Full Dress Gray

Rating:
Summary: Full dress repeat.
Review: As a fan of Truscott's Dress Gray and a big backer of USMA, I was originally thrilled to see a sequel. That was as far as the thrill went... Truscott has taken Dress Gray and given it a completely unwelcome PC revamping. It's the same story... Slaight realizes there's something fishy and sexual about the death of a fellow cadet, and goes to fix it. The only difference is that this time around, young Cadet Slaight is female, as is the dead cadet. Read the first one. Forget that there is a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Dishonest and intended to mislead. A "PC" primer.
Review: Basically, this book is intended to push a Politically Correct point of view. It does so relentlessly, to the point that the so-called "plot" (I am charitably assuming that there is one) is submerged between various "PC" diatribes. Essentially, Truscott is out to trash anyone who opposes gays in the military, women in the front lines of infantry units, etc. Everyone who holds traditional or conservative views as regards the foregoing is a mindless ogre, and that is what the book is about.

Essentially, the book is dishonest. The real Army is nothing like the way Truscott portrays it, and Truscott knows it. I didn't attend West Point, but we may safely assume that Truscott's portrayal of West Point is equally dishonest.

Don't get me wrong. I could have handled the "PC" point of view of the author if there were an interesting story buried in here. There is not. Truscott has no time to tell a story about anything. He is only interested in pushing his Leftist politics at you.

Truscott's book "Dress Grey" to which this is a sequel was a decent if not brilliant read. All of Truscott's books since then are ghastly and militant diatribes pushing Truscott's PC agenda at the expense of plot, realism, or truth. Avoid this novel and this author.

Rating:
Summary: so bad I returned the book
Review: I bought this book while stationed in Korea. I enjoyed reading "Dress Gray" while I was a cadet and I was excited to see that Truscott had written a sequel. I read the entire book, but ended up being so disappointed that I took it back to the bookstore and got my money back. I am tired of books that insinuate that women at a mostly male school equals a scandal. See also, "A General's Daughter." Hey guess what--I was a female cadet in my opinion and West Point isn't some mysterious old boy network where crimes get shoved under the rug--it goes completely against the principles that the academy stands for.

Don't waste your time on this one!