I was told that this guy is a pulitzer prize winner then told that his dad was.  I didn’t bother googlefuckin around about it either way. I had a seven hour flight ahead of me so I went into Powell’s, opened it up and read “to the reader”.  Hooked.  This guy has a clear and powerful writing “voice”.  I’m now about fifty pages in and wouldn’t bother telling you about it if it wasn’t great.

This is apparently The 3rd in a trilogy of WWII novels so I’m entering near the end after Gen. Montgomery had fugged up his idiotic “operation market garden” (see “A Bridge Too Far”) and Gen Courtney Hodges (I just love that name) had taken the town of Aachen The war was at a winter stalemate with all of the Allied Forces waiting for spring to try and take Berlin.  Awesome.

Also I like the way this guy uses commas, ands, and run-on sentences.  A lot like what I do except that he’s really good at it.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

This book is more or less a page-burner version of Lake Wobegon Days.

I wouldn’t mind if this guy just kept writing and writing on this story.  I most certainly would read and read, as long as the pages kept coming.  It has the languid, lazydays feel of all the greatest “growing up smalltown” novels (ie To Kill A Mockingbird, etc) but with a murder mystery woven in.

This brings up an extremely interesting character in the book who is incidentally a failed writer of just this sort of thing.  I’m not going to say more about it cuz I really hope you all find this book and read it.   With summer right around the corner I feel that this is “just the thing”.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR