When Whippoorwills Call [Paperback]

John Bandy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 2002

A 16 year-old high school dropout leaves home to avoid incarceration in a Juvenile Court Detention Center for placement in an orphanage. Using a falsified birth certificate he enlists in the army where he finds himself in an extremely hostile environment. Seeking refuge in the army, he discovers that he cannot run away from himself or escape the family curse. As a member of the elite United States Army Constabulary in occupied-Germany, he faces the greatest challenge of his life amid the war torn ruins of a conquered nation.The book describes, in lurid detail, the misadventures of the men in the lower echelons of the military establishment and the effects of their relationships with the German populace. As a fraudulent enlistee, he lives in constant fear of being discovered. He is further plagued by premonitions of doom by the family "curse", the result of an unconscionable sin committed by his maternal grandfather. Born into an impoverished, dysfunctional family in the middle of the Great Depression, he struggles to overcome the indoctrination of inferiority and social ostracism resulting from his mother's alcoholism.The story traces the family history from his ancestors' 19th century Mississippi plantation to the early 1950s in segregated Birmingham, Alabama.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A high school dropout, John Bandy joined the army at age sixteen. Twenty years later, he retired as a Sergeant-Major at the Pentagon. He then returned to school under the G.I. Bill, earning Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Elementary Education. He taught in Alabama public schools for nineteen years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 714 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (March 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595212727
• ISBN-13: 978-0595212729
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,418,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brutally Honest Story, May 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: When Whippoorwills Call (Paperback)

This is a most revealing account of the formative years in the life of a troubled young man who is not afraid to share his past with the reader. The graphic account of his introduction into the world of adulthood at the hands of an unscrupulous army sergeant and his futile attempts to cope with its many pitfalls is a story everyone who has ever successfully (or unsuccessfully) dealt with similar adversities should read. A sequel is a MUST!!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Whippoorwills Call - Overcoming Adversities, May 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: When Whippoorwills Call (Paperback)

I found it hard to put this book down! I can relate to the author's experiences of growing up in a dysfunctional family as a social outcast, and highly recommend others read this riveting account of a man who exceeded expectations others had of him! It was worth every dime!

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard to read, difficult to look away!, June 21, 2009

By 

Joyce Faulkner (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Whippoorwills Call (Paperback)

Memoirs can sometimes be self-serving. Not this melancholy rendition of a troubled family in Birmingham, Alabama, during the 30s, 40s and 50s. Sergeant Major John Allen Bandy's `coming of age' story is as grim as any Dickens' novel. The son of an alcoholic mother and a gambling, womanizing father, Bandy doesn't gloss over the unforgiveable neglect that he and his siblings endured - yet, his empathetic portrayal of his parents is endearing. He presents them - and himself - as flawed human beings struggling with obsession, addiction - and perhaps an inherited curse.
To escape hunger, social ostracism, and the likelihood of being placed in an orphanage after his father's death in 1948, Bandy fakes his birth certificate and joins the Army at age sixteen. The image of a frightened boy, beaten by his Drill Sergeant the first night of basic training, curled up in his bunk crying for his mama is especially moving. We see him mature from a rambunctious teenaged recruit during a four-year tour in post-war Germany to a young husband and father to be on his way to Japan in 1954. The road is especially hard for the emotionally scarred, undereducated Bandy who tackles growing up like a prize-fighter taking on one challenger after another. The ever repeating theme of this story is the struggle against self-doubt that torments and sucks away ambition and discipline - and the courage it takes to rebound after a life-delivered gut-punch.
"When Whippoorwills Call" will resonate with those raised in dysfunctional families. It will also move people who found discipline, self-respect, and opportunity in the Army. The fact that Bandy rises to the rank of Sergeant Major and retired from the Military, given the roadblocks he had to navigate is inspiring. That he had emotional and physical set-backs is not surprising -- yet, true to form, he went on to earn several degrees and had a second successful career as a teacher. Now he has taken up the pen.
Although overly-long and redundant in places, "When Whippoorwills Call" breaks the reader's heart. It's compelling reading and even when you finish Bandy's story, it nags at the soul for hours afterwards.

Joyce Faulkner
President
Military Writers Society of America
Author of "In the Shadow of Suribachi"
Co-Author of "Sunchon Tunnel Massacre Survivors"