, even set six years later, it addresses the implications of its predecessor with just as much gravity and attention as they deserve. Patty was just twelve years old when she met Anton. The fact that she has reached the legal age of adulthood has nothing on the power of the impressions that were made at that tender age. At the same time, I was proud of how strong she'd gotten in the interim. She stood up to her mother and father, she defied everyone who ever told her she was dirt and she left them in the dust and traveled to the Old World, which for her was so breathtakingly new. It's a fine line presenting a protagonist with a true obsession. And Patty was a slave to hers. But she was cognizant of it. That fact is what always strikes me about her. She knows it's killing her, dragging her under with its constant emotional assault. And yet she moves through it, trying to keep her head above water and do the right thing and accomplish what it takes to lay her ghosts to rest and move on with her life. I love her for her doggedness and her earnestness. And I love Roger for his quintessential Frenchness and for the wholehearted and compassionate way he embraces life and Patty.

Few people read beyond the first book. Many don't even know this one exists and it deserves so much more than that. Recommended for fans of Eva Ibbotson (particularly A Song for Summer) and Madeleine L'Engle's And Both Were Young.

[Julianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for THC Reviews
"4.5 stars" Although there doesn't seem to be an official series title, Morning Is a Long Time Coming is a sequel to Bette Greene's modern classic, young-adult novel, Summer of My German Soldier. Since that book had a decidedly unsatisfying ending, I was glad to see that Ms. Geene had written a follow-up. I had always felt that there were many reviewers who mis-characterized Summer of My German Soldier as a romance. I didn't really see it as such for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the 10-year age difference between Patty and Anton and the fact that she was still just a girl when they met. Love can take many different forms, and although Patty and Anton cared for each other deeply, I was never 100% convinced that what they shared was a romantic sort of love. Nevertheless, Patty does begin this book with unresolved issues surrounding her time with Anton. Undoubtedly, a lot of reviewers will view Morning Is a Long Time Coming as even more of a romance than the first book, because of Patty's relationship with Roger, a young Frenchman she meets in Paris (which I will concede is definitely of the romantic variety), but at it's heart, this book is totally about Patty's journey of self-discovery of which Roger is just one part. He brings joy and happiness to her life that she had never known before, but ultimately, Patty must vanquish her demons on her own.

When we first meet up with Patty again, she is now a young woman just graduating from high school, but the frightened, hurt little girl is still there, as is her burning need to belong to someone. Of course, her parents think her crazy for wanting to spend her graduation money on a trip to Europe, but that's exactly what she does with a plan in the back of her mind to meet Anton's mother, thinking that she can receive from her what Patty's own mother was never willing or able to give. Of course, the best laid plans often go awry, especially when the person who makes them is relying on someone else to provide emotional security.

I felt that in the six years between books, Patty had grown and matured. She engaged in a fair bit of self-analysis, as well as trying to figure out her parents, why they were abusive toward her and why she never seemed to be able to please them no matter what she did. I could really relate to Patty feeling like a square peg in a round hole. She discovers that she is pretty socially inept with her peers which isn't too surprising. Some of that comes from a lack of self-confidence that was beaten out of her all her life by parents who constantly criticized and were physically, emotionally and mentally abusive. The rest is quite simply that Patty truly is different in the way she thinks and perceives the world around her. She is more open-minded than most about those who are different from her and truly wants to give of herself to help others. It's what drove her to assist Anton all those years ago, even knowing that it might lead to more trouble than she could imagine, and her quest to understand this part of herself still drives her now. In fact, all of these things weigh so heavily on her that it makes her physically ill. Once she is out of her stifling hometown, Patty finally feels a freedom she's never known, yet I wasn't too surprised to see that the first young man she felt attracted to on the voyage to Europe was just like her father, critical, demanding and temperamental. She is definitely a classic case of an abused person gravitating toward what is familiar and comfortable even if it isn't good for her. I was glad to see that didn't last long, and when Patty got to Paris and met Roger, it was like she became a whole different person around him. It was uplifting to finally see her laugh and smile, but those old demons still lurked in the background, keeping Roger at arms length. When Patty finally made her decision to go to Germany, I understood her obsession with needing to meet Anton's mother, but at the same time, I agreed on some level with Roger that he deserved better considering all that they had shared.

