Part history lesson, part coming-of-age story, this Vietnam-era tale delivers the kind of stirring details that can only...
The Summer of Love and the Vietnam War greatly affect several Pittsburgh-area baby boomers in this novel.
The lives of the young people of Milltowne, Pennsylvania, at the dawn of the 1960s are full of personal tussles, political and class affiliations, and one desperate desire for a nose job. Jenny Abruzzi is nicknamed “Honker,” but the family seeks approval from the parish priest before a nose job can be arranged. Art McGill, a young Richard Nixon fan, has his mind on the Pirates and their trip to the World Series. Due to some serendipitous seating arrangements, Jenny and her new nose are seated near McGill at a fateful World Series game that gives them a lasting connection. Redheaded Democrat Mike Mulligan has recently found himself, along with McGill, on the receiving end of “Whackin’ McCracken’s” paddle at school after the two were caught betting on the presidential election. As the years go by, college senior McGill watches from his fraternity house as President Nixon’s televised lottery for Vietnam War draft numbers is shown. Pre-emptively, McGill enlists, landing a stateside assignment as an MP. Jenny has come back into the picture, and she and McGill are together. His interest in the burgeoning anti-war movement lands him in trouble, and he is shipped off to Vietnam despite a contract assurance against it. With Mulligan in country as well, McGill is sent to the remote Dam Luc compound, where one year of warfare puts him and Mulligan in the greatest of peril. Morrison’s (The Energy Caper, 2008) new book deftly records the sights and sounds of ’60s and ’70s America and Vietnam through music, dialogue, and personal relationships that highlight the lofty aspirations, struggles, and upward mobility of the baby boomers. The sections in Vietnam, in particular, come alive with rich detail about the conflict and the sway and swagger of reluctant troops who rely on music, weed, and low-powered beer to get them through. This is a long book, and some parts of it meander too much, especially McGill’s postwar period in the early ’70s. But Morrison’s impressive amount of knowledge about the time period offers some fresh perspectives on these much-discussed years.
Part history lesson, part coming-of-age story, this Vietnam-era tale delivers the kind of stirring details that can only come from personal experience.Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-929150-30-7
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Castalia Communications
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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