Theodore

an amazing book

Revisado: 04-13-17

Story of survival as a German soldier in Ww2 Soviet Union. You don't usually think of them as human, with human emotions. They were, and it is a very touching story. At the end, the symptoms he suffers are clearly post traumatic stress disorders. An amazing story of survival.

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An excellent novel

Revisado: 03-06-17

I think this is Deutermanns best. A cast of characters in orbit with each other, and all orbiting around a war, as tragedy weaves its way into relationships. A story of naval aviation, and a good part devoted to the battle of Leyte Gulf. Historically interesting as well as a good story of love and tragedy, and how people deal with tragedy, and how people deal with adverse wartime conditions. Awesome!!

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adult lord of the flies

Revisado: 11-04-16

somebody said this is adult lord of the flies. I kept thinking the same thing. that's exactly what this is. The strong survive and the weak are exploited.

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THROUGH THE MIND OF A 19 YEAR OLD MARINE

Revisado: 09-29-16

I bought the book because I was expecting to hear about the war from an adult, with adult analysis and understanding, after all, in the beginning he makes the point that he wrote this book as an adult , with an adult viewpoint. I was expecting to hear an adult voice. I was expecting to hear adult analysis, pehaps some thinking on the end of the war, when all these american and vietnamese kids fought for was tossed into the garbage by the American congress who decided to stop funding a fully independent and capable ARVN in 1973. That is not what this book is. The author speaks and thinks as a 19 year old marine, where the vietnamese people are gooks, dinks, slimy monkey bastards, and women are bitches, and the ARVN are incompetent fools, giggling little girls, cowards. He never realizes that the ARVN are nothing but boys pulled out of their villages and thrown into the army with little training, to stay not for a 1 year tour, but rather until victory or death. The war was not the wishes of the Vietnamese people, but more so of US presidents and generals, like Kennedy and General Maxwell Taylor, who wished to make Vietnam an example example of American and Kennedy cold war strength. A demonstration to show that the US could fight an irregular war. Many americans have this Oliver Stone- Hollywood movie version of history in their heads that couldnt be further from the truth. And many young people seem to consider this book and books like it as some kind of serious history book. The US went to Vietnam because of JFK's aggressiveness, and his betrayal and coup/assassination of the only strong leader that South Vietnam ever had. You will not find any analysis or thinking of the causes of the war in this book, other then the musings of a 19 year old. You will not find any empathy whatsoever for the dink monkey gook bastards, nor any retrospective thinking or analysis on the final outcome of the people of South Vietnam-boat people, and the ARVN, the men who our hero considers laughing little girls, many of whom fought to the death, or to near death then committed suicide when the loss to the communists in 1975 became apparent. And the many that survived the war, only to spend the next 10-15 years in communist prison, or rather "re-education" camps. The ARVN didnt get beer parties every night. They had to find their own food and water, often scrounging scraps of rice and paddy water. For most of the war, they were stuck with antiquated weapons. By the end of the war, they were buying their ammunition out of their own pocket money, while their families lived a meek existence with little food to eat. The saddest part of the war, the fact that Nixon's Vietnamization and pacification programs had actually worked, and by the end of 1972, after the massive Christmas bombing of the Hanoi, the North was at the brink of defeat. The North's 1972 offensive ended in massive failure with high casualties. General Creighton Abrams, starting in 1968, had turned the ARVN into a first rate, self sufficient fighting force that utilized all the modern weapons and techniques. He actually worked with, and trained, rather than ignored the ARVN as Westmoreland did. But by 1973, the US government started changing their minds about supporting South Vietnam, and halted all military assistance. The North took 3 years to rebuild, and conquered the south when the ARVN was rationion bullets and artillery shells because the US was not supporting South Vietnam and the communists had the full support of the Soviet Union. One might have wondered how our hero felt about this tossing in the garbage bin of everything young americans and young vietnamese sacraficed their lives to achieve. For all we know, he was oblivious. What this book is about is an accounting of every mission our hero went on, the action of the firefight and the outcome. This book would be of interest to young men/boys, who wish to vicariously live the life of the war hero.

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a McMurtry classic

Revisado: 08-09-16

This is every bit as good as Gus, Call and the boys. An adventure into indian country prarie with the english lord and his family, meeting historical figures of the frontier along the way. I am trying to think ok of a story to compare to this, but I cannot. well, I am familiar with the situation of being captured in Santa Fe by a crazy Mexican officer, then going on a journey across the frozen tundra as a captive, while people start dying from the rigorous conditions.. Berrybender and crew sees the Palo Dura canyon, and the Sin Killer's horse "walks on the clouds". Mc Murtry is a genious.

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a masterpiece

Revisado: 08-09-16

Connelly gets better with time. This story was truly a masterpiece. It was hard to follow what Bosch was thinking about the evidence in the middle of the story, but slowly things came together, until the home run hearing at the end, when all the evidence is fitted together. Couldnt stop until it was all over.

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very unusual for this genre

Revisado: 04-23-16

I dont want to spoil the story, but I almost had to pull off the road and think about what just happened early into this story. Something I have never seen in any of this type of genre. I did like the fact that the woman was the star in this story, and maybe we will see more of her in the future. But she doesnt have the superstar quality as a person like Cody. Very entertaining, but not as good a Back of Beyond I thought. The story was predictable and not fully developed. People were getting killed off before we hardly knew who they were. If you havent read Back of Beyond, you probably wont appreciate this story at all.

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a few flaws in the personna

Revisado: 04-23-16

A group of short stories, but they all seem to feel as though they come up a bit short. They are testing out the ideas used in full length books, but they arent quite finished yet. A few things I picked up on that make me feel the author isnt as authentic as he is made out to be- he calls Copenhagen a "roll of chewing tobacco". Any rightous boy from rural america knows that Copenhagen isnt chewing tobacco. And it doesnt come in rolls, it comes in round cans. In the 1860's story he has bears attacking the cabin in the middle of a blizzard. I didnt know bears roamed winter blizzards along with the wolves. There is a phenomena known as hibernation. A bit of fact checking homework would have easily caught these woppers. This was not as good as the full length books, but still good enough to listen to on the drive to work. It is priced cheaper too.

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Wilderness adventure. Box has the recipe down.

Revisado: 04-20-16

I have been looking for authors like Craig Johnson. Box fits what I have been looking for. This story is quite an adventure. I like the mix of a wilderness setting combined with believable characters that get caught up in an over the top adventure- battling if out with ISIS fighters in the Wyoming desert.

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Take it back! Please!

Revisado: 11-11-13

If I wanted to listen to the ramblings of pimply faced pubescent teenagers, I could listen in on my kids phone conversations for free. I don't want to be responsible for contributing to the delinquency of a minor either. This guy thinks he is Jack Kerouac, "drinking steady through the afternoon", "if you will". If this guy was really serious about anything, he would have taken a writing class where they would have warned him about using those tired clichés, let alone stuffing his book full of them. I tried, honestly I did. But after 20 minutes, I feel nauseated. Especially after he starts talking about how he abandoned his wife and young child like it is a bade of honor. If this were my kid, I would send him to the Marines to smack some sense into him. But that's not the case, and poor Lewandowski will have to settle for going through life with the mentality of a 13 year old. Is this really all it takes to write contemporary fiction? Perhaps Lewandowski is aiming at titillating the high school crowd.

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