AN ENEMY LIKE ME

In this historical novel, a German American decides to enlist in the military in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a conflicted decision with far-reaching consequences for his family.

Jakob Mueller is a first-generation American born in New Berlin, Ohio, a small town entirely inhabited by residents of German descent. He grows up proud of his heritage but is encouraged by his parents, Hyrum and Elisabet, to think of himself as an American. When he turns 18 years old, he changes his name to Jacob Miller, just as New Berlin rechristens itself North Canton. He starts an “idyllic” life with Bonnie Phillips—the couple marry in 1939 and give birth to a boy, William. But after the terrible assault on Pearl Harbor, Jacob feels compelled to join the war effort and enlist, partly out of a genuine sense of patriotism and partly out of fear for his family as anti-German sentiment reaches a fevered pitch. After one of his work colleagues, Hanz Schaeffer, is accused of being a Nazi sympathizer, Jacob no longer feels he can afford the “luxury of neutrality.” Brown paints an ambitious, richly detailed, and moving picture of the era. Jacob returns from the war a man transformed by trauma and sacrifice, a change that profoundly affects his relationship with William, whose perspective the author limns sensitively. But Brown chronicles Jacob’s anguished decision and subsequent service in the war in a sentimental fashion. And despite the sweeping vista Brown portrays, she doesn’t deliver a lot that’s new in her contribution to the vast category of World War II fiction. In addition, the author’s writing sometimes lapses into clichés: “War. It was such an ugly word. Small but powerful. These three letters pitted nation against nation, men against men.”

An intriguing but uneven war tale.