(2 of 2)
Prochnau belabors these familiar U.S. blunders and self-deceptions more thoroughly than now seems necessary. He has an annoying tendency to introduce a new character and then jump years or even decades ahead in time for an anecdote, leaving him constantly backtracking: "This all came much later" or "But all that came later." And his grasp of English grammar is sometimes shaky. A husband named Mert Perry wakes to the sound of helicopters: "Next to him, the noise also awakened Darlene Perry." A slim, original book resides within Once Upon a Distant War, hard to find but finally worth the effort.