Genre:
Genre Fiction—War related/ Coming of Age
Description:
“When
Nathan's father, a decorated Navy SEAL, is killed in combat, he must
rely on his father's teammates for direction as he learns to become a
man. The normal struggles of adolescence are amplified while growing
up in the shadow of a war hero, and a young man's future hangs in the
balance. No one is safe from the scars of war in this funny,
heart-wrenching, poignant novel.”
Author:
“Andy Symonds is
an award-winning journalist based in the Washington, D.C. area. His
father is a thirty-three year veteran of the U.S. Navy, and he grew
up on military bases throughout the world.
He is currently working on the follow up to My Father's Son, which will feature several of the same characters.
His passions are: writing, reading, Boston sports and supporting our veterans.”
To learn more check
out Mr. Symonds website and feel free to check out My
Father’s Son
Facebook page as well.
Appraisal:
I very much
enjoyed the way this story gave insight into the navy SEALs,
exploring far beyond their actual duties and delving deeply into the
men’s personal camaraderie and ethos. On a number of occasions, the
author used an unusual mechanism to give the reader an insight into
the SEALs in combat, telling the backstory using multiple points of
view, separated out from the main story using italics—the technique
worked really well.
However,
the tale is structured around Nathan’s coming of age, tracking his
life from his father’s death, when Nathan was thirteen until the
boy reached eighteen, and told in the form of a first-person
biography. For this reader, there were too many words spent examining
Nathan’s self-destructive behaviors, which were visited, then
repaired, then revisited, only to be fixed and revisited again. I
found a fundamental disconnect between this young man’s weak
character and that of the navy SEALs who selflessly supported him
after his father’s death and whom he hoped to emulate.
At one
point in the story Nathan addresses the reader directly, which threw
me off, especially considering the reader was told that certain
information about a significant object the main character held in his
hand would not be revealed. If this is a work of fiction, I fail to
understand what purpose that achieved other than to tick me off!
Overall, I
felt unsympathetic to the main character. Based on the information I
was given about the rigors of SEAL training, I found it hard to
believe Nathan would qualify. Consequently some of the enjoyment I
gained from the clearly well-researched military aspects was dampened
by Nathan’s self-absorption and selfishness that seemed to stray
beyond “normal” high school rebellion into the realms of a mental
dysfunction that I would hope the six month SEAL training would
expose.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Very few.
Print
Length: 316 pages
Rating:
*** Three Stars
Reviewed
by: Pete Barber
