A historically astute, if sometimes-lethargic, dramatization of wartime.
A fictional memoir chronicles an American bombardier’s experiences in World War II.
Nathan Bedford Forrest “Sully” Sullivan was raised in a modest cottage in Virginia, on a plantation once owned by his great-grandfather, Wilcox Timor Sullivan, who fought as a Confederate in the Civil War. But although he descends from slave owners, Sully’s best friends growing up were two young African-Americans whose families had worked on his land. After graduating high school in 1936, Sully attends the University of Virginia, does a stint as an exchange student in Paris, and aspires to be a novelist. As war brews in Europe, Sully—who considers himself a pacifist—stays at home to pursue his writing; he’s called in by the draft board but is rejected, due to his flat feet. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he has a change of heart and volunteers for the Army Air Corps, is accepted, and becomes a bombardier. Sully flies many dangerous missions, earns a Distinguished Flying Cross, and then gets shot down while on a bombing mission over Schweinfurt. His injuries are grave and one of his legs is partially amputated. Members of the French Resistance rescue him, and he eventually becomes an officer in the Office of Strategic Services. He proves an effective spy, participating in the bombing of a train and the assassination of an SS general. Author Harden (Bombing, 2010) writes with great confidence and undeniable expertise; indeed, the novel’s principal strength is its historical authenticity. Also, the prose can be elegantly philosophical at times: “I drew a distinction between mental depression and abject resignation. Depression was nebulous and without readily identifiable cause. Abject resignation has a clearly tangible cause—imminent death.” However, the book is far too long and prone to gratuitous digression; for example, one anticlimactic subplot involving a health scare doesn’t advance any of the book’s primary themes and feels unnecessary. As a result, although there’s no shortage of drama, the pace can seem lumbering at times.
A historically astute, if sometimes-lethargic, dramatization of wartime.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 424
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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