Reviews

The Swamp Fox by John Oller

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

Although at first blush the title of John Oller’s The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution seems a bit hyperbolic, but after reading it, I agree.

A brief summary from the publisher:

In the darkest days of the American Revolution, Francis Marion and his band of militia freedom fighters kept hope alive for the patriot cause during the critical British “southern campaign.” Like the Robin Hood of legend, Marion and his men attacked from secret hideaways before melting back into the forest or swamp. Employing insurgent tactics that became commonplace in later centuries, Marion and his brigade inflicted losses on the enemy that were individually small but cumulatively a large drain on British resources and morale.

Oller’s biography of Marion is the first in nearly 40 years of a pivotal leader in the American Revolution – even though most people have either not heard of or read much about Marion. The Patriot starring Mel Gibson was a loose depiction of his life – a very loose depiction. Oller quickly gives the measure of the man – quiet, modest, superb leader, quick learner, and great tactician.

Oller believes that the Revolution would have failed without Marion stepping into the gap to fill the void for the Patriot cause – I agree. Marion did this in the summer of 1780 after the fall of Charleston and the British victory at Camden. Marion stepped into the gap by waging guerilla warfare when there was no other organized force in the field for the Americans. He successfully pinned down British and Loyalist forces until American Continental troops arrived in the area.

Even though Marion was overshadowed by more flamboyant and outspoken leaders (Light Horse Harry Lee, Nathanael Greene, and Thomas Sumter), Marion was consistently a steady presence in South Carolina. He made mistakes (and owned up to them for the most part), but he learned from those mistakes and hit the British harder in the next engagement. He was successful despite using mainly militia (periodically called out to serve for short periods between times of farming).

An excellent book that describes the exploits of one of the saviors of the American Revolution in the South.

Reviews

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 0 Comment

I greatly enjoyed Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child:

It was an evocative and deeply human story with a fairy tale woven in. And like so many fairy tales and folklore – not the Disney versions – this one was touched with sorrow and tragedy. But also infused with love and hope and beauty as they really exist.

Gorgeous prose, a wonderfully developed setting that become a character of its own, and a great cast of characters make this a novel with depth and emotion – a heft belied by the fairy tale at it heart.

So I was excited to read her second novel, To the Bright Edge of the World, a beautiful and engaging epistolary novel.

It reads like the documentation of real history rather than fiction. It moves from the interior thoughts and emotions of its characters to the historic events that surround them, and the interaction of people across social, cultural and language boundaries, all while sucking you into this gripping story of a fantastical expedition and its impact on both the future and the lives of a young marriage threatened by the separation it causes.

Ivey deftly develops the characters both as they react to events and as they reflect on their unique past; family, events, defining moments. You dive deep into the private lives of the characters but also subtly pull back to see the long term impact of the events that drive the story and how they ripple through lives generations later.

And mixed throughout is the possibility of the supernatural.  She does not assume that the folklore and mythology of the native cultures is superstition from the past.  And the characters encounter events and circumstances which cause them to question what they think and know.  Ivey deftly allows this mystery to exist without choosing sides.

Truly a creative masterpiece.

 

News

Win a signed copy of NORSE MYTHOLOGY by Neil Gaiman

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 0 Comment

Shelf Awareness is offering a chance to win a signed copy of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Click the link above or below to learn more about the contest and Shelf Awareness for Readers, a twice-weekly e-mail newsletter that features reviews of the best books coming out each week.

I would very much like to win said copy. I am guessing that you would as well.  So enter the contest here.  As it happens, if you use that link to sign up I get an additional entry. I believe this is what is known as “win-win.”

 

Reviews

Dawn of Infamy by Stephen Harding

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

Dawn of Infamy: A Sunken Ship, a Vanished Crew, and the Final Mystery of Pearl Harbor (previously Voyage to Oblivion) by Stephen Harding is a book about a little known sinking of an American freighter at the beginning of World War II.

A bit about the book:

On December 7, 1941, even as Japanese carrier-launched aircraft flew toward Pearl Harbor, a small American cargo ship chartered by the Army reported that it was under attack by a submarine halfway between Seattle and Honolulu. After that one cryptic message, the humble lumber carrier Cynthia Olson and her crew vanished without a trace, their disappearance all but forgotten as the mighty warships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet burned.

