Book review: MASH by Richard Hooker (historical fiction)

 Augustus Bedford "Duke" Forrest and Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce spend eighteen life-changing months serving in the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in South Korea in the early 1950s--during the Korean war.

(Because I bought the ebook version I don't have any fancy book jacket to photograph--just one reason I love paperbacks)

Buy this book

Published by William Morrow

an imprint of HarperCollins

Publishing in 1968

The book opens, in the middle of November 1951, with Radar O'Reilly's comment that Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake 'is trying for two new cutters'. Enter Duke and Hawkeye. The "boys" quickly endear themselves to their new Colonel by doing the best and most work.

Hawkeye and Duke devalue (undervalue) rules in favour of compassion, skill, and humour. (I laughed out loud.)

Most chapters are utilized to introduce new characters--until we meet a camp full. The character that shows the most growth throughout the length of the story is "Trapper" John McIntyre. In chapter three we meet the 6 foot 130-pound chest surgeon from Winchester, Boston who hides in his parka.

Duke says of Trapper:  '"That...is the strangest son-of-a... I ever did see. If he wasn't the best chest-cutter in the Far East Command, I'd kick his ass out of this here tent."'

The chapter concludes with Hawkeye introducing Trapper to everyone in the mess hall by saying... 

'"Gentlemen, this here is Trapper John, the pride of Winchester, Dartmouth College, and Tent Number Six, and if any of you uneducated b... don't like it you'll have to answer to Duke Forrest and Hawkeye Pierce."'

Thanks to the support he receives from Hawkeye and Duke, Trapper emerges from his parka to become the 4077's chief surgeon. 

from Google images

I was attracted to this book because I was a devoted fan of the TV show (One of my first crushes was on Hawkeye.) The book lent itself very nicely to being developed for TV. In fact, some of the chapters reminded me of episodes. The book format allowed room for backstory that TV couldn't afford. However, I found some of the language and attitudes expressed in the book dated, but that didn't stop me from loving this book. As well the book is lacking the anti-war sentiment that the TV show champions. William Hornberger told a New York Times journalist that his father 'hadn't intended to write an anti-war book. "My father was a political conservative, and he did not like the liberal tendencies that Alan Alda portrayed Hawkeye Pierce as having."' (Why the Real-Life Hawkeye Pierce Hated MASH by Erin Blakemore)

MASH is a raw look at army life.

Author Richard Hooker writes in the Foreward...

'Most of the docotors who worked in Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals during the Korean War were very young... [T]hey acheived the best results up to that time in the history of military surgery...

The various stresses...produced behavior in many of them that...seemed inconsistent with their earlier, civilian behavior patterns. A few flipped their lides, but most of them just raised hell.'  

 *My husband--in the name of being more environmentally conscious--persuaded me to buy MASH as an ebook. It was an interesting experiment, but I far prefer paperbacks. For one, I missed the pretty book cover.  

About the author...

Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He died seventy-three years later in Waterville, Maine. In between times, he studied medicine, became a surgeon, and served in the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean war. To deal with the trauma Hornberger experienced during the war, he began to write MASH. It took him twelve years to complete the book and five years to find a publisher. In 1968, MASH was published under his pseudonym Richard Hooker.

Need to know more about author Richard Hooker.

Virtual Author Reading

Wednesday, December 2

Blessed Be

a short poem to fills us.

And for your listening pleasure, I will also read...

Irene's Reading

a short story that gives an example of how NOT to participant in a writers' group.

photo by ldyck

December's offerings...

Sunday, December 6

Short Story

The End (horror? humour?)

by Leanne Dyck

Will writers view this short story as horror? Will non-writers view it as humour? I wonder... I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

And I couldn't resist beginning the book with The End

Wednesday, December 9

Virtual Author Reading

Blue Christmas (humour)

by Leanne Dyck

Christmas from Mrs. Clause's point-of-view

Sunday, December 13

Book Review

The Mystery of Black Hollow (mystery)

by Julia Nobel 

A mystery novel for middle grade readers. American Emmy Willick moves to England to attend Wellsworth--a boarding school.

Wednesday, December 16

Virtual Author Reading

Christmas with Family

by Leanne Dyck

A short story about how my husband, my cousin, and a kind stranger saved my Christmas.

Sunday, December 20

Short Story

Ice Angel

by Leanne Dyck

Inspired by a true story about meeting a little girl who added magic to my life--and uplifted me when I was feeling lost and alone.

