Book Review: The Jersey Brothers by Sally Mott Freeman

 

The Jersey Brothers: A Missing Naval Officer in the Pacific and 

His Family's Quest to Bring Him Home

Author: Sally Mott Freeman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Date of Publication: May 9, 2017

Pages: 608

    

     The Jersey Brothers was selected for monthly discussion by our neighborhood non-fiction book group.  I had never heard of the book before it was selected and doubt that I ever would have stumbled upon it to read on my own.  I am glad that our group selected it, as the book is obsessively researched, tightly written, emotional in many areas, and, on top of all of that, very educational.  

     The story is about two brothers, Bill and Benny Mott, and their younger half-brother Barton Cross.  The focus is mostly on Barton who was taken prisoner by the Japanese after the fall of the Philippines.  The early part of the book relates much of Barton's upbringing and schooling.  The reader is also introduced to the boys' mother Helen, who becomes a major character as the book moves along.  Bill and Benny are achievers, each obtaining an appointment to the Naval Academy in Annapolis and going on to successful naval careers.  Barton has a flair for the arts and music and doesn't seem to have the same drive to succeed.  He is sent to a private boarding school for high school to try to improve his academic standing but is not offered a position in Annapolis.  He spends a year at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. instead.  He survives all the hazing and harsh treatment as a first-year cadet.  Succeeding at The Citadel he transfers to the Naval Academy, where he endures yet another year of hazing and brutal physical punishment.  He proceeds to fail a math class by a fraction of a point and winds up at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  He graduates from there with a business degree.  The point of all this backstory regarding Barton is important for the reader to know since these experiences were very formative and explain how he could survive the ordeals inflicted by his Japanese captors.  The reader also sees Helen Cross as a manipulative and obtrusive parent, what today we would call a "helicopter parent".  She embarks on letter writing campaigns every time she perceives that her son has been mistreated.  

     Meanwhile, Bill becomes an attorney and then, as a naval reservist, becomes a Naval Intelligence officer.  Benny moves up the ladder of command at sea.  As World War II approaches, Bill, recognizing that Barton will inevitably be drafted into the Army, pulls strings and gets Barton into the Navy as a supply officer.  Bill figures that this arrangement will keep Barton out of harm's way.  Unfortunately, exactly the opposite occurs as Barton is in the wrong place at the wrong time as the Japanese overwhelm the Philippines.  

     What follow is the story of Bill and Benny's relentless pursuit of information pertaining to their imprisoned brother and Barton's horrific ordeals at the hands of his Japanese captors.  Bill uses his position as chief of the White House Map Room (the war room) and his close relationship to President Roosevelt to gain access to classified prisoner and casualty lists.  Benny gets closer and closer to the Philippines as the U.S. Navy moves across the many Pacific islands as the war progresses.  These brothers collectively are witnesses to most of the pivotal events of the Pacific war: the attack on Pearl Harbor, the naval battles at Coral Sea and Midway, the Doolittle raid, and the utilization of the atomic bomb.  The author also exposes the infighting between the Army and Navy over strategy and the personal battles between General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz.  

     This book is important for many reasons, not the least of which is that it highlights the intense emotional toll that war has on families.  The unraveling of marriages, the disruption of any sense of normalcy, and, especially poignant, the terror inflicted on family members of prisoners of war.  Using Helen's diary entries and her many letters to naval officers, congressmen, and even President Roosevelt, the author shows the psychological damage inflicted on those at the home front.  

     In the end, The Jersey Brothers is an exhaustive look at World War II through the eyes of a remarkable family and their many contributions to the war effort.  The author is the daughter of Bill Mott, and she has obviously poured her heart and soul into this work.  She brings the horror of war down to a very personal level; Bill, Benny, and Barton are presented as the heroes that they indeed were, but with all their humanity, doubts, failings, and inadequacies presented as well.  The Jersey Brothers is a remarkable achievement and one which I will not soon forget.  

