THE CLIMBER OF POINTE DU HOC

Saxon’s novella tells the story of a World War II soldier who scales the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, France.

Caleb Huddleston is a white ranch kid and occasional rock climber from Wyoming who answers the call and enlists in WWII. He joins the U.S. Army Rangers and winds up in the first wave of the Normandy invasion. But before that, he undergoes months of training in England, staying with a family in the Cornish town of Bude. The Bennetts have a daughter, Elizabeth, who’s a student nurse, and it soon becomes clear that she and Caleb are falling in love—a romance that readers follow throughout the book. Meanwhile, Benjamin Cook, a young Black man in Virginia with a natural surgical talent, joins the military, though he suffers the effects of racism. But his skills lead him to become a respected ad hoc medic. Despite the novel’s title, the actual assault of the Pointe du Hoc is only a small part of the story. The tale is dramatically told, however, as when Caleb saves the life of buddy Pedro Ramirez by shooting a German with Caleb’s grandfather’s Spanish-American War sidearm near the top of the cliff. The story continues as the brave troops push on into the French countryside, never knowing where the enemy is and when they might stage a counteroffensive. The audience sees the grit of everyday war, with all the fear and fatigue it entails.

Readers will come to care about these characters, some of whom will not come home; those who do make it through their mission will not escape unscathed, either physically or emotionally. And, of course, Caleb’s and Benjamin’s lives will intersect in a striking way. In a long afterword, the author, a surgeon, explains that he was inspired to write the book when a much older colleague revealed that he had taken part in D-Day, and that “three quarters of [his fellow soldiers] are still on the beach,” so appalling was the death toll. Saxon writes cleanly, if sometimes a little stiffly, as when describing that a character “stated,” rather than simply “said” something, or when relating that a sleepless night was “tolerated.” Still, there’s a classic simplicity to his tale that serves it well, and the story features moments of understated eloquence, as when a character’s brutal death is simply referred to as the “final darkness.” Caleb, as a character, is a recognizable type: a bit of a Boy Scout, bashful around women, and no more cultured than any other stereotypical cowboy. For instance, when Elizabeth tells him that she was named not for the queen, but rather because her mother was a big Jane Austen fan, Caleb wonders to himself why she wasn’t named Jane. The very brief letters that he manages to write her are comically formal; it’s a big breakthrough when he moves from “Dear Miss Bennett” to “Dear Elizabeth.” Overall, Saxon’s debut work feels like a labor of love and respect.

A traditional war story with believable characters, a strong focus, and a tight plot.