Wednesday, December 24

Short Story

Office Party

by Leanne Dyck

Inspired by a true story about attending my husband's office party.

This is my Christmas present to you. I hope you enjoy your gift.

Sunday, December 27

2020:  My List of Accomplishments

Leanne Dyck

photo by bdyck

Are you following me?

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photo by ldyck

Sharing my author's journey...

In a month when many in the writing community have pumped out 50,000 words...

word count:  15,119 words

goal:  40,000+ words 

The more words I add to this manuscript the clearer the story 

Book Review: The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan (historical fiction)

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan provides glimpses into the relationship between two sisters growing up in the slums of Paris, France during the late 1800s. Sisterly love--sisterly envy. The secrets they can't share with each other, they share with us. The prejudice they face we witness. 

'I want to put my face in my hands, to howl, for...all the women of Paris, for the burden of having what men desire, for the heaviness of knowing it is ours to give, that with  our flesh we make our way in the world.' (p. 284)

I see you struggling. Starving,  you live in squalor and your future is bleak. But I can sleep easy without lifting a finger to help. In fact, I'm wise not to help because you'd only take advantage of me. Your facial features, they give it away. 

This type of blame-the-victim thinking was known as physiognomies.

Cathy Marie Buchanan's author notes explain that one of the inspirations for The Painted Girls was the discovery that 'Degas bought into the idea that certain facial features hinted at a person's innate criminality and sought to incorporate it into his artwork.' And she wondered, '[h]ow might such perception have affected the lives of his teenage model.' 

Buy this book

Published by Harper Perennial
an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Published in 2013

I enjoy shopping for almost all the books I review on this book--mainly at independent bookstores. Occasionally, there are exceptions. I received my copy of The Painted Girls from the HarperCollins. Along with a beautiful and useful beach bag. 

The Painted Girls is alternatively narrated by two sisters--Antoinette and Marie Goethem. Antoinette is the elder by four years. She seems resolved to her fate. Marie still dares to dream. The bleakness of their lives made The Painted Girls a challenging read, but my hope that they would escape the fate that was targeting them and eke out some kind of happiness kept me reading. 

Target reader:  Those interested in French or art history--especially dance or the fine arts.

February 19th is...

 I Read Canadian

'a national day of celebration of Canadian books for young people.' 

Next Sunday Evening...



Short story collection
Stories of My Life

A collection of short story that was inspired by my life.

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Book Review: That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung

Set in the year 1979, That Time I Loved You:  Life is Never as Perfect as it Seems is a linked stories collection about the Ontario suburb Scarborough. Away from the wildness of downtown Toronto, Scarborough is a "safe" place. Neighbours don't lock their doors. Children play on the street.

But what goes on behind those unlocked doors?

Suicides. Infidelity. Physical and sexual abuse.

Yes, but also... Love. Healing. Acceptance.

Author Carriane Leung grew up in Scarborough and concludes her author acknowledgments with...

'Lastly, while this book refers to suicide, I hope it's also a testament to the resilience we share when faced with the often-difficult work of living.'

Buy this book

I purchased my copy from Amazon

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Published in 2018

won the 22nd annual Daunta Gleed Literary Award 

Eleven years old Chinese-Canadian June Lee is the main character. She welcomes us to Scarborough and informs us that other things may be happening in other places around the world but for her, the most important thing is what is happening in her neighbourhood. Over a span of two years, we watch June change as her neighbourhood does. She seems to be always there waiting for us to catch up to her. She is the glue that holds this collection together. And at the end of the last story, June bids farewell to Scarborough...

'Everything that matters to me...was here...I had assumed I would always want to live here, but now I knew that was childish...There were other places in the world, and I knew I would go.' (p. 211)

More...

If you, like me, are new to linked stories you may be interested in these articles...

The Mysterious Case of Novel in Stories

What is a novel-in-stories?

The 10 Best Interlinked Short Story Collections

What You Need to Know about Writing (and Pitching) a Novel-in-Stories

'Mayne Island's big sister program'

photo by ldyck

July on this blog...

Two short stories

Sharing Your Writing (July 7)

A story about sharing writing with your spouse and a list of places you could share your writing--other than with your spouse.

Toy (July 21)

A story that will leave you wondering what happened to your favourite toy.

 Two book reviews

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim (July 14)

Published by Viking

A love story about time travel

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini (July 28)

Illustrated by Dan Williams

Published by Viking

Author proceeds from this book are donated to helping refugees around the world.

