Customer Reviews

America's Best

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

 

 

'I reviewed this book for the TUCSON WEEKLY when it first came out in 1995. I find myself compelled to respond to Mr. McIntyre's s negative review which I find most perplexing. Many of Mrs.Browning's characters are drawn from real life including her husband's family. One of the principles is her own mother-in-law. What happened to them and to others is accurately portrayed and her approach as well as her historical accuracy are validated by people like General Jones and Colonel Childress who were actually there. Her research included lengthy sessions with many who were held in the Japanese prison camps in which her husband and his family were kept as well as personal interviews with five of the nine
survivors of the Hell ship on which her husband's father perished. This excellent novel received solid reviews from a variety of sources and not one negative word until now.

I can still heartily recommend this superb portrayal of a piece of American history now as I did then. Five stars.

Emil Franzi, Tucson AZ Nov 23,2007

I discovered this book in the summer of 2001. Even though I knew very little about this era in American/World history, I was immediately caught up in it and couldn't put the book down. The story line was riveting and the characters pulled me in. When I discovered America's Best was based on a true story, I was even more captivated. I so loved the book that I bought many copies for friends and family, including one for my son-in-law, a soldier serving in the Middle East. Fast forward to September 11 of that year. While watching a TV interview with Dan Rather, who was discussing the terrorist attacks perpetrated on American soil, I saw America's Best prominently displayed on the bookshelf behind him. This is a wonderful book and a must-read for anyone interested in history and the human stories behind the headlines.

I read this book several years ago, shortly after its publication. Fortunately, I was able to get it from a local library instead of having to buy it. The author gets most of the historical facts about World War II in Philippines right, but that's why I read actual history and biography rather than a fictionalized versions. A historical novelist should illuminate the past and enhance the experience of living through it by showing its impact on vivid, flesh-and-blood characters. Unfortunately, the caricatures who inhabit "America's Best" are so flat, so lifeless, so predictable that describing them as two-dimensional is a charitable exaggeration. One ceases to care about them because they are so obviously contrived.

I note that Sinclair Browning has written a number of mystery novels that have won a following, and I trust she is a diligent writer and a fine human being. But someone should have told her to take the manuscript of "America's Best" back to the woodshed and subject it to some careful scrutiny, thought, and extensive rewriting. As it stands, even a one-star rating is too high, but Amazon.com won't allow a lower mark. Really, this book is not worth your time.