An unsettling, roving novel about trauma and soldiering.
Singley’s (The Bali Hai Enchantment Spa Murders, 2017, etc.) Vietnam War novel follows five soldiers at different points in the service cycle.
Spc. Jimmy Hogan—who received the nickname “Jungle Jimmy” for shooting a young, possibly unarmed Vietnamese man while relieving himself outdoors—is 10 months into his tour as part of an airborne infantry company, currently stationed near Tam Ky. His best friend, Cpl. Thomas Gaylord, is at a military hospital in Japan, where he’s recuperating from a grenade injury that cost him his hand. 1st Lt. Harry “Pineapple” Papeeko, whose feelings are increasingly turning against the war, is also hospitalized—but he’s back home in Hawaii, recovering from mental trauma. Former Spc. Jay Jager has gone home to West Virginia, where he was once persuaded by a judge to join the Army after he committed a violent crime. Pfc. Chris “Cherry” Scott is also stationed near Tam Ky, and he’s still seen as “the new guy” even though he’s seen combat; he’s also pining for his girlfriend back in Los Angeles. Each man bears the psychological scars of deployment, brought on by the constant fear of death and the repetitive counting of days until the end of a tour. Looming largest in their lives is an attack that happened on Mother’s Day—a day when everything went wrong and which forever shaped each man’s experiences of the war and all that came after. Singley’s prose is frank and wonderfully marbled with specificity, capturing the panicked tension that ticks away within each character: “Home was unreal, an anchor to the past, a place to be secure. Reality was here, in this black moment before dawn, reality was his damp fatigues and the stars slowly vanishing.” The book also has an episodic feel as the narration jumps from man to man, slowly revealing the connections that exist between them. It’s a purposefully unpleasant read at times—the racism, misogyny, violence, and general misanthropy of the soldiers are frequent and disturbing—but this fits in honestly with other books in its genre.
An unsettling, roving novel about trauma and soldiering.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5320-6415-9
Page Count: 286
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