Happening this month on Mayne Island...

photo by ldyck

This church fair is one of the most affordable places I know to get must-reads.

Guest Post Ayelet Tsabari

Author Bio: 

Ayelet Tsabari is an Israeli of Yemeni descent. After growing up in a suburb of Tel Aviv, she travelled extensively throughout South East Asia, Europe and North America before moving to Vancouver in 1998. Tsabari adjusted to writing in her second language, and studied other ways to tell stories through film at photography in the Capilano University Media Program. She directed two documentary films, one of which won the grand prize in the Palm Spring International Sport Film Festival. Tsabari wrote her first story in English in 2006. She is a two-time winner of the EVENT Creative Non-Fiction Contest and has been published in literary magazines such as PRISM, Grain and Room. Her unpublished non-fiction manuscript was shortlisted for the First Book Competition sponsored by Anvil Press and SFU’s Writer’s Studio. She is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at the University of Guelph and now calls Toronto home.

Interesting facts:

* Ayelet was a soldier in the Israeli army.

* English is Ayelet’s second language and she wrote her first story in English just six years ago.

* Ayelet is married to a sailor.

Twitter @AyeletTsabariwww.ayelettsabari.com

Website www.ayelettsabari.com

Photo taken by Sean Brereton

How/why did you start to write?

I was telling stories before I could write. I used to draw comic strips and narrate them to my mother. As soon as I knew the alphabet I started to write stories and poems, so I guess I never really chose it.

How did you become an author?

It’s the only thing I ever really wanted to do. When I decided to take my writing seriously, I applied and was accepted to the Writer’s Studio at SFU in Vancouver. I loved the program and had grown a lot as a writer during that year, so I knew I was on the right track. After that, I moved to Toronto to attend the MFA program at Guelph. My first book, TheBest Place on Earth, was my graduate thesis for the MFA program. I submitted it to HarperCollins after I graduated and to my shock and delight, they accepted it for publication right away.

What was your first published piece?

It’s a two-part answer: my first publication in Hebrew was a poem I wrote as a child and dedicated to my father after his passing, titled “Why?” I also began sending stories and poems to a children’s magazine during that year. My first piece in English, my second language, was “You and What Army,” a memoir essay about my time in the Israeli army.

Where was it published?

The poem was in the beginning of my father’s book of poetry, which was published after his death. “You and what Army” was the winner of Event’s Creative Nonfiction contest and was published in Event Magazine.

How long ago?

The poem was published when I was ten. “You and What Army” (my first Canadian publication!) was published six years ago.

What did you do before embarking on your writing career? Was it an asset to your writing? How?

I started out as a journalist in my teens and early twenties, but I found that it actually inhibited my writing. I had deadlines to meet and spent so much time working at the computer that by the time I was done, I wasn’t inspired to write my own things. After that, I spent thirteen years working as a waitress. I think waitressing is a perfect job for a writer: it’s never the same, and you get to meet different people every day, observe human behavior, eavesdrop on conversations, and hear many stories.

What inspires you?

Everything! Books. Music. Photography. Art. Television. Smells. Travelling. My home. The sea. My family and friends. Taking transit. Cities and the people who live in them. The desert. History.

Please share one of your successful author platform building technique

I love Twitter. It builds a community of writers and readers, and I met some great people and made real connections through it. I also enjoyed building my website, though sometimes blogging can also take away from the precious time I have for writing. 

Parting words

Thank you for having me!

(Thank you for this interesting interview, Ayelet.)

Book Synopsis/Teaser:
Confident, original and humane, the stories in The Best Place on Earth are peopled with characters at the crossroads of nationalities, religions and communities: expatriates, travellers, immigrants and locals. Poets, soldiers, siblings and dissenters, the protagonists here are mostly Israelis of Mizrahi background (Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent), whose stories have rarely been told in literature. In illustrating the lives of those whose identities swing from fiercely patriotic to powerfully global, The Best Place on Earth explores Israeli history as it illuminates the tenuous connections—forged, frayed and occasionally destroyed—between cultures, between generations, and across the gulf of transformation and loss.

Click on image to embolden.

