Customer Reviews

A Sound Like Thunder

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the first sentence to the last, I loved this novel. The protaganist, Rove MacNee reflects on a pivotal time in his life: his first kiss, his complicated relationship with his mother and father, the loss of his beloved grandmother, and the moment he passes from boyhood to manhood.

Brewer's writing is like a "jubilee" of words, much like the jubilee of "crabs, flounder, shrimp, and eel" that bless the people of Fairhope, Alabama. Sonny Brewer blesses his readers with beautiful writing and casts an unforgettable story.

Buy A Sound like Thunder for yourself, share it with your friends, pass it on to your children, and will it to your grandchildren. It's that good.

This novel is written lyrically, almost like poetry. The plot is thin, but oh, the writing is so good. Mr. Brewer has a unique phraseology that can only be described as beautiful. There were passages I reread just to experience again the enjoyment of the words.

The plot, as noted, is a bit thin. A sixteen year old boy is faced all at once with problems caused by his alcoholic father, the possiblilty of his mother's affair, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and his first love. Everyone will fall in love with Anne Pearl. A sailboat that he has been given and restored seems to be his salvation. The characters are all terrific, even though scantily sketched. The boy meets an artist along the way and he is intrigued at how the artist can portray so much with just a few graceful lines. This is the way Mr. Brewer draws his characters - a few (relatively speaking) graceful lines that convey all the depth necessary to get the portrait of the character across.

As the book wends it way through Rove's life there is almost a mystical quality to the telling, until Mr. Brewer suddenly shifts gears and there is a tense, action-packed scene that is still wonderfully written.

This is truly a novel that allows the reader to savor the written word.

I grew up in Chatom, Alabama, a small town about 60 miles north of Fairhope. I can personally testify that Fairhope, where the story is told, is a dreamlike place, it is wonderful. The book takes me back about 20 to 25 years when I was young and full of spunk like Rove. For any son who grew up with his dad this book also rings true.

I highly recommend this to any lower Alabamian.

p.s. Next time I go home I hope to get my book autographed. I am living in Houston.

Sonny Brewer makes a perfect cast with his net. The effort he makes in describing the art of casting a fishing net is well worth reading. The thrill of the launching of Rove's boat and the ride across the bay to his parents house. Rove is a character that could be any boy of that time period. The book is well worth the read.

I am enjoying this novel, Brewer's best book to date, but it needs more copy editing.

In November 1941 in Fairhope, Alabama, sixteen year old Rove McNee fears the return of his father, a drunken schooner captain who turns mean with the alcohol. He knows his dad will need no excuse to drink, but the teen believes his mom is cheating on his dad. The only recent respite for Rove and his younger brother Julian have been their Granny Wooten, but she just died.

On the day of his beloved grandma's funeral, Rove is shocked when he observes his drunken father Dominus threaten their German neighbor, Josef Unruh, which leads to the captain's imprisonment for attempted murder. Rove wonders if Josef is the man his mom is stepping out with and if his dad knows that so therefore threatened him with a knife. Instead Josef gives to Rove, a boat needing repair, which the lad begins to do even as he moves onto the vessel as he at peace only at sea and with class mate Anna Pearl Anderson.

The characters keep this fine historical from becoming too nostalgic at a time of the beginning of the end of the innocence with Pearl Harbor and social issues like alcohol and abuse just coming to the surface. Though Rove is the center protagonist, it is Dominus' misbehavior at Granny Wooten's wake that sets in motion the events that impact everyone and break up a family. Though the social issues are not explored that deeply especially in comparison to the author's THE POET OF TOLSTOY PARK and in light of society not wanting to know, fans of mid twentieth century tales will enjoy Sonny Brewer casting fishing nets on the era.

Harriet Klausner

A story of youth in small town Alabama coming of age in the 1940's. Well written and magical.