Battle Fatigue

September 19, 2011
Kurlansky shifts gears—not entirely successfully—from nonfiction (Salt) and adult literature (Boogaloo on Second Avenue) to YA fiction. Joel Bloom, a Jewish boy in post-WWII Massachusetts, grows up playing war games and cheering on the Brooklyn Dodgers. As the book follows him from age seven into adulthood, his interest in baseball never wanes, but he slowly starts to realize that he’s opposed to the growing Vietnam conflict that is consuming his generation. His moral evolution is affected by his teachers in high school and college, news reports, and stories from older friends who have joined the military, but it’s his college girlfriend, Rachel, who draws Joel fully into the antiwar movement. Kurlansky uses an uneasy mix of diary entries and first-person, present-tense flashbacks, which are largely indistinguishable from each other, to create a disaffected narrative voice that warps through the years and events of Joel’s life; the occasional bit of poetic pretentiousness—“Bobby Kennedy’s death was the final death of wounded hope”—offers some variety. Likewise, the rushed ending feels anticlimactic and robs the book of genuine pathos. Ages 12–up.

August 15, 2011

When Joel declares himself a Conscientious Objector to the Vietnam War, he feels as though his whole life has been leading to this moment.

In this first-person narrative, Joel recounts the events in his childhood that influence his decision. He grows up surrounded by World War II veterans and plays war using their old uniforms. Most of the vets do not talk about their experiences, but it is clear that they are haunted by them—battle fatigue, they call it. This leaves Joel, and readers along with him, struggling to understand the necessity of war, especially when, in the end, we befriend our former enemies, as with the former Axis powers. His father says that the war might not have occurred if more Germans had opposed Hitler's policies. It is this point that Joel keeps coming back to when he realizes that Vietnam will be his battleground: Is he able to stand against policies he abhors, regardless of the consequences? Readers willing to stick with this leisurely recollection will find that the pace picks up when Joel receives his draft notice during one of the most tumultuous periods in the country's history; even families are divided on the issue, and the personal and societal pressures that Joel faces are tremendous.

Pair this penetrating examination of a teen's interior process with Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels (1988) for a discussion about teens and the Vietnam War. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

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November 1, 2011

Gr 7 Up-Joel Bloom grows up in the shadow of World War II, his father, uncle, and neighbors having served their country proudly. The idea of war is entrenched in his boyhood experiences and those of his friends, and they spend much of their time playing at war, choosing sides in stereotypical portrayals of Nazis and Japanese. They grow up knowing they will fight "their war." Yet, when he turns 18 and it comes along, Joel finds himself unable to fight. He defers being drafted by entering college, where he participates in antiwar demonstrations. After graduation, he takes a stand as a conscientious objector, but the government denies him that option. Now he must decide whether he will do what others expect him to do or follow his own moral code and head to Canada. Joel narrates this coming-of-age story that shows his gradual development. The novel fulfills an important role for teens who may not know about the personal side of men who escaped the Vietnam War by leaving the country, and the reasons they did so. However, while the characters are believable, they are underdeveloped. Also, the pace is too slow, and the ending is anticlimactic.-Wendy Scalfaro, G. Ray Bodley High School, Fulton, NY

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.