Letters to a Rose

Rating:
Summary: A powerful read
Review: From the author of THE LAST CAF? comes an unusual narrative that candidly reflects the turbulent, self-indulgent Sixties with biting style and brutal honesty.

Letters to a Rose is a contemporary narrative that offers a glimpse of the latter 20th Century through the eyes of a child of the Sixties. The story begins with a lighthearted, nostalgic trip to a young boy's childhood, but it quickly takes a sudden, dark turn to the tragic murder of John Kennedy, violent political unrest, and the jungles of Vietnam.

At the center of this teetering universe is the story's Everyman narrator, who paints vivid images of a troubled generation through entries into his personal journal and letters written to 'Rosie,' his childhood sweetheart and lifelong friend.

Cahill's unusual narrative style evokes the true horror of war, placing his readers in the saddle with the young helicopter door gunner as he struggles to survive over the Vietnam killing fields. We share his anguish of returning to an ungrateful nation that drives him to near self-destruction in a wake of alcohol and drug abuse; and we pull for him to shed his demons and emerge from the abyss to triumph over the inequities of an imperfect life.

In the center of this human trial is the unfaltering love between the Narrator and Rosie, who remains the only constant in his life. Together they journey through the ever changing decades, sometimes together but more often apart. Their love and respect forever give rise to hope for better times ahead.

Letters to a Rose is quickly paced, at one moment moving casually through serene waters of boyhood innocence, then shifting to sudden, head-swirling terror in the steamy jungles of Vietnam, and returning back to the dark, cynical age of self indulgence that ushered in the 21st Century. Deeply rooted throughout this glimpse of a unique time in American history is the fragile nature of two human hearts beating a perfect rhythm in a dissonant generation that never quite found itself.

Rating:
Summary: A powerful read
Review: From the author of THE LAST CAFÉ comes an unusual narrative that candidly reflects the turbulent, self-indulgent Sixties with biting style and brutal honesty.

Letters to a Rose is a contemporary narrative that offers a glimpse of the latter 20th Century through the eyes of a child of the Sixties. The story begins with a lighthearted, nostalgic trip to a young boy's childhood, but it quickly takes a sudden, dark turn to the tragic murder of John Kennedy, violent political unrest, and the jungles of Vietnam.

At the center of this teetering universe is the story's Everyman narrator, who paints vivid images of a troubled generation through entries into his personal journal and letters written to 'Rosie,' his childhood sweetheart and lifelong friend.

Cahill's unusual narrative style evokes the true horror of war, placing his readers in the saddle with the young helicopter door gunner as he struggles to survive over the Vietnam killing fields. We share his anguish of returning to an ungrateful nation that drives him to near self-destruction in a wake of alcohol and drug abuse; and we pull for him to shed his demons and emerge from the abyss to triumph over the inequities of an imperfect life.

In the center of this human trial is the unfaltering love between the Narrator and Rosie, who remains the only constant in his life. Together they journey through the ever changing decades, sometimes together but more often apart. Their love and respect forever give rise to hope for better times ahead.

Letters to a Rose is quickly paced, at one moment moving casually through serene waters of boyhood innocence, then shifting to sudden, head-swirling terror in the steamy jungles of Vietnam, and returning back to the dark, cynical age of self indulgence that ushered in the 21st Century. Deeply rooted throughout this glimpse of a unique time in American history is the fragile nature of two human hearts beating a perfect rhythm in a dissonant generation that never quite found itself.