Roger is the only supporting player with a meaty role in this book, but since the entire story is written in first-person perspective from Patty's point of view, we don't get a lot of deep insights into his character. However, there were just enough relationship scenes for me to really like him. He is a gentle, free-spirit who is the perfect foil for Patty's more serious nature. I liked that Roger was a gentleman. He very easily could have taken advantage of Patty when she got drunk once, but instead took care of her and waited for her to sober up before trying to take things any further. Throughout their time together he was tender and sweet, but at the same time, those wonderful qualities are what make Patty a bit suspicious of him and his motives, because she has only ever known men who were hard and cynical. In many ways, Roger understood Patty even better than she understood herself, but when her obsession with somehow making Anton's family the family she never had finally reared its ugly head, he was understandably upset and said some hurtful things. Luckily, Roger was a very forgiving man who truly did love Patty and wanted to make a life with her.

There were certain elements in Summer of My German Soldier which has caused it to have a long-time place on the most banned/challenged books list, and Morning Is a Long Time Coming followed suit with some of the same potentially objectionable content while upping the maturity level. Though not pervasive, there are some mild and religious profanities peppered throughout the book as well as racial slurs against Mexicans and African Americans, including several uses of the “n” word. Patty smokes a couple of times, drinks wine on a few occasions and one time consumes a stronger alcoholic beverage, getting drunk. Patty's father threatens to beat her, and her parents are abusive. There is mention of Patty's father having “taken advantage” of young ladies, and some mild discussion of sex in general including but not limited to Patty's parents thinking she's sexually active and possibly pregnant, and a classmate who earned a colorful nickname for apparently messing around with the boys. There is also one love scene between Patty and Roger that ends in a cut scene with no real details, but some may find it troublesome that the couple have just met at that point and then live together for the next few months without being married. Additionally, the complexities of Patty's emotions may be difficult for even adults to understand, so in that respect, I thought it had more the feel of an adult novel. However, in spite of all this, I still did not feel that there was anything that older teens couldn't handle especially with parental or educator guidance. As a parent, I wouldn't object to my 15 year old reading it.

Morning Is a Long Time Coming is a story that delves fairly deeply and realistically into the psyche of an abused person and her efforts to make sense of that in order to carve a meaningful place for herself in the world. For that reason alone, I thought the book was emotionally touching and deserved kudos. That said though, I couldn't help wanting the ending to be a little more solid than it was, which is why I knocked off the half star. By the time I finished the book, I did believe that Patty had learned some valuable insights about herself and life in general and was finally on the right road. It was just that her peace did not feel quite complete to me, but then again, she was still very young with much ahead of her and this type of recovery is always a lifelong journey. Although as I've already said, I fully realize that this story was not really meant as a romance, the hopeless romantic in me also wanted an HEA for Patty and Roger, mainly because I thought they complimented each other well, and after everything she'd been through Patty quite simply deserved it. The way it wrapped up felt like more of an HFN (happy for now) ending, but at least, I felt like they had a strong chance to make it work on a more permanent basis. Overall, I liked Morning Is a Long Time Coming very much. It has earned a spot on my keeper shelf and with two lovely books in a row, Bette Greene has earned a spot on my favorite authors list. She is a writer who is good at expressing the emotional and psychological complexities of her characters and who doesn't seem to be afraid to explore issues of marginalization or other controversial topics. I love these types of stories, so this makes me eager to check out the other books she has written soon.

[Olivia's Bookish Places & Spaces · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm one of those people who likes closure. I loved "Summer of my German Solider", although no major spoilers the ending was heartbreaking and left me with more questions than answers. When I saw that Bette Greene had written this book I just knew I had to read it.

After seeing several highly negative reviews on Goodreads I was originally somewhat hesitant to read it. Fortunately, I liked it, not as much as the first one but still liked it. The main character Patty is struggling to grow up and find herself. She realizes the only way she can do this is to leave her small town and her toxic family life behind her by going to Europe (France and Germany) to seek closure following the death of Anton, the German solider she met in the first book. I really enjoyed seeing Patty evolve from being a somewhat immature 18 year old to someone who learned to find love and happiness and give herself the live she deserves.

