LOVE AND PERFIDY

In Potter’s historical novel, World War II forever changes the lives of five close friends, one of whom closely guards an explosive secret.

In 1938, Mildred “Sweetie” Stephenson and Bobby Howe are only a couple of years out of high school in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Their friendship takes an unexpected turn when they spontaneously make love; soon, Sweetie finds out that she’s pregnant, and she’s anxious to tell Bobby the news. Before she can, however, he reveals that he’s accepted a job in Argentina training pilots in their air force. Crestfallen, she decides not to reveal her pregnancy, and she seduces another of her best friends, Harry Glass, who hails from a prominent, affluent family. Reluctantly, Harry agrees to marry her, and they give birth to a boy they name Tommy. Sweetie maintains her secret, although it becomes increasingly difficult to do so as her child grows up bearing a striking resemblance to his biological father. Later, Bobby and Harry become decorated war heroes, and when the conflict concludes, Harry ambitiously pursues a career in politics. Meanwhile, their friend and former classmate Paul Browning is deployed by the Army to the Philippines and captured by Japanese soldiers, which traumatizes his loving wife, Vonciel, who was his high school sweetheart. In this highly sentimental novel, Potter ably chronicles his characters’ entangled lives. Along the way, he sensitively captures the ways in which events of grand historical significance have transformative effects on individual people. The book aggressively attempts to tug at the reader’s heartstrings, however, which can feel cloying. Potter’s prose sometimes feels feverishly overwritten: “In the shifting sands of fate, Sweetie’s heart echoed the ebb and flow of hope, a tempest of emotions amid the news that lingered between life and loss.” Such moments of purple prose detract from the story’s greater ambitions.

An earnest but often saccharine drama.