Customer Reviews

Red Rover

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brothers Aiden and Neil Tierney grew up as best friends riding horses in Big Sky Country. After Pearl Harbor brought the United States in to the war, they both left Montana to volunteer to help their country. Aiden became an undercover FBI agent working to out Nazis setting up a beachhead in Argentina; while Neil joins the Air Force. Both survived their WWII endeavors.

Aiden and Neil return to Montana following the V-J Day armistice that ended the hostilities. However, instead of rejoicing in their safe return, Aiden is extremely ill and unable to even mount a horse. During Christmas 1946, the local coroner determines he committed suicide. Neil rejects the official ruling as he knows his sibling was a fighter and was battling the crippling disease. After the funeral, Aiden's friend FBI agent Roland Taliaferro insists Hoover will soon tell them the truth. However, the letter from the "the Old Man" director never comes and Taliaferro is retired. Over the six decades, Neil longs to know what happened to Aiden, but it takes cataract surgery to provide him the truth.

One of the best historical tales of the year, RED ROVER starts with Lindbergh in 1927, goes through WW II and its immediate aftermath, and finally winds down in the twenty-first century. The story line easily makes the quantum leaps seem natural mostly because the two siblings seem real in every era they appear. Readers will appreciate this strong vivid look at much of the American century (and a bit more) while wondering like Neil what truly happened to Aiden as every conspiratorial theory will cross your mind until the closure provided with an incredible climax.

Harriet Klausner

I purchased this book because I am interested in Montana, but it turned out to be much more than "a Montana novel." It's an unusual mystery story, a meditation on memory, a book about what is hidden from sight in even the most familiar surroundings. The further I read, the more deeply absorbed I became, as the book shifted points of view and time frames, and each character filled in pieces that were left out from other character's accounts. I have rarely read such an unusual combination of fine, traditional storytelling and complex thinking about "the truth." It is very beautifully written, and it haunts me.

The end-flap of the dust jacket on this book relates a storyline extracted from it that sounds straightforward enough, but McNamer has written something far more complex and fascinating. She tells a story with a beginning, middle and an end, but not at all in that order. While the narrative is set almost entirely in Montana, timelines jump back and forth between 1927, 1939, 1944-46, and 2003. There's an extensive catalog of characters who get their time on center stage, their stories sometimes overlapping with others. Meanwhile, the supposed central characters disappear for long periods of time and we learn about them only indirectly.

Sounds maybe complicated, but I found the novel absorbing from beginning to end. Part of that owes to the subject matter. Two G-men employed by J. Edgar Hoover's wartime FBI start out as friends, and then something happens that sets them at odds. A young brother outlives his older brother by more than 50 years, but memory continues to bind them together. And in what seems to be a random universe, where people live and then die as if life itself were a plague, there are chance parallels like a B-29 running out of fuel as it returns from a bombing mission to Tokyo and a car running out of gas in a Montana snowstorm. Much of what makes the novel absorbing owes to McNamer's wonderful way with language, which is often poetic and haunting in its use of metaphor to capture nuances of emotion, attitude, and physical sensation. It's not a book you speed read. It's meant to be savored and puzzled over at a more leisurely pace. It's a book to get lost in; I heartily recommend it.

First, no, RED ROVER is not a book about a dog. Deidre McNamer could have chosen a better title for this very moving story.

And whoever chose the cover (or dust jacket) should have picked something less misleading. If they had, I probably would have read this 2007 book sooner. But this picture gives a false impression; RED ROVER begins with two boys riding horses, but it soon moves forward in time and to other Montana locations.

RED ROVER is a mystery. After Aidan Tierney goes to college and law school, he joins the FBI and requests hazardous duty. He is sent as a secret agent to Argentina and returns to the U.S. a very, very sick man. Soon he is dead.

The mystery of RED ROVER is how and why Aidan died, and who is responsible. Was it suicide, an accident, or murder?

So RED ROVER looks at characters who played parts in Aidan's life. We see some characters beginning when they were children and study characters' lives before, during, and after World War II. We see events from more than one perspective as the parts of the book take us back and forth in time, right up to 2003 when most characters are in their 80s and 90s.

RED ROVER is a short book, 264 pages. It covers so much time and so many character studies, this could easily be a monstrosity. Many, maybe most, authors would have included details and whole paragraphs that would bore most readers. But RED ROVER's descriptions and character studies are tight, with no wasted words. So what could have been tedious is, instead, engrossing.