The story of the Cynthia Olson‘s mid-ocean encounter with the Japanese submarine I-26 is both a classic high-seas drama and one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II. Did I-26‘s commander, Minoru Yokota, sink the freighter before the attack on Pearl Harbor began? Did the cargo ship’s 35-man crew survive in lifeboats that drifted away into the vast Pacific, or were they machine-gunned to death? Was the Cynthia Olson the first American casualty of the Pacific War, and could her SOS have changed the course of history?

Although journalists have written about this episode and authors have touched on it, most people do not know the tale of the Cynthia Olson. Harding brings his expert skills as a researcher and writer to this little known subject.

The book has many strengths and a few weaknesses. Harding’s narration on the sinking and its aftermath are well done. He engages the reader by including a lot of information about the sinking in a format that is easy to read. Another strength is the fair treatment that Harding gives Minoru Yokota (the Japanese sub commander that sank the Cynthia Olson).  Although Yokota broke international law by not providing for the sunken ship’s crew, he did give the crew time to abandon the ship (unlike other German and Japanese sub commanders).

I think Harding gives rational and believable answers to these questions – whether the ship was sunk before the commencement of hostilities at Pearl Harbor, could the ship’s SOS signals have prevented the damage at Pearl Harbor, and what happened to the Cynthia Olson’s crew. He supports his answers with research based on good primary and secondary sources.

The major weakness is the first part of the book. In it, Harding discusses the histories of the Cynthia Olson and the company that owned it. I think some of it could have been trimmed. For example, I do not think the ship’s history and the company’s history are germane to the story.

Overall, the book is an excellent look at a long-forgotten story that occurred at the beginning of American involvement in World War II in the Pacific.

Reviews

Honor Before Glory by Scott McGaugh

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

Our country has a history of defending the defenseless, but it also has a history of treating minority races poorly. Not only has the country authorized the enslavement of one race, but it also has put another in internment camps (many equate them to concentration camps).

Scott McGaugh focuses on the Japanese Americans who fought heroically for their country in World War II even though their families were imprisoned back in the U.S.. In Honor Before Glory: The Epic World War II Story of the Japanese American GIs Who Rescued the Lost Battalion McGaugh specifically focuses on the 442nd Infantry Regiment (the sole Japanese American combat unit in World War II) and their actions to rescue a surrounded battalion in October 1944 in eastern France.

Here is a synopsis of the book from the publisher:

On October 24, 1944, more than two hundred American soldiers realized they were surrounded by German infantry deep in the mountain forest of eastern France. As their dwindling food, ammunition, and medical supplies ran out, the American commanding officer turned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team to achieve what other units had failed to do.

Honor Before Glory is the story of the 442nd, a segregated unit of Japanese American citizens, commanded by white officers, that finally rescued the “lost battalion.” Their unmatched courage and sacrifice under fire became legend—all the more remarkable because many of the soldiers had volunteered from prison-like “internment” camps where sentries watched their mothers and fathers from the barbed-wire perimeter.

In seven campaigns, these young Japanese American men earned more than 9,000 Purple Hearts, 6,000 Bronze and Silver Stars, and nearly two dozen Medals of Honor. The 442nd became the most decorated unit of its size in World War II: its soldiers earned 18,100 awards and decorations, more than one for every man.

McGaugh’s book is a fine tribute to the hard-fighting men who were a part of the 442nd.  These men were like other Americans who fought during the war – they complained about the physical hardships, poor food, and being away from families, but they continued slogging along. However, they were unlike most of the other fighting Americans – they were given some of the toughest tasks and succeeded at great loss of life. The unit was given an impressive seven Presidential Unit Citations for their valor in combat.

McGaugh follows the actions of the three infantry battalions of the 442nd from their capture of the towns Belmont and Bruyeres to the taking of Hill 595 (the original objective of the 1/141st Infantry – the “lost” battalion). He provides great descriptions of the conditions the men had to fight in – incessant rain that created vast holes of mud; hills so steep that a person needed to climb them by grabbing tree roots; and the fear of tree bursts – artillery shells burst in the trees that create deadly shrapnel from tree splinters.