Although the book did not end the way I would have liked it to end, it still ended on a good note and I was excited to see this small town girl grow into a confident woman with a very bright future. I'd highly recommend this one to anyone who didn't feel that the first book gave them the ending they desired.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All I know is that growing up hurts too much. Growing down is what I'd really like to do. Be little enough again so it would be perfectly natural to be protected from the wind and the rain—and the world."

—Patty Bergen, Morning Is a Long Time Coming, P. 84

"But don't go thinking that I'm critical of you, Anton, because really I'm not. Not a bit! It's just that you're not here. I'm alone and I'm frightened and you're not here. And you're not ever going to be here for me."

—Patty Bergen, P. 152

Bette Greene, author of this book, has said, "I wrote Morning Is a Long Time Coming because I needed to explain my life to myself." The profundity of that truth comes through in the pages of the book with a kind of power that will knock the reader upside down, and leave an impression that will last forever.

Patty Bergen is a wholly real, painfully realized character, shaded and nuanced and developed as few people in the history of literature have been. It is like seeing and hearing about the life story of a real girl who has ventured forth into the world to finally try to find people who love her, to see if the affection that her parents have kept from her for her entire life is waiting out there in the arms and eyes of another, one who would see her as a truly valuable person.

Bette Greene takes a coming-of-age story beyond its usual parameters for the young adult set and drifts past the age of eighteen, letting us see what becomes of Patty after her tragic yet revelatory experiences that occur during the summer of her thirteenth year, the "summer of her German soldier." Believe me, this extra look into what happens after the events of that book is a rare and very special treasure for anyone who takes the time out to find it, for anyone who takes the time to learn from the deeply moving wisdom of Bette Greene and see how what she has to say about the trials and joys of her own life reflects upon one's own experiences.

The title, Morning Is a Long Time Coming, refers to a verse in the Bible book of Proverbs, which states that weeping may endure for a night, but joyfulness comes in the morning. Patty Bergen has lived through so many difficult personal experiences that she feels as if her own morning of eventual joyfulness has been a long time in coming, and that perhaps it may never come. This book will deeply resound, I believe, with every one of us who has felt (or still feels) that their own morning has been a long time coming, and maybe has begun to doubt that that happiness may ever come. The message of the story rings so true, ultimately, because it is true, and because we all have felt such things.

"Six years is plenty long enough to soothe the tearing anguish of...death, but maybe no amount of time is enough to soothe something that is no longer there. Something like an emptiness that can never be filled because it's only a bit of space carved out of air."

—Morning Is a Long Time Coming, P. 225

"That's when I saw—cleary saw—that there was more than one mountain in my life. Some could be seen and some couldn't be, but just the same, they were all out there. All out there waiting for me."

—Patty Bergen, P. 261

[Jennifer Lafferty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed in this sequel to Summer of My German Soldier, which I loved. As with many other sequels I've read, this novel seemed to lack direction and the first half of the book was very much a rehash of the first. The central character, Patty Bergen, was not as sympathetic a heroine as she was in the original story. Also, her motives were not really explained until almost the end of the book.

At the beginning of this novel Patty is graduating from high school and she has a very different plan for her immediate future than her family has for her. She wants to use her grandparents' financial gift, intended for college tuition, to instead travel to Europe, specifically Germany, where her now deceased love, Anton was from, to meet his family. But it isn't completely clear why this trip is so important to her. She doesn't get to Europe until about halfway into the book and after falling for a new man, a Frenchman who is not very likable, she puts off going to Germany for several months.

The book did have some compelling moments in the first few chapters and was interesting at times, but I think it had the potential to be much better, especially considering the author's talent.

[Helen Colquett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have VERY mixed emotions about this book..... on one hand I do not agree with the plot cycle whatsoever. Why was so much time spent on Patty in America? Greene spent a third of the book on one month and the rest was around 4 months. Then it all went whooosshhh and now it’s over. I think homegirl got a little lazy with the last twenty pages.

On the other hand I can see why— Patty really focuses on what she doesn’t like or who doesn’t like her. One of her friends on the boat to Europe straight up called her out about how she doesn’t realize how smart and beautiful she is, so maybe it is fitting that Europe was a speedy blur because she was finally living a life she enjoyed.

