OYENTE

Lisa C

  • 72
  • opiniones
  • 105
  • votos útiles
  • 332
  • calificaciones

What a story! What a storyteller!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-01-25

One would have to be as good a writer as McBride to capture the gentle brilliance this grand but succinct tale of the 92nd infantry. Of McBride's many tales, this one most quickly grabbed me by the imagination then gently took me through a thoroughly immersive experience of nearly lost (but vital) threads of history.

Just as Sam the Giant gently carried the dying boy tenderly swaddled in a tattered refugee rags through the 1200 year-old villages of Tuscany during an 80 year-old war, so McBride weaves this tale's dark threads of mystery, betrayal and retribution with humanity's brighter threads of innocence, courage, redemption and child-like faith to render what is brightest and most victorious in the human struggle.

Though this is a tale of the first US Negro fighting battalion, and each character's thoughts on the subject of race emerge in each narrative and narration, the book is not about race, because McBride seems to know that "race" and racism as a topic is divisive. Rather, this tale of how a lethal struggle, when war has rendered everyone a pauper, and thus equal, the example of child like faith, devotion and innocence can elevate an entire village and erase the issue of skin color altogether.

McBride's tale captivates us by gathering the threads of the reader's best self, then having so captured us in its web, the story takes us through the mysterious suspension if disbelief to the hellishness of WWII, while weaving history both ancient and recent to spin a tale so believable, I couldn't swear it was fiction. We know these characters are real because we've met them all. In fact, when we are being our best selves, we know we have been each one of them, in turns.

Not for nothing, the narration was sublime. Not since Frank Muller's Prince of Tides or Green Mile has a narrator so captured the essence of mixed race community. The narration was a whole separate work of art in itself, deserving a separate review all its own!

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A must read, lest we repeat our past

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-29-24

Like the author, I didn't know what I didn't know (as all public school educated kids were unaware how recent Brown v BOE was, and that the "before Brown times" were a long era bordering on epoch. This was 1970 America and there were just thenaround 5 girls and boys in my class.

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Creeeeeepy!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 07-28-24

We've all known a creep like him, but the treatment of the children's (& wife's) harrowing journey was so well done in each protagonist's voice. The narration was also grand! I liked it (loved it) even more than Defending Jacob! Bravo!

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King just gets better with age!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 06-03-24

I loved the themes running through many (all?) the stories of love, aging, and loss. It's like the supernatural is just the vehicle he brings these themes forth magnificently. His turn of phrase just gets better and better with the passing years.

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Twisty good

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-16-24

I almost hate it when a book is marveled as a twisty thriller, as most twists wind up being so contrived, that it starts sounding like something a group of teenaged girls passed around cobbling bits of the trope together and results in a goofy Frankensteinian thing.

This wasn't that! I chased this tale from state to state (literally and emotionally) and wound up satisfied at the end. Well done!

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Grace and truth

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-18-24

I loved this and didn't even expect to! As a believer I'm often disappointed with how writers attempt to deal with faith, mental illness and sexuality. This story was a solid home run on all three. Beautifully done.

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History we mustn't forget seen through Christ 's love

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-05-24

Nothing to criticize and everything to love. Most significant thing I realized since I last read in paperback 30+ years ago is that Christ is our hiding place

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A tender tribute to a daughter's love for her father

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-05-23

Narrator Ireland is my favorite and the book was both poetry and prose in the metaphorical sense. Well done. For anyone who has been blessed with a loving father.

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Who knew?!?!

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-24-23

I love it when a short story educates me on something I thought I knew something about! This tragic tale treats both sides of the gun control controversy delicately and respectfully, while educating the public on a safety issue that crosses both sides of the aisle! Thank you for sharing your faith and your victory over this tragic loss. Like the father, I, too, am so impressed with the son's courage and character developed in prison for a crime that belonged to Remington!

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Scratches every itch!

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-18-23

I'll definitely read (listen) to more from this author

I love that you can buy the collection in affordable bits. I'm often afraid to commit to an entire book of short stories but this one is (so far) a solid 4 out of 6 gold stars. Would have been a solid 5 star but narrator was good but not great.

That being said this author is wicked smart and twisty!

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