Along the Watchtower

May 23, 2011
Squires's somber debut details the coming-of-age of Lucinda Collins, an adolescent army brat growing up in Germany in the '80s. Her family revolves around her father, Major Jack, who runs his house according to the Army's zero defect policy. To him, rules exist so that "stupid people don't wander around lost," and illnessâincluding Lucinda's epilepsyâis weakness. Though she's never seen it, land owned by the family in Shiloh, Tex., is the only constant in a childhood filled with loneliness and fleeting friendships. The major's selfishness and a wandering eye eventually tear the family apart; Lucinda's role as messenger and mediator also causes her relationship with her mother to suffer. She soon realizes that she can only rely on herself. Much remains unrealized in Squires's often evocative novel, from Lucinda's conflict with her father to her dreams of home, and the best moments come from brief encounters with uniformed men: a Nazi ghost, a neighbor suffering PTSD, a young soldier who shares her budding love of music, and a teenage boy who appears at critical junctures, pushing Lucinda to make personal her abstract philosophies, on war, the military, and herself.

June 15, 2011

In her debut novel, Squires, having grown up in a military family, provides an inside look at the life of an army brat. Teenaged Lucinda Collins lives on an army base in Germany in the post-Vietnam era. Her parents entered into a hasty marriage, and the ongoing strife of military life has eroded their fragile bond. Lucinda loves her father, but she detests the way he neglects his family. At school, all of the kids are constantly in transition; Lucinda meets a boy, Sydney, and falls in love within a few hours, but his family moves away three days later. Unable to form lasting ties, she discovers that rock 'n' roll provides her with a context that can be transported anywhere. Though her family eventually splinters, her emotional toughness serves her well as she moves into adulthood. VERDICT A unique, compelling perspective on the dynamics of a military family, springing from the experience of someone who has been there.--Susanne Wells, MLS, Indianapolis

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
At 13, army brat Lucinda feels like sand blowing across the earth, particles that hadn't been whole in a long time. Yes, Lucy is sick of living a rootless life with no permanent home to make her whole. Worse is the constant loss of friends, casualties of her family's peripatetic wanderings. No wonder she's bitter, telling a friend the army is this war machine that just keeps on turning, feeding itself on families like ours. Speaking of family, Lucy's father appears to be trying to out-Santini the Great Santini, while her mother is a shrew who spends most of her time shrieking at her husband and children. Not much fun for Lucy or the reader, but the girl, at least, finds solace in music, and the many references to specific songs (the title is a nod to Bob Dylan) help root the book in the mid-1980s. Squires' first novel has a number of attractive elements, but, like those particles of sand, they never cohere, and there is no climax or closure. And yet Squires, a former army brat herself, certainly knows her territory and serves it well, holding reader interest and involvement to the (inconclusive) end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)