Morgan Rielly

Review of "Neighborhood Heroes: Life Lessons from Maine's Greatest Generation."

I went into this book expecting something dull and maudlin, the sort of thing ("life lessons") that's supposed to be inspiring. I'm not particularly interested in being inspired by WWII vets, and this wasn't in the least inspiring, but that was ok. It was interesting to hold my attention to the end, and made a useful backdrop to another book I was reading at the same time ("Snow Falling on Cedars"). Since my eldest son (age 12) is a WWII buff, I'll pass the book on to him -- in terms of depth and writing style, it's certainly appropriate for his age.

There were a few things I found more striking than the readiness of the men (primarily: there were a few women represented) to volunteer -- and on their return from the war, to volunteer again for service in Korea. Of course, that's six decades' memory-polishing later, but it still stands in stark contrast to what I recall my parents (my father is a Vietnam veteran) saying about the draft of their youth. Reilly does a nice job of balancing letting the men speak in their own words versus telling their stories, and the narrative is clean and easy reading. Being familiar with the area (I was raised in MA, and my grandfather was raised in ME), I knew many of the locations mentioned from the men's childhoods --I've been through the Fall River Shipyard and the WWII-era blue-grey buildings there; my parents moored their sailboat near one of the old boatlaunch docks, and I remember the General Dynamics drydock and crane there in Quincy MA. When Phil Curran comments about sailing on the USS Salem, I know the boat: it's docked about 45 minutes from my house, and I've taken my kids to see it. For readers outside New England, a map and a little more explanation may have been nice, including some photographs. Likewise, maps and a little sidebar explaining some of the historical action/troop movements alongside the veteran's words would have been helpful; there were a few times I pulled up wikipedia to learn more about the background of something a veteran was saying.

On the whole, a solid book, and a project well worth doing. I hope this is part of a series of similar books highlighting veterans' oral histories from a range of geographic areas, to help people of my generation understand what was common, and different, about how these men handled their service and post-service lives.… (altro)

Nice collection of twenty-five personal recollections of World War Two participants (military members overseas and on the home-front). I was impressed that the author was a high school student and found his reference to an African proverb ["When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground"] to be poignantly appropriate as so many of these men and women are gone and with them many stories have been lost. A worthwhile volume full of homespun advice based on the experiences of long lives, all which had been deeply affected by their WWII experiences.… (altro)

Neighborhood Heroes: Life Lessons from Maines Greatest Generation is a collection of personal histories from those who fought in WWII. They all lived in Maine and were interviewed by the author, Morgan Reilly. Reilly is a high school senior who has fallen in love with history and how it shapes our world. He collected these verbal histories bsed on the Afican saying of "everytime an old man dies a library burns down." This is Reilly's way of saving some of that history.

All of the chapters have a basic theme set by the person who is being interviewed; some are facing the future (Have a Positive Attitude), others are more looking to the past (Even Heroes Are Afraid). The chapters all have the same format, first telling us who the interviewee is and what he has done. Then we learn his role in WWII; some were involved in the actual combat whereas others were i support roles. Following this segment there is a history of what the person did after the war and how the war experience shaped what he did for his life work and how he lived. Several women were also in the Armed Forces and their experinece also were recounted.

In all I enjoyed this book. It was fairly well written and consistent in how the chapters were constructed. I was impressed that the author is only a high school senior and has a p[asson already for history and how it effects our world. I found the rigid format though to become boring towards the end of the book so I give this book 4 stars based on the strength of the interviewees and how the author worked with them to "save a library."… (altro)