I will say one of my biggest hesitations is how this book straight up went into a harlequin soap opera vibe towards the end, again lazy writing seems to pull out cheap ploys. Guess I’m glad I got to knock it off my list. Stick with the first one, kids.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sequel to Summer of My German Soldier. Although in my opinion it is not nearly as great a story as the first, I do love that Patty remains the same character, only 6 years later. And she is struggling to figure out who she is and breaking away from her parents' destructive influence. I do miss Ruth -- I understand why Ruth was not in this book much, but I think she is one of the main characters that gave the previous book much of its greatness. I do have to say I love this quote (from which the book got its name):

Ruth says "Why, right there in Psalms it says: 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy....joy cometh in the morning.'"

And then Patty says "I felt a rush of pain for the morning that had been so long in coming."

Patty did not have an easy life, and at 18 she has been through more hurt and sorrow than most. I like that she is determined to go forward.

[Provost · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, after reading Summer of My German Soldier, this book really didn't compare. In the first book you really sympathize with the characters, even the 'bad' ones sometimes, even though they do cruel and unreasonable things. In Morning is a Long Time Coming, I really didn't feel empathy with any of the characters, and I tried. Instead of discovering herself and her own self-worth, as I expected from the first book, Patty seemed determined to be insecure and bitchy, judging everything based on what her parents did, and basing her self-esteem on a guy. Patty did learn some things about herself, but I felt most of the book was Patty thinking deeply (and incomprehensibly) about life, while not really getting anything accomplished or decided. All in all, I really think the sequel was pointless since it didn't show Patty gaining her independence in a healthy, mature way.

[Lexie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember loving the first book when I read it years ago, and I still remember how much I disliked this book upon initially reading it, not to long after having finished reading the first book. I'd have to re-read it again to tell you all of why I did not like it, but I think the biggest reasons I did not like it, is because Patty did not improve as a character, but rather worsened. It was as if her whole story arc from the first novel was useless. Everything that she had become at the end of the first novel, which was a lot stronger and more interesting of a character, was abandoned for a shallow shell of a person that we see in this novel. And the story was rather uninteresting as well, with a very disappointing climax. Overall, it was one of the most disappointing books I've ever read.

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although not as good as Summer it was still an excellent book and surprisingly good for a sequel, which are often very disappointing.

I'm recommending both of these to my daughters for summer reads.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sequel to "Summer of My German Soldier", which I read a few days ago. This book was not what I expected at all. The previous book ended with Patty in Reform School and I was eager to know what happened. This book begins 6 years later, when Patty graduates from high school in her small town of Jenkinsville, Arkansas. I also hoped to learn why her parents were so hard on her but loved her younger sister. I never learned that. Her mother continued to criticize and tear her down while her father still hit her. Her grandparents obviously loved her but even they didn't understand her. No one did when she decided that rather than to go to college that she would complete the dream she had decided on 6 years before, that she would spend her college savings on a trip to Germany to visit Anton's parents. Anton was her German soldier. I truly thought that she would find Anton alive. She didn't. She did go to Europe and she found love in Paris but she almost destroyed both her health and that love. And visiting Germany was not the dream that she thought it would be. Patty had a very difficult time with growing up and accepting herself for herself.

I think these two books could almost be considered classics.

[J.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this because it was the sequel to "Summer of My German Soldier," which I enjoyed. However, the character who at 13 was confused but endearing now reads, at 18, as a spoiled little brat who wavers from one extreme to the other. Halfway through the story I realized I couldn't stand the main character Patty and didn't care if she ever found Anton's mother or not.

The blurb states she goes to Europe in search of Anton's mother (he was the Nazi she befriended in the first book), but by the midway point, she hasn't bothered going to visit the woman and doesn't even spend all that much time thinking about Anton. She was so blown away by him in the first story, and because of her low self-esteem, she isn't exactly a social butterfly, but the ease with which she falls into relationships in this story is almost unbelievable. There's very little inner dialogue regarding love or sex or even kissing, which in the first book seemed so memorable to her, but she's so hung up on her past and can't seem to move forward.

After almost two hundred pages, I personally don't care if she ever comes to terms with anything at all because she annoys the crap out of me. I know know if she bothers to make it to Anton's mother or not, and at this point, I don't care. I'm done with it. Finis.

[er3bors · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, what a letdown.