 

Book Review: The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton

 

The Last Train to Key West

Author: Chanel Cleeton

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: June 16, 2020

Page: 320

     I am a sucker for any book written about Key West.  We have vacationed there several times and the combination of charm, history, climate, inclusiveness, and just plain fun are hard to beat.  I have documented one such trip in a previous blog post.  The restaurants are world class as well!  There are many attractions there besides the beaches and the bars, including The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  When this book was selected by our new neighborhood's book club, I couldn't pass it up.

     This is a novel of three women in crisis.  Their stories are told in alternating chapters.  The author does an incredible job tying these stories together at the end of the book.  The first woman is Helen, a native of Key West who finds herself trapped in an abusive relationship.  She married young, works as a waitress and is pregnant with her first child.  She dreams of her fisherman husband's death which she sees as her only means of escape. The second is Elizabeth, a former debutante from New York who is also trapped in an engagement to a New York mobster.  This marriage is the only way she can see clear of a mountain of debt her family is buried under after the stock market crash of 1929.  She has come to Key West in search of a lost brother, a WWI veteran working in a labor camp.  The third woman is Mirta, a Cuban who is on her honeymoon, having married an older man of dubious reputation.  This marriage was brokered by her father in order to improve his political position.  All three of these main characters are very well developed by the author.  They are all sympathetic and likable.  As these women are introduced and the plots are taking shape, we find that there is a hurricane threatening the area.  This hurricane is, in fact, the famous 1935 Labor Day storm, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in North American history.  This storm had sustained winds of 200 mph and virtually destroyed the village of Islamorada on Matecumbe Key.  At least 250 of the veterans sent to work camps in the Keys were killed.  The storm and its aftermath are the thrilling conclusion to this novel and the crisp, articulate writing comes to a crescendo.

     This is a story of survival.  The three women successfully navigate their personal and actual storms, each in their own way.  The novel tells of some very interesting history as well.  The plight of the World War I veterans, chased from Washington, D.C. by President Herbert Hoover as they protested delayed pension payments is touched upon.  The plight of both the rich and the poor during the Great Depression is alluded to as well.  Mr. Flagler's railroad from Miami to Key West plays a role throughout the story, although details of engineering and construction difficulties are not elaborated upon.  The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 is central to the entire novel.  Its devastation is expertly described and those chapters are nothing short of riveting.  Although it may have detracted a bit from the main plots, a little more historical detail as it pertained to the veterans and some more details regarding the railroad would have given the novel a bit more depth.

     All in all, this was a very enjoyable book to read.  It sparked my interest in learning more about Henry Flagler and his Florida Overseas Railroad as well as the veterans' work camps in the Keys during the Depression.  Entertaining and thought provoking is a great combination!

     

Book Review:Later by Stephen King

Later

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Titan

Date of Publication: March 2, 2021

Pages:272

     Summer books or "beach reads" are supposed to be brief, entertaining, and not too taxing on the brain.  This book fits these criterion perfectly.   This is the story of  Jamie Conklin, a young boy who can see dead people.  It is different from the 1999 movie The Sixth Sense in that the boy can communicate with the dead and his ability dissipates the longer the person is dead.  Initially this only sets up awkward situations for Jamie and his single mom.  As the story progresses, his gift becomes known by his mother's girlfriend, a New York city detective.  She uses Jamie and his gift to further her career and places the boy and his mom in increasingly compromised situations.  

    The story is told by an adult Jamie and moves right along.  One underlying subplot is Jamie's desire to know who his father is/was.  His mother refuses to discuss it and there are no photos, letters, or other clues to his identity.  This issue is neatly resolved at the end of the book with a surprise twist which I did not anticipate.  The characters are incredibly well developed (as is typical for Mr. King) and even the minor characters pop to life in brief appearances.  Jamie's elderly neighbor is a wonderful example of this.  