Why the Wolf? by Natalee Caple

In my new novel a lone she-wolf follows the main character of Miette as she searches across the Western landscape for the mother who gave her up for adoption, the infamous Calamity Jane. Wolves have always appeared in Westerns for the obvious reason that they are truly present in the West. Wolves have appeared quite recently in the Western through Cormac McCathy’s book The Crossing, where the protagonist makes a doomed attempt to locate and rescue a she-wolf he has injured. The she-wolf in The Crossing is a figure that can represent the inexorable destructive progress of capitalism. The relationship between man and wolf seems like an allegory of the nightmarish marriage between urban expansion and natural sustainability. In this, my ecocritical read of The Crossing, the real crossing over happens because of a metaphorical choice to restore nature that comes too late.

But for me the wolf works as symbol because of the wolf’s commitment to a pack. My wolf is meant to seem more uncanny and unnatural because she is a lone she-wolf (where we think of lone wolves as masculine), and she seems invested in a pack that includes only women (Miette and Calamity Jane), which suggests that she defies traditional definitions of pack and territory.

Wolves fascinate me because they have long appeared in international mythology. Wolves show up in folklore from North American, Europe, Russia, and China. The Cheyenne often include “wolf” in the names of Cheyenne men, particularly warriors. But of wolves as maternal figures, or as a figures that women might identify with, there are fewer examples. Romulus and Remus are twins raised by wolves in Roman myth. Barry Lopez notes that “women show up frequently in native American folklore and history as wives to wolves or their helpers” (121). A wolf is a benevolent figure who aids an abused woman in one Sioux story Lopez calls “Woman Who Lived With Wolves” (121). Navajo witches become werewolves (123) and along the lower Pacific coast of Canada and the United States several tribes incorporate the figure of the wolf into initiation ceremonies as well as ceremonies for healing and to enter puberty (128). I drew on this breadth of representation, this rich cultural shared imaginary, as I constructed a she-wolf for my Western.

In the chapter that is Calamity Jane’s fourth birth, I add to the many stories of her birth by rewriting a legend out of Texas from a hundred years earlier about a girl who lived with wolves and was stolen back before her pack was murdered. In this way, I try to show Calamity Jane as born into a violence that is natural and known (in the storm that tears her from her mother) but no less cruel or terrible for being natural. 

Like the storm, the violent instincts of people are natural but terrible.

On the third day of the hunt the girl was cornered in a canyon. A wolf stood in front of her snarling and bristling until it was shot dead. The girl collapsed and cried over the body of the wolf, holding the head of the beast to her breast. When the hunters approached she growled and barked and as they grabbed her she bit and tore their flesh with her teeth. One hunter cracked her head with the butt of his gun and she fell down unconscious. They bound her and took her to a nearby ranch and locked her in a room. When she woke she howled and howled and howled until the men were on their knees with hands over their ears.

In the Old West wolves were both competition and prey for men. “Wolfers” looking for quick cash captured and killed wolves for bounty. This state endorsed murder aligns the figure of the wolf with the figure of the innocent outlaw abused by society, and so becomes a credible metaphor for wayward women like Calamity Jane (who was known to howl like a wolf when drunk). For my novel, which is expressly anti-violence and about the incredible diversity of individuals from the West not usually found at the centre of a Western, I wanted a figure from the natural world that I could connect with marginalized human communities who have experienced nationally endorsed violence (via police action and laws that promotes violence) including women, indigenous peoples, Black men and women, criminals, Chinese and Japanese North Americans, and the mentally ill. I did not want to render all of their experiences equal (in terms of similarity) so I hoped that the wolf as guide might instead gesture to complicated and even mysteriousness links between their narratives.

Set in the badlands of the North American west in the late 1800s, In Calamity’s Wake tells the story of orphaned Miette’s quest to find her mother, the notorious Calamity Jane.

Miette is reluctant to meet the woman who abandoned her—whom she knows only as an infamous soldier, drinker and exhibition shooter—but she sets out nonetheless across a landscape peopled with madwomen, thieves, minstrels and ghosts, many of whom add a thread to the story of her famous mother.

Interspersed with Miette’s story are the stories of Jane as told in legend, history books, dime store novels and by the woman herself. As Miette makes her way to Deadwood, South Dakota, history and myth collide to create a picture of a remarkable woman who shattered the expectations of her time, and a daughter who must confront the truth of her past. As in Billy the Kid or HBO’s Deadwood, In Calamity’s Wake blends fiction with real conversations and events to transport us, through vividly crafted atmosphere and seductive storytelling, to a side of the Wild West we’ve never seen before.

Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/with-in-calamitys-wake-its-the-cowgirls-turn-to-ride/article11138436/


Link to Amazon purchase:
http://www.amazon.ca/In-Calamitys-Wake-Natalee-Caple/dp/1443406708