BLISS, REMEMBERED

This, a story written by Frank DeFord, is from the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the end of World War II. Sydney Stringfellow, a naive young swimmer from Maryland goes to Europe to compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and meets a young German man, Horst Gerhardt, the son of a high-ranking diplomat. They fall madly in love but are separated during World War II. Love is hard to pursue when you have a heated war between you. Sydney is broken hearted at losing Horst, but eventually meets and marries a kind young American named Jimmy Branch, who then is killed at Guadalcanal. Horst comes to America and they meet each other again but his life is in much danger since he is a spy. Sydney is recalling all of this "remembered bliss" and having her son record the information for she is dying of an incurable illness. Her son and daughter had never heard any of their mother's story of her first love or that she could have been a famous American Olympic swimmer. DeFord comes up with some wonderful surpises that keeps the story from becoming mundane. This book has humor, love, intrigue, history, and action. BLISS, REMEMBERED IS A FABULOUS historical read.