It is also interesting to note that McNamer felt she had to write this. It is based on the story of her uncle, originally meant to be nonfiction.

I approached this book with trepidation after totally disliking "Rima in the Weeds". While the author writes poetically and with feeling, it was a less than satisfying experience. The book created mosaic of disappointment, dishonesty, betrayal, fragmented relationships, and the inability to make adequate sense of one's self and life even with the passage of time. Not only was the story told from a variety of perspectives of both person and generation, the deeper issues that McNamer explored or could be perceived to explore, were equally scattered. This could be a good choice for a reflective discussion by a book club.

This gripping tale zigs and zags through the past century in Montana looking for meaning in a shotgun blast to the head and finding the deepest spot in America's heart.

In literary matters, I am a complete Philistine. I seldom read fiction at all, and I like very little of what I do read. This book was recommended to me (forcibly) because I grew up in the area of its setting.

Ms. McNamer's research and preparation for writing the novel is unparalleled. There is nothing the least bit fictional about the landscape in which she sets the novel. With sufficient reflection, I could locate the branch that knocks young Neil from his saddle, and it should be possible (with enough thought) to find which town exactly is her model of Neva. Everything is excellent. Growing up, I knew several Quists and several Blankenships, so even the names are realistic. More importantly, her feel for the place is perfect. If a person grew up in that landscape (as I did), the impression could not be more exact (although another personality might interpret it differently in part). This great and exacting precision extends even to her appreciation of the flight dynamics of a large bomber, which does actually "side-slip" in some flight maneuvers. So, although this is fiction, not a lot about the book is invented without great care. It is more than careful. It is meticulously correct, in factual aspect and in the feeling or impression of the place.

Ms. McNamer's use of language represents actual high art without being consciously artful (we Philistines very much dislike the consciously artful). She chooses not only words and grammar, but the actual rhythm of the prose to convey (quite correctly and accurately) the hypnotic spell of the place, which is, in actual fact, a central and connecting aspect of the book.

The "chapters" are little vignettes, which are not set in a rigid time sequence. This is obviously not done just by chance. Is it a good thing? Well, yes and no. If the goal is an artistic or literary one, then it is a very good thing indeed. It gives a perfect stream-of-consciousness sort of perception of the whole story. Does that make every detail clear? Well, no. The reader is left (purposely) with more than one possible interpretation of the whole crux of the story. Is this done by chance or as a trick? No. It accurately indicates that we ourselves have, in essentially all cases, somewhat blurry or imprecise perceptions and recollections of real life events. It may make (if the reader wants it to be) a statement about whether the main aspects of our lives are actually knowable. We Philistines seldom worry about such things.

The novel is good in itself. I find the stream of consciousness presentation to be actual art, but to be a little annoying. In real life, my own lack of perfect clarity in many of my own perceptions and understandings is already annoying, and this just points out the problem (of which I am quite aware) even more. So, it is art that I find uncomfortable. However, it is actual literary art.

It is clear that this novel represents a stage of development of the literary gift of the author. She is now (aside from fame and a large bank account) producing work at the highest end of current literary production. It is now clear that she has all the tools to give us classic world literature in the future. There are more famous (and richer) authors who are fundamentally limited by their own circumscribed vision, and I could name several of them (if I wished to receive harsh e-mail forever). Ms. McNamer is not so limited. Success with "Rover," however, puts pressure on her to deliver great things indeed in her next few novels. The possibilities for her literary future are limited only by the care she gives her projects. Therefore, they are unlimited.

I loved this book! It was for me one of those rare reads where once you start you cannot put the book down until you've reached the end. I thought the writing was artfully done; I disagree with the reviewer who thought the flashbacks made the story difficult to follow. Characters may have been flawed, most interesting characters are, but these were characters that I came to care about. Well worth the time and one of the best books I've read this year.

Ms. McNamer has captured the essence of Montana life this last half century as few have. Her descriptions of the landscape, the concerns, the daily dialogue of its residents, the general diaspora of its citizens rings incredibly truly fascinating. Her word power is exquisite. To read this story is like having a long overdue conversation with a well loved, long lost friend. The story is fascinating. It is not an edge of your seat thriller but rather an enticing opportunity to immerse yourself in a challenging and often subtle slew of events. Having spent my teen years in Butte, I can vouch safe for the authenticity of the story regarding
setting and characters.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I sure hope the author keeps more coming.

Red Rover is a beautifully written and easily read book. I couldn't put it down.

After I finished I passed it on to my husband and he devoured it.

Worth the time to experience this wonderful story.