Friday, September 05, 2014

Friday's Forgotten Books, September 5, 2014

I will be gone after 9:30 until 4. Will add latecomers then. 


IN COUNTRY (1985) followed Bobbie Ann Mason's amazing story collection SHILOH AND OTHER STORIES. It is one of the novels I still can remember today, practically in its entirety. That is rare for me. Sam Hughes is a young girl living in western Kentucky. Her father never came home from Vietnam and that loss has haunted her family ever since. Those left behind feel both guilty and punished. Sam thinks of all the events her father has missed: the walk on the moon, Watergate...
The book looks at their small town life in great detail and it also details their pilgrimage to DC to visit the War Memorial. Mason is so adept at capturing every nuance of a place and her characters. When I visited the War Memorial, it was with this novel under my belt. I felt like I was looking for Sam's father's name as well of ones of my own.
One of the great novels about war. Those left behind have their own hard stories to tell.


Sergio Angelini, EDWIN OF THE IRON SHOES, Marcia Muller
Yvette Banek, Doctors and Nurses in fiction of the past
Joe Barone, NIBBLED TO DEATH BY DUCKS, Robert Campbell
Brian Busby, IRON GATES, Margaret Millar
Bill Crider, THE JDM REVIEW
Martin Edwards, THUS WAS ADONIS MURDERED, Sarah Caudwell
Curt Evans, THE MAN FROM THE RIVER, GDH and Margaret Cole
Rich Horton, YOU KNOW ME, AL, Ring Lardner
Jerry House, SCIENCE FICTION THROUGH THE AGES, I O. Evans
Randy Johnson, FAT OLLIE'S BOOK, Ed McBain
George Kelley, THE VERY BEST OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, VOl 2: Gordon Van Gelder
Margot Kinberg, A HANK OF HAIR, Charlotte Jay
Rob Kitchin, BAD PENNY BLUES, Cathi Unsworth
B.V. Lawson, TROUBLEMAKER, Joseph Hansen
Evan Lewis, DEATH AT SEA, Richard Sale
Steve Lewis/Marvin Lachman, THE DAVIDSON CASE, John Rhode
Todd Mason, The Anthologies of Kirby McCauley
James Reasoner, BOOMER, Clay Randall
Richard Robinson, ROCKET TO THE MORGUE, Anthony Boucher
Gerard Saylor, SO LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE. Ed. McBain; DRAMA CITY, George Pelecanos
Ron Scheer, OTHER MEN'S HORSES, Elmer Kelton
Kevin Tipple/Patrick Ohl, THE RELIGIOUS BODY, Catherine Aird
TomCat, EDWIN OF THE IRON SHOES, Marcia Muller
TracyK, THE DAVIDIAN REPORT, Dorothy B. Hughes; EPITAPH FOR A SPY, Eric Ambler
Prashant Trikannad, THE DARK SIDE OF THE ISLAND, Jack Higgins

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree, Patti. Terrific book. There was a movie version with Bruce Willis and Emily Lloyd.


Jeff M.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Patti, I have just posted a review of "The Dark Side of the Island" by Jack Higgins. Thank you for the link to my ode to the Hardy Boys.

Charles Gramlich said...

I haven't read it but it sounds like I should.

Todd Mason said...

Am just putting up mine now...a brief take on the four anthologies of the recently late Kirby McCauley.

Todd Mason said...

I've had a copy of IN COUNTRY and have been meaning to read it for a couple of decades, now...perhaps the unholy conflation of parental names (Camilla Ann and Robert Mason) has played some small role in the dilation...

Gerard said...

IN COUNTRY was assigned reading when I was a college freshman or sophomore, '89-'91.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Patti, as ever, for including my stuff. I always do love the variety of posts there are in this feature.

Ron Scheer said...

Bobbie Ann Mason has a book about Nancy Drew, and I was struck by how IN COUNTRY is an updated homage to that girl detective genre.

Kelly Robinson said...

Weird. I think my comment was eaten. I'm sure it was the most clever thing I've ever concocted, as it always feels that way when something I wrote disappears!