A moving first effort that starkly examines the scars of war on its unwitting pawns.
A memorable debut novel about a life colored by regret and grasping for redemption.
Horn capably tells this poignant story through the memories of Eden Cain, a Vietnam veteran haunted by war atrocities in which he unwillingly participated in secret incursions into Laos under orders from President Richard Nixon. More than 30 years later, Eden lives as an Iowa farmer with Elizabeth, the wife he loves. Theirs is a relationship that focuses on the present and the future, not their pasts: “After twenty nine years of marriage, neither of them truly knew the other….Their pasts were inviolable, a sacredness that each respected.” Life would be perfect if not for the guilt he harbors—a heartbreaking reality not uncommon to sufferers of PTSD. The former helicopter tail gunner tries to forget, but “[w]hat broke him was the awareness that he would never outlive the memory of Vietnam. No amount of distraction, pleasure or hardship could bury those scattered moments that had changed his life.” His bucolic solitude is shattered, however, when he’s subpoenaed to testify before Congress about the Laos missions amid a political scandal: “How could an insignificant person like himself be needed to rewrite history?” Eden’s was a satisfying if not standout life that, unfortunately, was built on a lie of omission, one about to fall apart thanks to unscrupulous politicians half a country away. Horn, a Vietnam vet, expertly draws readers into the main settings, shifting seamlessly among three time periods—Eden’s years in country, his return to an unwelcoming nation and his courting of Elizabeth, and the present—as he paints the complex picture that has led to Eden’s simple existence and current dilemma.
A moving first effort that starkly examines the scars of war on its unwitting pawns.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9835894-3-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Granite Peak Press
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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