Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best first-hand WWII fighter pilot's stories., February 15, 1997
By A Customer
As an avid reader of WWII fighter pilot first-hand accounts, especially from the Pacific Theatre, this is one of the very best available. Edward is concise, a powerful wordsmith, and you will be hooked after reading just the Introduction (one-third page) and the first couple pages of the first paragraph. He was the typical WWII Army Aviation cadet, and fell in love with his Bell P-39 Aircobra. He starts, "Nanette was an airplane. That should be made clear right at the start. She was not a very good plane; actually she stank. But she did a lot for me, I realize, as I look back on her. All the planes of that old war had distinguishing looks and personalities. The P-40, the Warhawk, was knobby and arrogant, a tomboy. The P-38, the Lightning, was lean and coltish, a rich debunte. The P-47, the Thunderbolt, was massive and dull, a peasnat girl. The bombers had their distinctions, too, but I didn't know much about them. Of all the fighters, two could really excite a flyer. One was the P-51, Mustang, lovely to look at, honest, efficient, hardworking and dependable. In those days she was thought of as a wife, and I know men who married her, back then, and are still inlove with her. The other was the P-39, the Aircobra. It was slim, with a gently curved tail section, a smoothly faired in air intake, and a perfectly rounded nose cone with its ugly, protruding cannon. But the Aircobra was lazy and slovenly and given to fits of vicious temper. It was a sexy machine, and rotten. Nanette was like that, and I was a little queer for her."
You can find a lot of books by fighter pilots, but you won't find many better to read than this one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
theoldALFER's affair with Nanette, October 23, 2002
This review is from: Nanette: Her Pilot's Love Story (Hardcover)
My fascination (or should I say obsession?) with the Bell P-39 and the air war in New Guinea in WWII is fueled by the pages of Edward Park's "Nannette." Park's likening of his tour of duty as a P-39 pilot to an affair with a strumpet named Nanette is a can't put down read for any aviation buff. While short on historical details such as dates and statistics, the human drama and personal feelings of a pilot and his squadron mates come alive much as Nanette did for Parks. Life, death, and reason for being are examined through the eyes of a reluctant combatant and pilot. My favorite all time aviation book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best pilot memoirs I've ever read!, December 2, 1998
By A Customer
"Nanette- Her Pilot's Love Story" is distinguished from many WWII pilot memoirs by the superb writing of Edwards Park. His vivid, often wry prose truly takes you into the world of the WWII fighter pilot in the Pacific as he focuses not only on the heroic but also the mundane, the frightening and, sometimes, the downright unpleasant. But for all its worth as a detailed glimpse of the pilots' war, the real story here is the growing love of a young pilot for his first fighter aircraft. "Nanette", a P-39 Airacobra, is nondescript, skittish, often dangerous- and enlessly fascinating to her pilot. Anyone who has ever formed a bond with a machine which, inexplicably, transceded flesh and metal will find this book a superb read.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
