Posts
I knew there would be some tough choices to be made when I started this project. I knew some letters wouldn't have as many authors as others. I'm still not to the really dreaded letters of Q and Z, but I'm getting there. I thought there would be more choices for the letter P than there were, but I'm oh, so glad I had this choice. Our P novel hits close to home, I mean really close to home. "A Short History of a Small Place" is a novel by Winston-Salem native T.R. Pearson.
In this novel, Pearson takes us to the fictional town of Neely, North Carolina. Ok, Neely is about as close to Reidsville, where I live, as you can get. He talks about the ice house, which has now been torn down, he speaks of Scales Street and Lawsonville Avenue. He even mentions from time to time the statue in the square. While other parts are truly fictional, you can see that Mr. Pearson modeled Neely, at least loosely, on Reidsville. This made the story more vivid for me. Now, if you don't live here and have never visited Reidsville, it wouldn't clear things up any for you, but believe me, it's kind of cool. Let's get to the story, which is very entertaining.
"A Short Story of a Small Place" is narrated by young Louis Benfield, but it's the story of the life and death of town socialite and eventual eccentric Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew. We learn about Miss Pettigrew from watching her through the iron fence that surrounds her yard. Young Louis is not alone in watching Miss Pettigrew's life through the fence. He is joined frequently by his father, Louis, Sr., who is allowed by young Louis's mother to smoke, but not carry matches. He is also joined by other interesting and sometimes hilarious characters like litigation happy Pinky Throckmorton, Casper Epps, the plumber turned preacher and Mrs. Phillip J. King who knew everything about everyone in Neely. Of course every good story needs a monkey, right? Well, this one has one. Miss Pettigrew has a companion in Mr. Britches, a monkey who takes pleasure in shimmying up the front yard flag pole to relieve himself on the bushes and sometimes people below. This is the story of a small, southern town and its quirky, sometimes downright strange residents.
You'll laugh at the antics of the Neelyites while also thinking that you probably know someone just like many of them. Pearson has written a wonderfully entertaining book. Even if you've never visited Reidsville and don't know the Bypass from the Boulevard, you'll get a kick out of the residents of Neely and the wonderful tale spun by T.R. Pearson.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
O is for Oren
If you are like me, you think of all soldiers as being heroes, but my "O" book reminds us that soldiers are still human and often make terrible mistakes during war. In Michael B. Oren's debut novel, "The Reunion," we meet a group of men who fought together during World War II. Those who survived are now elderly men getting together one final time. This year's reunion is not being held in some hotel or VFW hall, but rather at the site of their greatest battle, a battle they lost. They are returning to the small town of Saint Vith in the Ardennes.
Throughout the novel, we get stories of the war. We see from the eyes of the aged soldiers how hellish war really is. We learn that all soldiers don't stand bravely in their fox holes firing their weapons until they run out of ammunition. We learn that not all officers are gentlemen and we learn that memory is a funny thing and not always accurate.
If you've ever been to a class reunion, you probably understand the confusion the soldiers had about attending theirs. It was near Christmas, half a world away, in a place where they had witnessed the very worst in men and they all had their own lives. Still, one by one they accepted the invitations sent by their former company clerk. The reunion starts as expected with old men trying to remember the faces of their comrades, visits to local attractions and the battlefields where they fought and lost their friends. Things change though with the arrival of an unexpected guest and the revelation of a true wartime mystery. All kinds of things were going on behind the scenes while these soldiers were dug in on "the ridge" during the Battle of the Bulge. These things come to light all these years later for the soldiers as they try to come to terms with the time that has passed and the men they have become.
If you are a fan of stories about World War II, I believe you will enjoy "The Reunion." If you've ever heard that men of that era never talk about the war with anyone who wasn't there, this novel will help you understand why. I think sometimes we forget that the soldiers didn't just march off to war, liberate those under the oppression of the Nazi's then come home to ticker tape parades and a grateful nation. They fought under terrible conditions. They didn't win every battle. Some soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. Young men died. This is at times a difficult book to read. The stories are sad and the disgraceful behavior by some of our boys makes you angry. Still, some were heroes. Some of the men of the 133rd Infantry Battalion were the soldiers of the movies; brave, strong and faithful to the end.
I'm fascinated by the author of "The Reunion" Michael B. Oren. He knows of WWII from his father who took part in D-Day in 1944. He knows of battle because as an American-born Jew, Oren went to Israel and joined the Israel Defense Forces and fought as a paratrooper in the Lebanon War. As far as I know, this is his only work of fiction, but Oren has written several books on Israel. He even gave up his American citizenship to become the Ambassador for Israel to the United States. He is an interesting man and a very good writer.
If you are interested in learning more about what happened behind the headlines during WWII, read this book. If you want to see how time and distance change the way a person sees an event in which they were a main participant, read this book. If you like a bit of mystery mixed into your historical fiction, read "The Reunion."
Throughout the novel, we get stories of the war. We see from the eyes of the aged soldiers how hellish war really is. We learn that all soldiers don't stand bravely in their fox holes firing their weapons until they run out of ammunition. We learn that not all officers are gentlemen and we learn that memory is a funny thing and not always accurate.
If you've ever been to a class reunion, you probably understand the confusion the soldiers had about attending theirs. It was near Christmas, half a world away, in a place where they had witnessed the very worst in men and they all had their own lives. Still, one by one they accepted the invitations sent by their former company clerk. The reunion starts as expected with old men trying to remember the faces of their comrades, visits to local attractions and the battlefields where they fought and lost their friends. Things change though with the arrival of an unexpected guest and the revelation of a true wartime mystery. All kinds of things were going on behind the scenes while these soldiers were dug in on "the ridge" during the Battle of the Bulge. These things come to light all these years later for the soldiers as they try to come to terms with the time that has passed and the men they have become.
If you are a fan of stories about World War II, I believe you will enjoy "The Reunion." If you've ever heard that men of that era never talk about the war with anyone who wasn't there, this novel will help you understand why. I think sometimes we forget that the soldiers didn't just march off to war, liberate those under the oppression of the Nazi's then come home to ticker tape parades and a grateful nation. They fought under terrible conditions. They didn't win every battle. Some soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. Young men died. This is at times a difficult book to read. The stories are sad and the disgraceful behavior by some of our boys makes you angry. Still, some were heroes. Some of the men of the 133rd Infantry Battalion were the soldiers of the movies; brave, strong and faithful to the end.
I'm fascinated by the author of "The Reunion" Michael B. Oren. He knows of WWII from his father who took part in D-Day in 1944. He knows of battle because as an American-born Jew, Oren went to Israel and joined the Israel Defense Forces and fought as a paratrooper in the Lebanon War. As far as I know, this is his only work of fiction, but Oren has written several books on Israel. He even gave up his American citizenship to become the Ambassador for Israel to the United States. He is an interesting man and a very good writer.
If you are interested in learning more about what happened behind the headlines during WWII, read this book. If you want to see how time and distance change the way a person sees an event in which they were a main participant, read this book. If you like a bit of mystery mixed into your historical fiction, read "The Reunion."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
