An effective and thoughtful examination of a deserter.
Deserters are almost universally despised but this true story of one British soldier in World War II suggests that readers may want to reconsider that stance.
Alan Juniper was a deserter. At the behest of Juniper’s daughter, Owen (East of Coker, 2016, etc.) agreed to attempt her father’s rehabilitation. Pvt. Juniper (1918-2016) was called up in December 1939 and, after rudimentary training, he wound up in the North Africa campaign as a truck driver. In the summer of 1942, he deserted and spent time in a military prison. He was released early, on the condition that he resume fighting. And then, during a horrendous campaign in Italy, he deserted again in 1944. The villagers of Lucagnano sheltered him until the military police finally found and arrested him. It needs noting right off that Owen has “walked the walk,” having seen combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. At the outset, he admits to some ambivalence about desertion. But as he begins to convince himself, he also starts to persuade his readers. Along the way, he explores the history of desertion and its punishments and the evolving attitudes toward it, touching on moral philosophy and modern psychology. One striking fact in the book is that the British army executed hundreds of deserters in World War I, including one boy who lied about his age, panicked in France, and was shot. But in World War II, between the Americans and the British, only one man, the hapless Eddie Slovik, was executed. The author also deftly discusses the modern case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, and there are partisans on both sides of that incident. A surprising fact is that very often fellow soldiers in combat do not blame or scorn the deserter, knowing that “but for the grace of God...” Recognizing the reality of PTSD (“shell shock” back then), Owen suggests that many deserters were casualties, not cowards. The research is impressive and the volume provides a bibliography, notes, timelines, and so forth. While the author may not sway every reader, he has certainly delivered an illuminating work. Unfortunately, the book needs proofreading (“They could be completely silent in the future if their voices and experiences not captured in the coming years”).
An effective and thoughtful examination of a deserter.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-988932-01-9
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Lammi Publishing Inc
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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