Book Reviews

Title: Gated Grief: The Daughter of a GI Concentration Camp Liberator Discovers a Legacy of Trauma
Author: Leila Levinson
Genre: Creative Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction, Autobiography, History
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1934980552

After the death of her father, a World War II Army doctor, Leila Levinson discovered a concealed box of shocking photos he had taken of victims of a Nazi slave-labor camp. "A foot emerged from the chaos of countless bodies, a leg. Grotesquely frozen faces. My fingers turned the photo over: Nordhausen, Germany, April 12, 1945."
Intuiting that the photos might be clues to her father’s cold silence and detachment, his intolerance of grief or sadness, she became a detective, finding and interviewing dozens of World War II veterans who also liberated Nazi concentration camps. Veteran after veteran demonstrated ongoing pain and shock. “My mind froze.” “I was never the same.”
Still traumatized by the unimaginable horrors they found, most of the veterans have spoken very little of what they witnessed, not even to their spouses or, as decades passed, to their adult children and grandchildren. “No words could convey the horror.”
As many liberators opened up to Levinson, their recalling long suppressed memories created closure for them as well as for her. Gated Grief weaves their eyewitness accounts with Levinson’s own story to portray the trauma that has followed the veterans and shaped their children’s emotional lives. Gated Grief, which includes dozens of her father’s and other veterans’ never-before-seen photos, concludes with the author’s journeying to Nordhausen in a necessary attempt to reconcile her own life.

Title: French Letters: Engaged in War
Author: Jack Woodville London
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Literary
Reviewer: Dave Brown

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982120710

French Letters: Engaged in War is the second book in the French Letters Trilogy. The companion to French Letters: Virginia's War, it is the story of Will Hastings, an army doctor caught up in the D-Day landings in Normandy and the drive to capture St. Lo, France. Isolated from Virginia Sullivan and the events taking place at home, Will faces the demands of combat surgery under fire and the losses of his brother, his friends, and his connection to home. Historically accurate and precise and covering events from exactly the same time frame as the events in the first volume, Engaged in War is a novel of the will to survive when war, distance, loss, and the uncertainty of the future separate a couple far beyond the breaking point.

Title: Out of the Mist, Memories of War
Author: Mike Mullins
Genre: Non-Fiction, History, Poetry
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1462051405

Michael D. "Moon" Mullins with his usual flair has found a perfect way to bring life to the stories of America's Warriors. His lyrical way with words has opened a window into the past that is closing much too quickly. Out of the Mist, Memories of War touches the soul and brings the reader to a deep understanding of the sacrifices made by those ready to stand in the breach. - D. H. Brown, Award-winning author of Honor Defended, Board member of Military Writers Society of America, Vietnam Veteran.

Title: Lucky Enough (Audio)
Author: Eddie Beesley
Genre: Audio Book
Reviewer: Joyce Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0966327675

In August, 1965, Marine Corporal Eddie Beesley stepped on a landmine near Chu Lai in Vietnam. The resulting explosion changes his life forever. Lucky Enough is the inspiring story of how Eddie dealt with the most terrible moment of his life.

Title: Vietnam in Verse: Poetry for Beer Drinkers
Author: Mike Mullins
Genre: Audio Book
Reviewer: Bob Doerr

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): ISBN / EAN

I am Michael D. Mullins. I have written a book of poetry, telling my story when I was a grunt in Vietnam. I served there from March 1968 until March 1969. My unit was Delta Company, 3rd Battalion of the 7th Infantry in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. Our motto was "Light, swift and accurate." It could have easily been "light, sweaty and persistent." We were mobile and proved it every day.

The stories I tell are about friends, vets I have met in various situations and my own experiences in the rice paddies of Southeast Asia. I continue to seek stories that inspire, concern, and delight me. They make me thoughtful, proud, and committed to their telling.

I have more to write and will continue to listen to the veterans I encounter on life's road. There are 8.2 million of us, so I am sure I will not get to everyone, but to those from whom I have already learned and those in my future I offer my gratitude, my respect, and my thanks.

"Vietnam in Verse" was recently awarded the Gold Medal for poetry in 2007 from the Military Writers Society of America.