THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS is a book about bigotry, lies and surviving both. Given the current political climate, it is uncannily relevant.

This is a rich and dense read about a very timely subject - it requires the reader to wrestle with potential nightmares of the country. It's worth your time, but it is not a small task.

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here — a satire showing it sure can. With incredible ambition, Joan Dempsey follows Lewis’ example to illustrate urgent truths at a time of crisis. This Is How It Begins unites the “it” of the past with the “it” of today in ways people on the wrong side of history vigorously dispute.

Most of the story is told by three generations of a remarkable family. The grandparents are Polish immigrants, a Catholic art professor and a Jewish lawyer who became the Massachusetts Attorney General. Their sons are a Chief of Police and the President of the Massachusetts Senate. Their grandson is a teacher, one who has been fired, along with ten other teachers, for infringing on their students’ religious expression.

This reflects the current anti-gay movement opposing anti-bullying laws because not bullying infringes on students’ expression. Bigotry and intolerance are claimed as protected religious expression. It’s not fiction. The other main character is a religious radio personality who is part of the inner circle organizing a push to establish or, as the falsely claim, restore, America as a Christian Nation. It’s not hyperbole, look who won his election Tuesday night, a man who defied the Supreme Court twice, elevating his religious dogma over the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

The grandmother recalls her past in Warsaw, revealing her secrets if only to herself. At first, she does not recognize how very much homophobia echoes anti-Semitism, but as the campaign gains ground, with an attack on her son, threatening phone calls, graffiti, and even arson, the similarities are unmistakable. She knows from her own experience that the Nazis did not start out with death camps, they started out by firing teachers.

This Is How It Begins makes an earnest and high-minded effort to be fair-minded. Warren Meck, the radio host is sincere in his compassion for the teachers and their families. He is worried someone is directing the violence and the real love that motivates him is lost in the malice. However, if your religion requires you to be “resilient in the face of empathy” – if empathy is something you struggle against, then the problem is you.

I want to mention one quality of This Is How It Begins I appreciate more than any other. Dempsey avoids the cheap cynicism of modern writers who assume anyone who is in politics is necessarily corrupted by it. Nearly everyone is sincere, the retired Attorney General, the Senate President, even the homophobe Meck is sincere.

This story tackles the big question for people who value freedom and humanity. How does a tolerant society tolerate intolerance? Karl Popper argues tolerating intolerance ultimately leads to the eradication of tolerance by the intolerant. I think Ludka, the family matriarch would agree.

This Is How It Begins will be released October 1st. I received an advance e-galley from the publisher, She Writes Press, through NetGalley.

Loved this book! It was a fast read for me, it drew me in and then I couldn't put it down. The only problem for me was the book ended! I wanted these people in my life I need to know what they are doing now. This book delves into subject matter that is front and center in our world today while looking back in history. This is a beautifully written novel. I plain to buy several copies to give to family and friends. Thank you for giving me a chance to fall in love with this work of art!

http://www.jackreidy.com/blog/2017/09/20/this-is-how-it-begins

This is How It Begins is a very good book. I thought it was so good I read it twice.

I will sometimes re-read books but usually after a good interval has passed. I think this may be the first that I have read a book twice within a few weeks. It is definitely the only one that I read twice before the book was released.

It is that good.

In a very readable fashion Joan Dempsey weaves a number of stories together. At the center of the book is Ludka Zeilonka, an eighty-five year old art professor, who has flashbacks to her youth in Nazi occupied Poland and her role in the Resistance while dealing with secrets from that time as well as contemporary issues including the firing of her grandson from his teaching position because of his homosexuality.

In addition to being a good story, This is How It Begins is a very thought-provoking book. For example, I think no matter what your position is on homosexual teachers in public schools, you will gain a greater understanding of the opposite position. You may or may not change your mind, but you will re-examine your position and have a better understanding of other positions. The author brings you to this understanding by presenting both sides through well developed and often likeable characters, with whom the reader may empathize.

I thank Netgalley for the chance to read this Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of This is How It Begins which is to be released October 3. You might want to pre-order this book or add your name to the request list at your local library. You’ll be glad you did.

"This Is How It Begins" tackles a lot of issues that are extremely relevant in our current political climate. The novel centers on the firing of homosexual teachers due to their sexuality spearheaded by a fundamentalist media personality. The author, Joan Dempsey, places an important Polish Jewish family at the center of this turmoil. As someone who hid Jews during World War II, our main character, Ludka Zeilonka's life and the religious persecution of the Jews is presented as a parallel issue to the persecution of her grandson due to sexuality. While the writing is a little dry and heavy handed, this novel addresses so many issues pertinent to our time.

Only six years ago I saw a Christian church undergo a vicious split. It involved attacking the denomination for a social creed they deemed too liberal and the pastor as heretical for not leading their withdrawal from the denomination. Their main point of contention was over abortion, although they also were vocal about homosexuality.

A majority of the church members left the denomination to start a community church, but first, they tried to take over, then destroy, the church they had been members of for many years. It was shocking how individuals viciously attacked others while
professing a Bible-based faith.

My husband was the pastor of that church. It was that experience that prompted me to request this novel.

This Is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey was an emotional read, full of believable and fully realized characters, doctrinal idealists and victims of prejudice and hate. I loved how characters showed themselves to be different from what we expected from them.

Art professor Ludka Zeilonka had survived Nazi Poland while saving Jewish children and hiding drawings documenting the occupation. She immigrated to America with her husband Izaac, who became the first Jewish attorney-general in Massachusetts. Their son Lolek is the state's most powerful senator, and his son Tommy is a well-liked high school English Teacher, married to lawyer Richard.

Tommy, along with thirteen other teachers, were all fired on the same day. The one thing they have in common is their sexual orientation. Tommy and his family become the target of hate crimes of increasing violence.

Influential Pastor Royce has an agenda and political ambitions. He is supported by radio host Warren Merck in a campaign to restore America to its Christian roots. They are behind the mass firing of teachers. Politically savvy, their defense is that Christian students feel marginalized and pressured against expressing their beliefs while being forced to accept the 'homosexual agenda' promoted by the fired teachers.

Merck is appalled by the rising violence, Tommy beaten in front of his house and his grandparent's home set on fire.

Ludka and Izaac return to their hometown in Poland, an emotional journey into a past they have tried to forget. Lukda finds the Jewish boy her family had protected and learns his devastating secret.

Ludka suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. What is happening to Tommy is too much like what she experienced in Poland, too much like how the Holocaust began.

The topic of the novel, sadly, is more relevant today than ever: How can conflicting belief systems learn to live together? What does it mean to be protected under the law?

This is an amazing novel.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.