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you were tricked into reading this because you were hoping to do a lot of reading about Patty's trip to Germany and connect with Anton's family, as promised by the synopsis, I feel bad for you, son. That part gets shoved into maybe one or two chapters at the end; most of the book is taken up by Patty's questionable tryst in Europe with some French guy who is about as controlling as the father she fled from. Any of the character development that took place with Patty in the first book - Anton's lesson that she is a person of value, etc. - is basically gone here: there are all kinds of scenes where she is pushing people away because she misreads social situations to the point where she's sure everyone hates her. It gets frustrating and broken-record annoying early on. A bright spot comes when she finally tells off her abusive family through a closure letter. And I liked the relationship dynamics shown with Patty and her extended family, before she left for Europe, and touched on in the previous book. But it just wasn't enough. This might be a decent read on its own, but I'm guessing most of us were led to it through "Summer of My German Soldier," and it fails as a follow-up.

[Allison Renner · Rating 1 out of 5]

his is the sequel to Summer of My German Soldier, which I never knew existed until I stumbled across it at a used book sale. Summer of My German Soldier was one of my favorite books as a preteen, so I was looking forward to reading the follow-up, especially as I recently re-read the original. I didn’t think a sequel was necessary, and the story told in the book was pretty much what I expected - just extra happenings. There was really nothing that needed closure or expanding upon. I was actually frustrated by much of the book, because Patty still seemed immature even at 18, and her being the disliked child of the family was a little over the top. I’d still recommend the first novel to younger readers, but I wouldn’t necessarily push the sequel

[Tannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't quite as good as Summer of my German Soldier, but I still liked it. I wanted to know what happened to Patty and how she got on as she grew older, this book satisfied that for me. I was also impressed with how convinced I was that this indeed was Patty, only older. I think that's difficult. The last time we read a story with her, she was just 12, and now she is a grown woman. I was slightly disappointed in a few of the plot points, but for the most part I liked it. I felt like Patty FINALLY learned her value, and that can't be an easy thing in face of how she was raised. For that I was so happy. Good follow up!

[Ariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bette Greene is a writer who is great at making complicated characters who have complicated problems, and bringing them through the things that happen in the book while they are growing to understand themselves, even as complicated as they are. I love her writing, because I feel like it makes me understand myself better (and I'm in my 20s). It's not necessarily action-packed, but in her book The Summer of my German Soldier, I started crying at about the 3/4 mark, and I didn't stop crying until 10 or 15 minutes after I finished the book. I definitely recommend both of these books.

[Misti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Six years after sheltering German soldier Anton Reiker, Patty travels to Europe in search of closure.

I honestly can't remember whether or not I've read this book before. Its predecessor had such an impact on me that I feel I must have sought it out, but I have no memory of actually reading it. Either way, it's a much different book, and I think an inferior one. Maybe I started it as a teen but never finished it, and that's why I don't remember it. It's not a book that I'd recommend.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the first book I have ever truly disliked. It was painful to read. The author fails to adequately develop her main character from the previous novel, and her actions are completely unaligned with the passionate little girl from book one. It was awful and ruins the magic of Summer of My German Soldier. Do not pick this one up. It's a waste of time and an unforgivable disappointment.

[Kristie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as the first - I expected something very different.

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Patty Bergen (the main character) is not nearly as interesting as an adult as she is as a twelve year old.

[Jennifer Lucking]

Loved "Summer of my German Soldier" but didn't like this sequel...

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a good book. It's prequel, Summer of my German Soldier was so much better, I think it deserved a better sequel. It had its good parts, but it's not a book that I would recommend.

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first novel is so great this one seemed to have no real connection to it. Not worth the read.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only now realizing this is the follow-up to Summer of My German Soldier. It stands on its own. Just didn't love it.

[Marcelaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think I want to finish this because it's just ruining the first book for me. This is not the same Patty that I got to know in Summer of My German Soldier.

[Mayci Muirbrook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was NO WHERE NEAR the level that Summer of my German Soldier was on. Loved the first one but would NOT recommend this one.

