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Show MaEsMaOalaR WARS AND PEACE The Memoir of an American Family By Rory Quirk Presidio Press, $24.95 ISSN 0891416838 REVIEW BY EMILY ABEDON One hour after learning that his father had died of a heart attack at age 57, Rory Quirk was fly ing out of Vietnam with five fellow soldiers. Those five lay stacked, dead, in at his feet. Quirk's Wars and Peace begins there. He little expects, as he flies toward home, that he is going, not just to bury his father, but to begin a fascinating journey back in time, on which he may unearth the meaning of his dad's legacy. Quirk's father, James, was a lifelong soldier who. almost daily, wrote letters home to his w ife Mary, detailing his presence and perspective at turning points in world history. He served under General George Patton during World War II, rubbed shoulders w ith General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean w ar. and played absentee father for the good of this nation. With breathtaking description, James's correspondence speaks of the heady era in which he lived and fought. There are battle vignettes, proclamations of affection, and profound thoughts on war, love, and life. At times body-bag- the events feel surreal, even for the man who is witnessing them. "The whole drama of this thing is so intense. begins one note James wrote from Normandy, in July of 1944. "Because it is so real and because the actors in the thing are so completely unconscious of the heroic role they play. Marys letters back are equally poignant as she writes of joining her fellow war wives to work, raise children, and hold down the fort at the homefront. The enormity of it was dreadfully hard to take. she says of the invasion. "I was so keyed up that I never went to bed at all . . . went to church to offer my own little aimless prayer for all the guys most especially my own. The touchstone of each letter is the underlying hope for a peaceful future when the couple will live a simple life raising their child together. That never really happened. By the time his father was no longer soldiering. Quirk, was fighting battles of his own. Part intimate dialogue, part guided tour. Wars and Peace is an American treasure. By adding family photos and personal narrative to his parents riveting letters. Quirk freezes moments and icons in time, creating the ultimate living history and nearing, if not achieving, his personal goal of an elusive inner peace. Emily Abedon is a freelance writer in Charleston. South Carolina. rc dOtOt Fast times with Fast Eddie After finishing Robert L. O'Connell's Fast Eddie: A Novel in Many oices (Morrow, $24, 0688166903), I e turned to the encyclopedias and historical reference works that fill the bookshelves behind my chair to the hislook up Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (1890-1973- ), torical figure who is the novel's title character. It was an education. f'M. The books that mentioned Rickenbacker gave only a sketchy biographical outline in a few sentences. Most of them didn't have a listing for him. Even the alphabetically Matthew Ridgw ay. a hero of World War II and Korea but surely w ay nearby side of today 's recognition meter, got more mentions. A man I off the had assumed was part of our cultural baggage apparently is circling 'round and 'round the luggage carousel in historical oblivion, claimed by left-han- d nobody. Until O'Connell. Which is another renew ed lesson to me. that a novel is not a work of nonfiction and a novelist does not have to hew to facts or history or anything except his own imagination. As it happens. I think that O'Connell's frequently funny novel has remained true to the mam facts of Rickenbacker's life, which was one to fire any writer's imagination. Born into poverty in Columbus, Ohio, Rickenbacker became a famous race car driver and an aerial ace in World War 1 (he received the Congressional Medal of Honor). After the war he formed the Rickenbacker Car Co. and when that failed he helped start Eastern Airlines in the late 1930s. In 1941 he suffered massive injuries in a crash of one of his own airliners. On a mission for the government in World War II, the plane he was on crashed in the Pacific and he survived 23 days in a life raft apparently, by his goading, helping his also to survive. He went on to run Eastern for 20 years. Where the author takes liberties is in the telling, which is through the use of, as the subtitle says, "many voices," most of them historical figures, including General Billy Mitchell. Damon Runyon, W.C. Fields, Richard Nixon, and dozens of others. This works better than you might expect and is far from unique. John Dos Passos (one of the "voices here) used it to a limited extent 70 years ago. More recently. Beryl Bainbridge told her historical novel of the Crimean War, Master Georgie, through three voices. Though this comes at the expense of rounded development of character, it does provide a multifaceted view of things. One view of an aspect of Rickenbacker's life is given (perhaps his mother's), then another (maybe Rickenbacker's own), and then, often, a less subjective view (such as a former colleagues). Sometimes this more objective view is that of the "scribe, the person putting all this down on paper, who also provides a thread of narrative to help readers keep their bearings. V here this does not work well is in the v oice of God, w ho speaks here like an adolescent wiseacre or a cynical bully. I were you I'd shut up. he declaims to the universe at one point, "and hope I don't decide to reincarnate the lot of you.") The temptation for the author to play God with God was just too much to resist. It is hard to say exactly what God's purpose is in the novel or what his attitude is toward Rickenbacker, other than taking him down a peg or two. God has his moments. "Christians are particularly annoying. he says. Why should I care if they believe in me? I"ni God. I have a good If they really believed in Me, they wouldn't always be exhoning each other to believe in Me. But such moments are few and far between. Out of this collection of views it is possible to detect one view of Rickenbacker. a summation of character, and it is mostly that of the scribe. Typical is this, from Rickenbackers Detroit years: Sure he was a whore. But so was practically everybody else. He just charged more and served fewer clients. If that sounds harsh, there is this backhanded He and compliment: his generation strung together success after success until they nearly ruled the world. They were wasteful, and cruel: but they were also and tough to a degree that the shambling legions of the sensitive can barely imagine. So, which is worse, corporate whore or shambling sensitive soul? God only knows, and here, at least he isn't saying. raft-mat- MESSIAH is coming! THF VfQSTTFRRiniNT.THttU tfcR SJN(.fc TfiB SILENCE Oh THh IAMBS MS STARLING (If self-imag- e. $6.99 The most terrifying thriller since The Silence of the Lambs. self-relia- nt The first victim was found hanging from a rope. The second, beaten to death in a pool of blood. The third, decapitated. Their personal backgrounds were as strikingly different as the methods of their murders. But one chilling detail linked all three crimes. The local police had enough evidence to believe they were witnessing a rare and disturbing phenomenon: The making of a a serial killer . . . Onyx Fiction wwwpenguinputnam com Roger K. Miller is a freelance writer who can he reached at rogertfi bookpage.com. mu Mmamr 222E2S2 |