An admirable addition to World War II fiction that highlights the contributions of heavy-bombing crews.
This incisive World War II novel skillfully brings readers along on nerve-wracking bombing runs in German-held territory.
More importantly, Durham’s (Wade’s War, 2013, etc.) fourth WWII–based book introduces the men behind such daring raids—and the war’s effect on them. Based in Bassingbourn, England, the B-17 crews in the 91st Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force voluntarily fly into unknown, frequently terrifying situations to deliver their payloads and then pray they make it back to base. Lt. Bob Foster is the pilot of one such 10-member crew, until he suddenly isn’t any longer. That’s because, in a public-relations maneuver, Lt. Harmon Roberts III, son of a key U.S. senator, is appointed the pilot of Foster’s crew, with Foster reluctantly becoming the co-pilot. Naturally, Foster isn’t too thrilled with this development: “He’d stolen my crew, my airplane and now, my medal….I was getting the short end of the stick on this deal and I was sore about it.” Eventually, Foster comes around in his opinion of Roberts, which is the key to the narrative of this novel, as the pair will have to work together well to survive in the daunting months and years that follow. In his author’s note, Durham explains his motivation for writing: “I…have worked to present an accurate if fictional look at the conditions in which the brave crews flew and fought.” He’s met his goal; the research fueled by Durham’s passion shines through in the terrifying battle scenes that he brings alive for readers, successfully capturing the overwhelming attacks such bombers faced. Other than Foster and Roberts, Durham’s characters aren’t as well developed, but that doesn’t detract much from his story. The deliberate pacing of the novel’s action and the development of the friendship between the two main characters also sustain this enjoyable military thriller.
An admirable addition to World War II fiction that highlights the contributions of heavy-bombing crews.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1502524492
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2014
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
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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