THE DESERTERS

A young man’s life is interrupted and forever changed by World War II in Lamb’s historical novel.

Joey Kowalski was anticipating going to college in Chicago in 1943 while living with his mother, Zosha, and his sister, Dorothy. But with World War II raging, Joey—along with many other young men—finds himself at basic training in Texas, where he meets his soon-to-be comrades (Squirrel, Isaiah, Fatman, and Pops, to name a few). Joey and his fellow soldiers form a close bond; at a dance, the band of brothers starts a brawl to defend Squirrel after he is picked on. This connection deepens as the unit ships off to Europe, even as the members wish they could cease fighting and return to the lives they had prior to the war. Later, Joey ends up in a field hospital with other soldiers emotionally impacted by the horrors of war: “Besides the physical injuries were the invisible scars of battle. Shell-shocked boys sat silently, their eyes vacant, grappling with horrors only they could see.” Despite experiencing terrible tragedy, Joey finds love with a woman named Yvette Fauxbourg, with whom he lives in a French farmhouse. Meanwhile, a soldier from New York, Rico Adduci, has deserted and started a vicious gang profiting off of the black market. Lamb’s story is told in accessible, gripping prose; however, the plot feels a tad convoluted. Lamb mounts a complex narrative with parallel storylines—including multiple soldiers’ backstories and scenes depicting how Joey’s family is faring back home, with Dorothy essentially taking over the family business—and the author’s deployment of these many literary puzzle pieces leaves the story hard to follow at times. The honesty in Lamb’s writing is a principal strength of the novel; even as the military conflict is ending and people are celebrating, the tragedies borne of war have yet to cease. While the story could benefit from some restructuring, this is, overall, an emotional and worthy read.

A raw and unflinching, albeit slightly cluttered, novel of World War II.