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A review by lisaarnsdorf
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
2.0
This was a tough book for me. The author clearly wanted to write a book about the atrocities of war and the ways men dealt with them when they returned to civilian life. But he used a really interesting character to get that perspective across, which muddied the waters and made this book jumbled, slow, and frustrating.
First, the author called the Marines in his book “soldiers.” Her should have done his research and learned that a serviceman of the Marine Corps is called a Marine. Soldiers are members of the Army. It made me cringe every time I read it.
Secondly, the story was weighed down by so many wars. The first half of the book is mainly reflections on various characters’ experiences during their individual wars. Because Saul’s experiences are told via Donny, I often had a hard time keeping straight which war we were talking about, Vietnam or Korea. And he threw in tidbits of WWII as well. And of course we had the Yugoslav Wars. Just too much focus on death and acts of war.
We sunk our teeth into the story of this boy running from danger with an old Marine in a foreign country, and I just wanted to get back to that plot line. There was far too little of their unlikely adventure, which was the heart of the story.
I was really angered by many of the events at the end of book, and found the wrap up to be really dissatisfying. Especially for such a slow build. I decided to ignore what happened and rewrite the ending in my head.
First, the author called the Marines in his book “soldiers.” Her should have done his research and learned that a serviceman of the Marine Corps is called a Marine. Soldiers are members of the Army. It made me cringe every time I read it.
Secondly, the story was weighed down by so many wars. The first half of the book is mainly reflections on various characters’ experiences during their individual wars. Because Saul’s experiences are told via Donny, I often had a hard time keeping straight which war we were talking about, Vietnam or Korea. And he threw in tidbits of WWII as well. And of course we had the Yugoslav Wars. Just too much focus on death and acts of war.
We sunk our teeth into the story of this boy running from danger with an old Marine in a foreign country, and I just wanted to get back to that plot line. There was far too little of their unlikely adventure, which was the heart of the story.
I was really angered by many of the events at the end of book, and found the wrap up to be really dissatisfying. Especially for such a slow build. I decided to ignore what happened and rewrite the ending in my head.