You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

Great novels expose us to ideas, places or experiences that we may not otherwise know about or have the ability to access.  The new novel, You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon, is eye-opening and a must read for anyone who wants to understand what it means to live a military life.

In 2001, when the armed forces were sent abroad to fight our wars against terror, the families of our armed service professionals were left behind--left behind to raise their children, deal with their illnesses and manage the day to day challenges of family life.  Alone.  Loneliness and longing envelop everyday existence.  Then, when the professionals come home, the reunions are often challenging.  A sign by the gates of Fort Hood warns, "You've Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming."

This series of loosely interwoven short stories was eye opening for me.  In one story, a woman must deal with her husband's infidelity.  In another, a cancer patient must deal with the results of a critical test and an unruly teenager.  In another, a warrior can't speak about the atrocities he has seen.  Finally, in one that I certainly can relate to, a New York City investment banker stoked with the idealism of fighting for freedom leaves his home and profession to enlist. 

The stories are compelling and piercing.  Fallon does not sensationalize the tragedies and challenges.  She expertly takes us into the lives of the soldiers and their families and friends and shows us the costs and burdens of our wars.  The writing is terse and loaded with tension.  While the stories themselves made me question whether we do enough for the soldiers that are deployed to protect our freedom, Fallon does not offer political views.  The stories speak for themselves.

Recommendation: I really enjoyed this (and I did not expect to).  It is a short and easy read but very powerful and compelling.  It will leave you sharing the families' sadness and wondering whether we do enough for our veterans


Author interview below.

Other reivews:

NPR

The Report by Jessica Francis Kane

The Report is Jessica Francis Kane's first novel.  During WWII, Londoners regularly spent nights in London Underground Tube Stations that were transformed into bomb shelters.  In March 1943, 173 people died in one of those shelters.  No bombs fell that night.  It was one of the worst civilian disasters in London during the war.

The novel is based on this true story and tells us how an East London community suffered through and managed with loss.  In response to a public outcry, a respected magistrate is tasked with writing a report to determine the cause of these deaths.  In the process, he is forced to make difficult judgments.  In a parallel story, a young documentary film maker visits the magistrate to interview him for the 30th anniversary of what was a ground breaking report.

The Report questions hindsight and the revisiting of mistakes.  We have lived through and learned from many of these reports (e.g., The 9/11 Commission Report, The Space Shuttle Challenger Report). At times, they seek to assign blame and at other times they try to teach or simply explain. The book is part of a growing collection of post-9/11 literature that struggles with communal loss and asks questions such as "when engaged in a war, is morale more important than reason?" and "is truth always a noble end in and of itself?"  Kane expertly poses these questions.

Kane provides us with insight into an aspect of WWII that I had not read much about before: how did the war affect the daily lives of Londoners?  She examines the sacrifices they were forced to make.  Although this is a period piece, Kane frames the story in a way that makes the appeal far more universal.

Recommendation: This is a very good book and worth the read.  In this well paced piece, Kane combines excellent literary writing with important universal questions.


The memorial plaque from the station.















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