    As with other Stephen King stories and novels, this stands as an allegory for facing your fears and accepting yourself for who you are, even if that means becoming comfortable with your ability to see dead people.  Maybe I sold this brief novel a bit short in my opening sentence.  It is a quick read and is very entertaining.  It does, however, make you think a bit, especially about confronting one's fears.  I enjoyed this, recommend it, and not necessarily just for the beach!

Book Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

 

The Maidens

Author: Alex Michaelides

Publisher: Celadon Books

Date of Publication: June 15, 2021

Pages: 352

     The Maidens is book number 2 for this author following his wildly successful The Silent Patient.  This book has a different premise and setting but lots of the same psychological backdrop.  The main character is Mariana Andros, a young but recently widowed group therapist from London.  She rushes to Cambridge to be with her niece whose classmate has just been murdered.  She decides to stick around to continue comforting and counseling her niece and try lending the police a hand in solving the murder.  Potential suspects are introduced on almost every page.  First there is the creepy guy on the train who stalks Mariana, then a misogynistic but charismatic literature professor, the victim's boyfriend who happens to have a criminal record and deals drugs, and a quiet but suspicious custodian.  One by one more young girls are killed.  These victims are stereotypical privileged elite class young women.   Like the first girl, each new victim belongs to a select study group led by the literature professor.  Mariana becomes more involved and feels the wrath from both the police, who feel their toes are being stepped on, as well as from suspects who feel wrongfully accused.

    There is a lot of great character development here, much like in The Silent Patient.  The psychological histories of many of the characters are similar: distant and/or abusive fathers who these characters are either trying to escape from or live up to.  There are a lot of "daddy issues" in this novel.  The setting is like another character, with detailed renderings of the Cambridge campus.  The plot is where this novel falls a bit short, though, in my opinion.  The story tends to drag as Mariana has dinner at the professor's home or drinks in various college bars with other characters.  The ending is wrapped up nicely with a twist that I did not see coming, although in retrospect, I should have.

     All in all, this is an entertaining read with a great setting.  For me, the plot could have used a faster pace with a little less psychology.

 

   

Book Review: The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson

 

The Sirens of Mars

Searching for Life on Another World

Author: Sarah Stewart Johnson

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Date of Publication: July 7, 2020

Pages: 288

     The Sirens of Mars is a unique amalgam of history, science, philosophy and memoir.  Sarah Stewart Johnson is a planetary scientist and an assistant professor at Georgetown University.  In this book she gives us the history of man's interest in and study of the planet Mars.  This starts with early attempts to describe and then map the planet's surface.  It culminates in today's sophisticated rovers, complete with equipment to analyze soil and rock samples in attempt to find conditions compatible with life.

    This book chronicles the many successes and failures of Mars expeditions as well as the surprises which have come from these missions.  The author does an amazing job of explaining complex scientific concepts and creates very understandable commentaries on how this research is conducted and, more importantly, why this research is necessary.  Exploration of a planet thought to be similar to ours but not contaminated by homo sapiens is essential to our understanding of the beginnings of life on Earth.

   The author weaves a parallel narrative of her own burgeoning childhood interest in science, her college and graduate school experiences and her subsequent participation in the male-dominated field of planetary science.  She cleverly juxtaposes her own personal milestones (career advancements, meeting and marrying her husband, and her first pregnancy) with landmark events in the history of Mars exploration.  The chapter where she describes the birth of her first child while at the same time the Mars rover Curiosity (a project with which she was critically involved) successfully navigated the Gale Crater looking for simple organic compounds, the "building blocks" of potential life, was captivating.

     I found this a very readable, entertaining, and educational book.  The author does an outstanding job of bringing complex science to a non-science audience.  It gave me new insights into the importance of  this kind of research.  I enjoyed The Sirens of Mars much more than I anticipated and recommend it to anyone curious about scientific investigation, space exploration, and/or planetary science.