[Shelley Alongi]

This book deserves a few comments, at least from my perspective. I read the first book again in preparation for reading the second book. Every time I read the first book I always pick up something new. I honestly didn’t know there was a second book till recently so I gave it a read to see how she ends this story or where she takes us anyway. I admire her story because it’s different. I don’t know if I quite believe that things happened this way but then is a story and it has several lessons giving it relevance in the novel department. I think this book falls more into the idea of fantasy but that’s just because in this day and age of reading we like to categorize everything. What I still find fascinating about the first book is that she uses a German soldier who is in the eyes of the locals a complete write off to teach her best lessons and her traditionally persecuted character, i.e., the Jewish characters in her book to demonstrate both the most loving and the most hurtful of actions. I decided with the fourth read that her lessons center more on the local attitudes and their most enduring damage to Patty. I picked up the second book wondering where she was going to take us.

I’m not quite sure I believe this story, though as they say truth is stranger than fiction so if there were any truth to this it would be a stranger story than the one on the pages. I read this in one sitting. I thought she took too long to get us to France. The chapters after graduation drag us into details that do in a way relate to the experience she has with Roger in its differences but still took too long to read. I could have skipped all those details but I read them because I had a feeling they related to her upcoming love affair. I had to admire her continuing efforts to get to Europe despite everyone’s objections. It’s hard to imagine where she got her courage but i saw glimpses of it throughout the story.

The thing that stood out to me in the book was when she finally went to Goetigen to find anton’s mother. I thought it was anticlimactic for all the trouble that she took to get there and the argument she had with Roger even getting there the meeting could have been handled differently even with the people she met in Anton’s house. I think this is me speaking as an author. I thought for all Patty’s struggles she could have at least explained herself and who she was and the connection with Anton to the family. I kept wondering if this was even the right family but then I remembered that she said when viewing the house that it was the way Anton had described it. But at least she went away with a feeling that at least she had done what she set out to do.

I found it intriguing that after she has her last conversation in her head with Anton where she says he’s not there to teach her and he should not start projects he can’t finish that we meet Roger in the next scene. In my own imagination it was Anton who led her to Roger who ultimately showed her how much value she had. Maybe that’s just my fantasy.

I thought Patty’s reaction to the extra night charge on her bill was a little dramatic especially when he mentioned something about following orders. Classic response if a bit overdone. But, Green had to get her protagonist back to Paris after learning of the death of who we assume to be Anton’s mother.

I thought for the amount of time she spent on everything that we could have spent more time in Germany but I didn’t write the book. Working with the material she presented these are my feelings. I don’t think I’ll read this book again. I probably won’t read the Summer of my German Soldier again at least for a very long time. They are, with their settings and perceived imperfections and lessons taught, at least books that have affected me in some ways and have given me things to reflect on such as lies being made up of some grain of truth which is an observation Anton makes in the first book. It is true, of course. As I read history and everyone’s perspective on it the first book more than the second leaves me with a different thing to reflect on each time I read it. It remains to be seen what the second book will do in my experience with history and literature. So far, my best response is to the first book.

There is one more thing that stands out. In Patty’s final scene with Ruth, Ruth explains that she became the mother that Patty was looking for, thus, leading us to the conclusion Patty had to reach later, that Anton’s mother was no longer available to fulfil that role. And, Patty is a complicated character because she both loves and hates, fears and exhibits her own kind of courage in the face of opposition and that is the indomitable human spirit at work.

