Oh, Johnny: A Novel [Paperback]

Jim Lehrer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2010

A talented athlete, Johnny Wrigley believes that someday he will play major league baseball. But his life unexpectedly takes a detour. In April 1944, Johnny is a newly minted marine on a troop train heading west for California, where he will be shipped overseas to fight in the Pacific Theater. At a brief stop in Wichita, Johnny gets off the train and falls in love with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. In a storeroom at the station, they share an intimacy that Johnny will treasure for the next two years at war—and beyond.
In Peleliu and Okinawa, nothing prepares Johnny for the terrible events that will haunt him forever. During fierce combat, inspiring thoughts of Betsy Luck (the name Johnny has given his Kansas love) keep him safe. Two years later, Johnny is back in Wichita, searching for the girl he wants to marry. But fate has different plans for Johnny, his long-dreamed-of baseball career, and the girl whose memory helped him survive.
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

PBS NewsHour anchor Lehrer mixes baseball, WWII and romance in his 19th novel to mostly pleasant results. Even though Johnny Wrigley, from smalltown Lafayette, Md., is being scouted by the Detroit Tigers, he enlists in the Marines in April 1944 to kill Japs for America. En route to deployment, Johnny meets Betsy, a striking but naïvely religious doughnut girl, falls instantly in love and seduces her. He vows he'll return for her, a quixotic obsession that sustains him through grittily rendered combat scenes in the Pacific. At the war's end, Johnny returns with marriage on his mind. But Betsy can't be found, and Johnny ends up in Baltimore with a menial bus company job and his big league dreams rekindled. But those, like his romantic fantasy, remain out of reach. Though Johnny's obsessive love for Betsy is a bit hard to swallow, his troubled postwar reintegration is nicely handled and gives readers insight into a Greatest Generation leatherneck. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

High-school baseball star Johnny Wrigley’s talents earn him a professional baseball contract, but Johnny enlists in the marines to kill Japanese before joining his heroes, center fielders Pete Reiser and Joe DiMaggio, in the major leagues. On a troop train headed for the West Coast, at a 30-minute stop in Wichita, Johnny meets and falls in love with a girl he knows only as Betsy. What he calls Betsy luck helps him survive the bloody invasions of Peleliu and Okinawa, and as soon as he’s discharged, Johnny heads for Wichita to find Betsy and marry her. He fails and must try to settle into civilian life and resume his baseball career, but the horrors he’s seen make it harder than he expected. Later, he does find Betsy and must confront the realization that time and experiences have changed them both. PBS anchor Lehrer has crafted a profoundly sad and beautiful story of promise and hope crushed by war, of youthful infatuation, and of the wholesale carnage of World War II that wounded much of a generation worldwide. --Thomas Gaughan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (April 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812979443
• ISBN-13: 978-0812979442
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,713,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Storytelling!, May 1, 2009

By 

Richard J. Vielbig "One-who-enjoys-a-story-we... (Auburn, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Oh, Johnny: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have been a PBS fan of "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" and have enjoyed several of his novels. This latest: Oh, Johnny: A Novel, I enjoyed best. The story is very "true-to-life". In fact, so "real" did it seem, I was ready to look up the main character, Johnny Wrigley, on Google. The vividness of the details of "what happens" and the thoughts and emotions of the characters keep me going from the first page to the Epilogue. This was/is definitely a "worthwhile read". Congratulations, Mr. Lehrer.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Ending to a Great Story, April 23, 2009

By 

Donald R. Fraser "In Oneness" (Napa Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Oh, Johnny: A Novel (Hardcover)

Jim Lehrer -- has done it again!

This is a very engaging story of a young Marine during WW-II. The reader will become so attached to Oh Johnny that the ending paragraphs of this book will bring tears to your eyes.

Especially meaningful to Marines and others in our Armed Services and
their families.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Love and War, May 25, 2009

By 

Rommy M. Henley - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Oh, Johnny: A Novel (Hardcover)

Those of us who have been in the military during was understand this story. Recruit falls in love with a girl he meets for a few minutes and survives the war thinking it is because of his love for this girl. When he returns home he has a hard time finding the girl he loves, it may be because she never existed. A fun read and you will enjoy deciding why he has a difficult time finding his dream girl.