Customer Reviews

Prisoners of War

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The wreckage of armed conflict litters the landscape of fictional Loring, Mississippi, in Steve Yarbrough's courageous and cautionary, "Prisoners of War." The novel's title is an apt one, and German POW's are not the only people held captive by the ravages of war. Dan Timms, not quite eighteen and chomping at the bit for his own involvement in World War II, possesses an innocence which shields him not only from the pernicious impact the previous world war had on the town but also inhibits his understanding of the subtle, but pervasive corruption, rampant in his community. Timms' struggle for emotional independence stands in bleak contrast to the ubiquitous pessimism and despair elsewhere.

Yarbrough presents several provocative theses about human behavior in "Prisoners," the most interesting of which posits that people have long outlived the moment of their deaths. Many of Yarbrough's characters are examples of the "living dead," wounded souls going through the motions of life until a climactic moment extinguishes them forever. The belligerent racist, Frank Holder, exemplifies this quality. Angry, bewildered and resentful over his enlisted son's untimely death, Holder's need for vengeance against a nameless, unconquerable force, extinguishes whatever limited capabilities he had to function as a decent man.

Dan's father and uncle fall victim to the same disability, but present different symptoms. World War I devoured Jimmy Del Timms, Dan's father. Cynical, uncommunicative and numbed, Dan's father stumbles through post-traumatic stress and suffers a disintegrating family. Jimmy Del's brother, Alvin, has betrayed conscience and community with his actions; aware of his own decadence, Alvin shrugs his shoulders at his own stench and revels in his role as a war profiteer.

Yarbrough presents the debasement of personality in times of extreme stress as a corollary to his central thesis. Even the German POW's, whose presence as seemingly tractable field laborers mollifies the struggling cotton farmers of the area, display a corrosion of the spirit. They secretively and ineptly plan an escape and turn on one of their own when the plot is foiled. Dan's mother, Shirley, is a ruin as a consequence of her failed marriage and her own moral short-circuiting. His longstanding friend, Marty Stark, has returned from the front torn asunder by moral doubt and loss of ethical standards.

Despite the abundance of evil and indifference in "Prisoners of War," our capacities to endure and be good appear. L. C., Dan's African-American friend, suffers through a horrific beating, forgiving the perpetrator, understanding his "blues." But these illuminating moments of goodness are few and far between. Steve Yarbrough intent is to tear away the veneer of civilization that covers us and to show the true grain of our personality. His novel is a towering success, elegantly crafted, precisely detailed and psychologically valid.

The year is 1943. Dan, a young man living in Mississipi, is eager to leave home and join the Army. His dad is dead, and the bank took over his family's farm. Dan, along with his "colored" colleague L.C., work for Dan's uncle Alvin by driving two old school buses that were converted into rolling snack stands. Marty, a friend of Dan's from the same town is stationed there as a guard for a camp of German POW's.

This is not an easy book to read. Besides having to keep the characters straight, it involves getting into the psyches of guys struggling with questions of racial inequality, considering the necessity or opposition to being in the armed service, and being so close to German prisoners of war. The story of these three young men comes alive with friendship as well as conflict as they struggle individually. Nothing comes easy for any of these three men. Their story brings the reader with a heavy hand into the heart and mentality of a small Southern town in some very difficult times.

Changes made through the eyes of both white and black doing the war in a small Mississippi town. German prisoners are brought to a small Mississippi town and the events that take place also open some of the eyes in town about black and white. Dan Timms a white man with the same job as L.C. Stevens a black man driving a converted bus that sells a little of this and that, a small store on the move. Dan Yearns also comes into the picture when he joins the army to run away from the memories of his fathers suicide. The book has many small town people and how their lives seem to be changing with the war and in their own home town. A very well written book on the feelings of the south and how events can change thinking along with actions. Larry Hobson -Author- The Day Of The Rose

This novel was a quiet pleasure to read. It took me a little while to figure it out, but Yarbrough is an extremely funny writer. He infuses what is a tale of difficult times and a troubling situation with easy wit. It's mostly character-driven. His characters speak with a natural, Southern grace, a sort of self-deprecating humor that also manages to be a tool for character development. Really well done. I think this is one of those books that is a lot better, and probably a lot more difficult to write, than you might think at first glance.

I'm glad to have learned about the POW camps in the South during WWII. I hadn't known about these before, but setting this novel in them allows for a complex examination of race in America. It's also a novel about partriatism, bravery or cowardice, and about how people betray the best and worse in their natures when challenged to do so. But again, Yarbrough doesn't beat you over the head with anything. There are very few cardboard good and bad characters here.

I picked this up because I noticed it was a Pen/Faulkner Award nominee. This is one instance when I was pleasantly surprised. Honestly, I've read most of the other PW nominees for 2004, but this one may be my favorite from that list.

At what moment does a man stop being alive and start being dead?

Death casts its long, dark shadow across the fevered cast of characters in "Prisoners of War," but it is unlived life that truly haunts them. And life tantalizes each one just beyond the fences -- real and imaginary -- that hold each of them captive. The result is a portrait of people at war -- with enemies abroad and with themselves.

POWs are expected to try to escape, and the consequences of failing can be fatal. But what happens when an escapee doesn't cross concertina wire and elude floodlights, but crosses bloodlines and eludes the stultifying glare of intimate history?

Yarbrough, a native Mississippian who now teaches creative writing at California State University in Fresno, is a sophisticated, gentle writer with a gift for subtlety. The latent heat of a Delta autumn wafts through his absorbing prose as surely as the complexities of small-town life float through his Southern memories. His voice is genteel and a little nostalgic, but neither fragile nor elegiac. His characters are superbly fleshed out, and his settings so richly drawn that when the action traverses the county line late in the book, the reader might feel as if he is leaving his own hometown.

Or escaping.

This is the kind of book I used to read in the summer lying on the porch swing. I welcome this book. It's under 300 pages. It's well-edited. It's thoughtful and nicely written.
It takes place in Mississippi in 1943.
It cuts across racial, economic, and political lines.
This is not just about the German prisoners captured in north Africa who are brought in to pick cotton. It is about all the people in this small rural area who, in one way or another, have been deeply affected by the war. Both touching and horrifying, if you allow yourself some introspection, you'll absorb the loneliness, enormous grief, and genuine simplicity of expectation.

I stumbled upon this novel accidentally while I was reading reviews here on Amazon, one of my favorite sources of good "unknowns." This story revolves around a POW camp for German prisoners in the southern U.S. during WWII, but the title really doesn't refer to these foreigners at all. Instead, the "prisoners" are the just-back-from-the-battlefield American soldier who's having difficulty keeping it together, the eager seventeen year old high school boy who isn't allowed to enlist until his 18th birthday, the boy's late father who committed suicide after struggling with his own WWI memories, the African American teenager who's evading the draft because he doesn't want to fight the white man's war, etc. An interesting way to look at war, neither pacifist nor militarist, just the story of how people's lives are impacted by conflict. Mr. Yarbrough's prose has a rhythm that takes a little getting used to, but ultimately a very satisfying read here.

Yarbrough's new novel has exquisite prose, wonderful dialogue, and extremely convincing characters. Prisoners of War is without a doubt Steve Yarbrough's best novel yet.

Prisoners of War is the most enjoyable and engaging novel I've read in a long time. Yarbrough's clear style propels the narrative forward in quick time. One reviewer here observed that sub plots slow down the pace. Nonsense! The novel is built upon sub plots and small incidents, each one filled with appealing surprises. Some will break your heart, others will make you gasp, and a few will make you laugh out loud. Simply put, this is a wonderful book.