The Long March Home - Review

 

This has to be one of the books that has been more difficult to read and for all the right reasons. The subject of this book being the Bataan Death March. 

This book follows three friends: flashing back from their time growing up in Mobile, Alabama and through their time and experiences in the Philippines. The descriptions of the Death March were powerful. The emotions experienced by Jimmy, Hank, and Billy  were something this book helped me experience. 

I felt like a witness to the depravity of the POW camps and the March itself. I saw the way that these soldiers had to survive and felt for the ones that could no longer go on. 

The ending will rip your heart out. 

Softening the story are the flashbacks to Mobile, and to Clair. Jimmy's struggles with his father and the relationships he had with those back home added depth and humanity to the story. Jimmy's faith crisis in the backdrop of utter Hell was powerful and moving. 

I found myself crying at the utter devastation that occurred in that war. These men that were forgotten after the early days of war until after the war was over. One line that gutted me was when a doctor was being told about what the character experienced and cal
led him a liar. To me this just summed up the entire experience for this character. 

I recommend this book to those who are students of history. I love the way a historical novel brings history off the page and places me in the center of everything giving me a different perspective and experience of something that I was not personally around to see and experience. This novel does this for me. 

I received an early copy through the publisher and NetGalley and this is my honest review