Theodore Weesner (1935–2015)

When I read the blurb my ears perked up a bit. I mean, really. A young boy, Alex, abandoned by his mother, his father was either working night shifts or drinking. So Alex starts skipping school, stealing cars, smoking. I thought it was really interesting.

And it was, don't get me wrong. It was an interesting story. The reader gets to see Alex grow up from a troubled teenager to a young man enlisted in the Army. And you get to see the struggles he overcomes. Stealing cars, getting arrested, being released from detention and going back to school where he's just as alone as before. You get to see all that.

I felt the pacing was a little too slow for me. The inner monologue at times dragged a little too much for my comfort.

Also, there where moments where I didn't connect at all with Alex. I mean, I understood his reasons for doing what he did. He wanted attention, he needed to fit in and he did whatever it took. But there were too many moments of "he didn't want to do this, but he kept doing it", "he didn't want to be here, but he didn't leave", "he didn't want to eat, but he kept eating" and other similar moments. It was in those moments that I couldn't help but think "well, if you don't want to..., don't". Those moments pulled me out of the story a few times.

It is possible that I had high expectations to begin with. My experience with coming-of-age stories isn't that big, so maybe that's a factor.

If you like coming-of-age stories, this could be the book for you.… (más)

It was my first book from Theodore Weesner, so I can’t compare it to his other works. When I read the book description, I must say I expected something very different from what I read. I expected it to be more like “All Quiet on the Western Front”, but more modern. Well, it wasn’t. There are two main characters exchanging letters, but I didn’t feel the connection between them. There is a lot happening, but I couldn’t feel the sympathy towards Murphy (the protagonist). Partly due to the racial issues. I couldn’t also say that the writing style did a lot for me. I suppose if you’re a fan of the author, you’d be thrilled to read the book. I just wasn’t into it.… (más)

The author tells – in the voice of a schoolteacher and mentor – his encounter with a young boy who will stay his pupil for a while, corresponding as pen friends.

The boy, a young “Southie” loaded with his adolescent racial prejudices and first experiences as a teenage boxer, chooses the army for becoming a grown-up and steadfast personality. It is the US army stationed in Bayreuth, Germany, where he is deployed. And it is 1990, some months before the first Gulf War will explode.

At his arrival he clashes with an Afro-American over a knife – “a one-time gangbanger who will also become of age in the army”. After they settle their go-in our protagonist tries desperately to make friendship with him. Well, they’ll reach the status of “army buddies” but not real friends. At least he finds his future wife there, so expect some romance too in this very well written, but a bit too much glorifying story of life in the army.

As a top gunner [Top Gun, that reminds us of something, doesn’t it?] in a tank he’s experiencing his victories in Iraq (three T-72s shot within ten seconds) but also some devastating personal defeats (he kills a dozen Iraqi soldiers in the moment they are going to surrender). All said and done he’s back in Bayreuth, plagued with PTSD and no certainty to remain in the army after his enlistment.

All in all it is a quite readable war story in which a former lost teenager is getting lost in a grinding war machine in the Middle East. Around the middle of the book we hear a lieutenant roar his indoctrination: “We helped Panama! Nor are we invaders in Iraq, we’re liberators! Get your history straight!” But towards the end of the book we listen to our hero: “I can’t help seeing that we’ve been pawns, each of us, in a foolish political dispute over oil and land.”

So, four stars from me.… (más)