[Narise · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was barely any better than the first. For the first half of the book, absolutely nothing happens. It's just Patty spiraling, fixating on her past, and doing unimportant things in Jenkinsville. Patty will ramble on for pages with no purpose as to what she's saying. So many things happen for no reason: meeting Michael, the ulcer...Did the author have a page minimum?
Patty is as unlikable as ever. She’s pretentious and rude. Towards the end of the novel, in response to a hotel clerk charging her for an extra night because she missed the check out time, she starts screaming at him about the Nazi’s orders to kill the Jews. She equates the clerk following the hotel protocol to the Holocaust. I was speechless. All because she didn’t read carefully. As someone who’s worked in customer service, this is a big WTF, and the only person who looks bad in this situation is the customer, Patty.
Patty is constantly flip-flopping between hating her parents (which is valid considering the way they treated her) to praising her father's patriotism and manliness. Huh? I understand there being conflicted/complex feelings about unloving parents, but it was too black and white to make any sense. She would question why she still cares about her parents opinion, but then do nothing about it...
Patty has moved her fixation from Anton to Roger. She spends the first half of the book crying out, "Anton, oh, Anton!!" and the second half of the book crying out, "Roger, oh, Roger!!" This girl has so many issues, and the solution was not to shove her into a relationship with a random man from Paris. She meets Roger on her 2nd day in Paris from what I remember, and then just stays with him from then on. This girl needs to learn how to be independent and not place her value on every man that gives her attention. There is also no chemistry between Roger and Patty. Roger is passionate about denouncing imperialism and forms of oppression, while Patty jokes about lynchings and firmly believes America has only done good for other countries and has never tyrannized any peoples. I don't understand why Roger would want to be with someone so ignorant, who shows no signs of growing or learning. It doesn’t make any sense.
When Patty FINALLY goes to meet Anton’s mother, she’s dead. That’s realistic. What DOESN’T make any sense, is once she finds out about the death, she does not bother to talk to Anton’s OTHER family member, and just LEAVES. Huh???? What a waste of time. I guess the point is to show that Patty truly needs to let go of this fixation on Anton...but it didn’t need to take over 200 pages for her to figure this out. And also she didn’t get rid of her fixation. She just transfers it over to Roger.
Lastly, there were still a lot of unresolved issues from the first book. It's still never explained why Patty's parents despise her. (And now they’re suddenly very concerned about how she carries herself sexually...? That was unnecessary, and the way it was approached was creepy.) Patty still lies constantly for no good reason. Still a lot of culturally insensitive language and descriptions that could've 100% been avoided.
Again, another troubling book from Bette Green.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I finished reading MORNING IS A LONG TIME COMING, I felt that bittersweet sense of gratitude and sorrow which you tend to feel when truly wonderful literature comes to an end - I am at once so glad to have known Patty and so sorry that I can never again read her story with fresh eyes.

I was surprised then, on reading others' reviews, to see this book so harshly judged, and I'd like to share here some of what I believe makes it so special.

Most importantly, what this book is NOT:
- It is not a neatly tied parcel, in which justice is served out to every character from Summer of My German Soldier, and the reader can leave feeling vindicated in their belief that all books should have happy endings. If you weren't a huge fan of the prequel then leave this one well alone.
- It is not a fast-paced and action-packed story. More so than Summer of My German Soldier it is self-reflective, with more action taking place inside Patty's mind than in the 'real world'.

And it is here that it excels.

Set 6 years after Patty's summer with Anton, Greene explores the joy and the pain of becoming independent, particularly of doing so in a way that isn't supported by family. Throughout the book the effects of Patty's childhood abuse on her character are clear: it has left her physically and emotionally wounded and this is what makes her so wonderfully human - striving to love without ever having had a decent male role model to show how what to look for in a partner; striving to be honest and loving and kind whilst finding it near impossible to break down the protective walls she has built around herself; acting with cowardice and selfishness and rebuking herself for these behaviours.

When we first meet Patty again she has matured a little, but not nearly as much as we may have hoped. But then, how could she have? She hasn't had the opportunities to meet new the people and experience the new places which she needs to be the fertile soil for her self-development. As she travels, we see her begin to cast out old demons, begin to find her feet and begin to learn to love and to allow herself to be loved. This book as about the beginning of the process. It isn't so patronising as to suggest that one can wipe away all of childhood trauma in 6 months, or so simplistic as to suggest that recovery is linear - Patty's words and actions can feel irrational and rude at times, right up to the end of the novel, which is frustrating because we are so on her side.

Throughout the narrative, Patty is thinking, reflecting, discussing her options with herself in her own head and fighting to distinguish what is right from what she wants. She is only 18 and this book is a rare example of an author portraying 18 as the strange balance of 'grown up' and 'utterly naive and still pretty selfish' which it is. The way that Greene gets inside the workings of Patty's mind is where this book displays itself as real art. I feel a better person for having read it, I have more empathy for others and I have a more solid foundation of hope for Patty's future happiness, even if she's not there yet. It's also a beautiful representation of Europe which definitely makes you want to visit Paris!

This said, I know I wouldn't have liked this book if I'd read it as a teenager. I admire it now (aged 27) because I know how nuanced the experience of growing up is, how differently happy and healthy relationships can form and how easy it is to make a wrong decision for a wrong reason.

Thank you, Bette Greene, for putting these two novels out into the world. They have struck a chord with me and my life has been greatly enriched for having read them.