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Be Not Afraid: A Novel
 
 
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Be Not Afraid: A Novel [Paperback]

Robert L. Wise Ph.D. (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 16, 2001
Seventy-eight-year-old Mary Oliver begins to clean out the garage after her husband's death. As she sorts through piles of junk with her daughter, she discovers a stack of old letters, neatly tied with a ribbon. The letters rekindle memories of her first love, the man she always presumed had died in Europe during World War II. As the story unfolds, Mary discovers that this man she loved so long ago is still alive. The narrative interweaves the present and the past, his story and hers, the saga of their separate families, and the gentle ways God has watched over them through the years. Be Not Afraid explores the quiet corners of the human heart while telling tales of courage and sacrifice. Can love survive after such a long separation?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Retired pastor Wise sets his seventh novel in contemporary America with frequent flashbacks to the European front of WWII. This tale of love, fate and adversity will likely find an audience among members of the "greatest generation," who have shared some of the protagonists' experiences and values. Unfortunately, its slow pace, stilted dialogue, descriptive inconsistencies and lack of narrative tension will not attract younger readers. As the novel begins, elderly Mary McCoy, still coming to terms with her husband's death, discovers old letters from her first love, Robert Walker, who had disappeared during the Battle of the Bulge. Her rekindled interest in Robert's fate leads her to locate him, and she comes to his hospital bedside, where he is recovering from heart surgery. There, Robert recounts his brutal experiences as a POW and explains the mystery of why he never returned to Mary. Wise is deeply respectful, even obsequious, toward his main characters and their generation; when Mary's daughter discovers her mother's yearbooks, she notes with envy that "goodness and dignity oozed out of the pictures." More vigorous editing would have improved the story. When Robert reaches a dark moment, for instance, the narrative claims that he "buried his face in his hands and stared at the blanket." Apart from sloppy prose, the novel might have benefited from stronger engagement with religion. Faith steps in only occasionally as a source of vague comfort for the characters. For one brief paragraph, we find Robert engaged in serious soul-searchingDbut this fleeting moment only serves to illustrate the shallow romanticism of the novel as a whole. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

A flyboy, Robert Walker is shot down over Belgium and spends the last year of the war in a POW camp in Wise's Be Not Afraid. He's presumed dead, and his sweetheart, Mary McCoy, marries and raises a family. Fifty-five years later, Mary, now a widow, finds Robert's love letters and investigates her lingering suspicion that Robert is alive. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 16, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0785269770
  • ISBN-13: 978-0785269779
  • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,517,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Wise is the author of more than thirty published books and numerous articles. In non-fiction writing, Dr. Wise has often addressed issues of struggle. When There Is No Miracle, a survey of why innocent people struggle with pain, has sold for over twenty-five years. He authored When The Night Is Too Long as a sequel. Windows of the Soul describes how God uses our dreams as a means for spiritual growth. In Spiritual Abundance he explores the insights of the early Church Fathers of the first five centuries to discover their directives for personal growth. More recently, Dr. Wise wrote Fearless for Life, covering how Christians could overcome fear, the power of faith in their lives. Released in 2004, Crazymakers presents techniques for dealing with difficult and narcissistic persons.


 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Moving and Poignant Story, January 27, 2011
By 
This review is from: Be Not Afraid: A Novel (Paperback)
Although I was not alive during the WWII period, I have always been interested in that time period. This book was written with an amazing accuracy as to what it must've felt like to be an American soldier, captured and then becoming a POW. The author does mention in his Acknowledgments page that the events he describes in his writing about the Battle of the Bulge he was able to detail thanks to notes left posthumously by friends, which gave him the opportunity to learn and get the feel of that time and life. This book is partially a love story, as the main character, Robert Walker, is a soldier about to leave for war, leaving behind a new love, Mary. Due to his becoming a POW, life takes a different turn for these 2 young people, leaving them without any communication for 56 years - a time when Mary decides she needs to find out if Robert survived. When she finds Robert, he is already old and suffering from heart and cancer troubles, however, a love that is real apparently can last a lifetime, for even after each of their regular lifetimes, they still find something together that unites them. During this time, Robert explains everything that happened to him during the war, his captivity, his suffering, his basic need for survival. Ultimately, though this book begins as a love story, it's primary purpose is to portray the story of an American soldier's captivity as a POW by the Germans and how the human will, faith and hope can make or break such a chance to survive. This book is a very special story, one that shouldn't be taken lightly - it carries a message that far too few individuals today even think about or consider, especially as more and more WWII veterans pass on. Yet theirs was a time of fighting for survival and a means to maintain the freedoms we have had passed on to us today. They should not be forgotten. I recommend this book for two reasons: 1) the superb storytelling about a WWII POW's experiences and how he was able to survive, and 2) how one's first love can sometimes be something that's clung to for all of one's life.
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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A nice story, but lacked what a women wants to read about!, February 1, 2001
By 
roblog (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Be Not Afraid: A Novel (Paperback)
This book had a great idea, but there was to much war talk and not enough love talk. I got lost in the details of the war and sometimes just couldn't wait for the chapter to end. I hoped the next chapter would kick in with some romance, but it fizzled. If you want details about what it would have been like to have been in World War II, and a prisoner of war, then this is a good book for you. If you are a women who wants a romantic tale, I would skip this one.
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