Way West

I was kind of excited to read this book, I really enjoy stories of pioneers and thought this one would be like others I have read; I was wrong.  It was an unusually written book, written in first person, but skipping from character to character.  There were many times I wasn't sure who was thinking or speaking, especially in the beginning.  It was really like a Charles Dickens book, where you don't understand what the people are saying and then about 1/3 of the way into the book all of the sudden you realize that you're actually understanding what is going on.  The book is about a group of people who leave Missouri in hopes of finding a better life in Oregon.  Each of the families is different.  The main family is a man, Lije Evans, his wife and their teenage son.  The other members of the party had all kinds of views, and many of them weren't really cut out for traveling in covered wagons and were more fit for cities and politics.    Lije Evans soon leads the train and does a great job and learns that he is a leader, something his wife knew all along.  Just a warning at the beginning there are parts where you delve into some of the minds of the older men looking at a beautiful young lady; it's not real bad, just enough to make me a little uncomfortable.

They of course meet with many dangers and sad events, one time loosing a young child, (which was an extremely sad part) and an act of adultery.  Soon you see how tough the people are and even though I didn't think it was possible in the beginning, you come to care for the families that finally made it to Oregon. 

The Evans' friend Dick Summers was probably my favorite character.  He was a rough, tough, true cowboy.  He had lived many years as a trapper and knew the land and territory and also the Indians well.  He gave up that life and married and settled down in Missouri.  His wife died (this part was a bit confusing) and so he decided to help the group travel to Oregon.  While on the trip he realized that he wasn't ready to give up that lifestyle and continues on after the other people in the group settle.

Overall, it wasn't my favorite book ever.  It was good, but I felt it dragged on a bit.  It felt like we were forced to hear what happened everyday, even though it gets a bit monotonous.  

Guard of Honor

What is another word for boring?  I just looked it up and some of them that fit this book are tedious, dull, mind-numbing, wearisome, uninspiring and tiresome.  Can you see how much I enjoyed this book?  I almost stopped reading it in the middle and thought about writing in my review that I just couldn't read on.  When I reached page 100 and knew I had 531 pages to go it felt like I was fighting an uphill battle.  The thing is this book had so much potential to become something interesting and to have a plot, but then it would falter.

The book is mostly about the behind-the-scenes of the military during WWII.  It focused on the AFORAD army base in Ocanara, Florida and mostly centers around the general of the base.  I'm not sure what AFORAD stands for, something about the Air Force Operations, it doesn't really exist.  The book starts out on a flight back to Ocarana with lots of characters, almost too many to keep track of.  I couldn't keep one apart from the other, except the one woman, Lieutenant Turck.  As they come in to land they almost run into another plane that is landing at the same time.  This other plane happens to be flown by an African-American bomber group coming to the AFORAD base as an experiment in integration. Unfortunately one of the officers from the original plane gets upset and hits the African-American pilot.  Because of this incident a lot of racial problems occur, but it doesn't really go anywhere and there really isn't a resolution; it just kind of hangs there in the background.  If this book centered on the racial tension in the army (the army didn't officially discriminate against black soldiers, but segregation was still culturally normal) it would have made for an interesting story. Instead it was just like a teaser.  The book would talk about it and then switch gears and focus on something else.

There is also talk of a big celebration taking place  on Saturday-  I think it's to celebrate the general's birthday.  I should take this time to let you know that this book happens over three days.  That's right, three days .  Thursday goes from page 1 to 88, Friday from page 89 to 286 and Saturday from 287 to 631.  Those are some long days.  And those days are spent in meeting after meeting with so many different characters you easily lose track of which officer is which and which rank is which.  I think that if someone had served in the military, especially during this time period, then they might find it interesting to read about all the meetings they had and all the conversations that took place.  Unfortunately, I have never served in the military or have a real knowledge of how military life is and so I found it dull.

As the General's birthday celebration approaches there is some more racial tension when the  African-American bomber group decides to go to the Officer's Club and they are not welcomed in.  They get arrested and they have to figure out how to cover it all up because some of the leaders in Washington, D.C. aren't happy.  Thus follows more meetings to figure out what to do and who was there when it happened and what their stories are, and blah, blah, blah.  Admit it you're even bored just reading my review, aren't you.

After the celebration commences there are some guys who jump from the planes to make a big show.  A group of officers are watching close by so they can write about it and see one of the soldiers break both his legs when he lands.  Then they notice about seven more soldiers land in a lake.  They weren't wearing life jackets and so they are assumed to have drowned.  Of course, we never find out if they were drowned and who was responsible for the soldiers not wearing life vests because this book is all about not having any resolution. 

There was one character who I enjoyed whenever he would come up, which was often.  His name was Captain Nathaniel Hicks.  He worked in the Public Relations Department and was all around a good guy.  He lived with two other officers, one a devoted husband and one a lady's man.  Captain Hicks was married with children and he talks about in the book how he would never be tempted to cheat on his wife because he loved her and it just felt wrong.  Unfortunately, he doesn't follow this and at the end of the book ends up sleeping with Lieutenant Turck (from the airplane).  I was so disappointed.  He is then called up and ordered to go back to New York (where is wife and kids live) to work on a big project for the General.  I guess he gets what he deserves.

All in all, I'd say stay away from this one.  Of course, I'm sure at this point I don't need to tell you that.