Not only do the men have to fight the elements and artillery, but the dreaded German machine gun (MG-42) that held up units for hours if not days. The 442nd sacrificed themselves against countless German trenches and roadblocks to free the 1/141st. They did this all the while other units of the 141st Infantry were relatively idle. McGaugh never explains why the other units from the 141st were not called upon other than failing to break through to the 1/141st and slight hints at the racist nature of the 36th Division (to which the 442nd and 141st were a part of) commander.

Racism is discussed throughout the book – not just from the Division commander, but also from the Army itself. When the 1/141st was relieved and Army photographers were taking pictures for public release, the photographers did not include pictures of the 442nd, but of white men from other units that did not help relieve the 141st – Army command felt that the American public would not think too kindly of Japanese Americans rescuing white Americans.

Other than some slight editorial mistakes, the book is an easy read. The maps in the front help you to follow along with the course of the attack. The book includes sixteen pages of black and white photographs depicting many of the men discussed in the battle and scenes from the battle.

The book is an excellent tribute to the Japanese American soldiers who fought and died for their fellow Americans on a forgotten ridge in eastern France.

Reviews

The Riddle of Billy Gibbs (Steve Martinez Mysteries Book 6) by Henry Kisor

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 0 Comment

I suppose it is appropriate that I am posting this review on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  As one of the threads running through The Riddle of Billy Gibbs is the state of race relations in America; or at least in rural America and particularly Upper Peninsula Michigan.

Here is a bit of the book blurb or teaser:

When the mutilated body of a black man is found hanging from a tree in Mackinac County 275 miles away across the wild Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Porcupine County Sheriff Steve Martinez is dismayed.

His bailiwick is ninety-nine per cent white, and the victim, an army veteran, had just been acquitted by an all-white jury in the rape of a white woman. Steve had feared racial repercussions after the verdict and suspects bigotry led to the violent death of Billy Gibbs.

But a mystery surrounds the victim himself. How could an ordinary truck mechanic possess such a large bankroll? Why was he so concerned about the well-being of his brand-new, tricked-out pickup truck?

As I noted in my review of Kisor’s previous Steve Martinez mystery:

What Kisor offers is a police procedural/mystery with an interesting hook and the people, history and culture of the Upper Peninsula as a setting and important background.

In Tracking the Beast it was railroad hopper cars, in the case of Billy Gibbs it is the issue of race and a group of veterans caught up in a complicated scheme involving millions of dollars.

What keeps this from being a lecture on race disguised as a novel is Kisor’s commitment to telling the underlying story and his appreciation for the people of rural America and the unique world of Upper Peninsula Michigan.

Yes, racists neo-Nazi types are the bad guys of the story but the people of the fictional Porcupine County and the other characters are portrayed in the messy complexity of real life.  This includes race and also the highly charged subject of date rape.

Kisor’s underlying view seems to be that most of these folks are not outright racists of the obvious neo-nazi type but that there is a strand of ugliness in some of these communities that can come out under stress and conflict whether legal, economic or political. Flawed human beings can be both generous and selfish; both committed to the good of the community and holders of bigoted and even ugly beliefs.

Another interesting hook is the illegal trade scheme Billy Gibbs and his fellow veterans are involved in and how they seek to get those ill gotten riches back to the US.

If you enjoy police procedurals and mysteries with lots of interlocking parts you will enjoy the way Kisor plays it all out. Multi-jurisdictional law enforcement, stake-outs, forensics, politics and community relations are all involved in solving the case.  And Kisor describes the process, strategy and relationships involved; all with the unique Yooper perspective and sensibility.

The Steve Martinez novels are obviously not high-tech, continuous action thrillers, but they are interesting stories, well told.  Something to keep you entertained on cold winter nights. The flavor of the UP and the cultural and political commentary weaved in adds to the enjoyment.

In addition to the Steve Martinez mystery, the book also includes an appendix on the Adventures in Self-Publishing which details Kisor journey as an author as the book market and technology have led to significant changes.

Kisor describes how, in his words,

In the authorship game, I’m like a journeyman ballplayer that bounced around the big leagues for a few years before being sent down to the minors for good.

Like his novels, it is an interesting perspective and one those interested in publishing will want to read.  I am glad this path has allowed Kisor the ability to keep his books in print and keep open the possibility of his finding new readers who will enjoy the continued adventures of Steve Martinez.