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Flower of Iowa

Tekijä: Lance Ringel

JäseniäKirja-arvostelujaSuosituimmuussijaKeskimääräinen arvioKeskustelut
1021,832,998 (4.5)-
Winner, Foreword Indies Book of the Year (Gold - War & Military Fiction); 2 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards (Gold - Fiction: Romance, Silver - LGBTQ); IPPYs Bronze Medal (Military/Wartime Fiction); Finalist, Lambda Literary Awards (Gay Romance) In the tradition of historical novels about the epic war that tore Europe in half, Lance Ringe's Flower of Iowa is a sprawling tale of battle, courage, the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of love. This unforgettable book has been described by Kirkus Reviews as "accomplished, touching historical fiction" that "packs a remarkable amount of flavor and detail" and provides "a compelling love story." Stephen Fry called it "... a truly wonderful WW1 novel. A gay romance, but not sappy or silly. So truthful and touching." Flower of Iowa recalls Hemingway??s A Farewell to Arms, if that classic tale of love and war had featured two men at the bruised heart of the story. Taking place in France during the final months of the bloody war in 1918, Flower of Iowa focuses on American soldier Tommy Flowers. As the naïve young man struggles to learn how to be a good soldier, he becomes attracted to Nicole Lacroix, a young French barmaid. However, Flowers finds himself in a rivalry for her affections with his brash Australian lieutenant, Jamie Colbeck. At the same time, Tommy befriends British soldier David Pearson ?? a friendship that soon develops an unexpected intimacy. Baffled by their feelings, but committed to exploring them further, Tommy and David do everything to spend time together, even after David is wounded and sent home to England to convalesce. When Tommy and David are parted again by the war, a compassionate nurse, Sister Jean Anderson, generously devises a scheme by which she will secretly shuttle love letters between the pair until they can reunite. Equally tragic and hopeful, dramatically stirring and historically faithful, Flower of Iowa takes its place among the memorable novels about the Great War, distinguishing itself with a gallery of compelling characters, meticulous research and exhilarating storytelling that vividly captures the war that changed the world forever. Flower of Iowa is the first published novel by veteran journalist and writer Lance Ringel. Long fascinated with The Great War, Ringel first began work on the book in 1992 at the height of the controversy surrounding President Bill Clinton??s campaign promise to repeal ??Don??t Ask, Don??t Tell.? Ringel envisioned a saga that examined a relationship between two soldiers set against the backdrop of WWI. This idea launched him into a five-year journey across America and through Europe in a quest to make sure that Flower of Iowa was as historically accurate as possible. Ringel visited former battlefields across the French countryside and their surrounding towns, as well as numerous museums and libraries in Europe and the United States. While the first draft of Flower of Iowa was completed in 1997, Ringel continued to make periodic revisions of the manuscript over the past 17 years. However, as the centenary of World War I drew near, the author decided it was the perfect time to share his book with the huge audience of WWI enthusiasts in Americ… (lisätietoja)
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näyttää 2/2
Flower of Iowa is a rather good M/M Romance novel and the 4 star rating is based upon its place within that genre rather than being a more general evaluation of the book.
As a Gay Romance novel, the book is uncommonly long and filled with many more characters than would normally be encountered in a romance novel.
It is set in the Allied trenches in the middle of WW I in France. Thus, it takes place in an era and within a culture that would be very unaccepting of relationships between people of the same gender and this sense of homosexuality being wrong is a motivation for the main characters to proceed with caution as their relationship develops. The book’s primary character, Tommy has never really faced his sexual orientation due in part to his age and also in part to his upbringing. He was raised in rural Iowa where exposure to homosexuality would have been scarce if occurring at all. Certainly in such a climate, it would have been condemned.
It takes nearly 40% of the novel before Tommy and his partner Davey, experience any kind of physical relationship with each other.
These things are what contribute to the reason this is such a good book. The book focuses on the relationship and its slow, steady development rather than on the sexual conduct of the lovers.
Once they have established their love for each other, the relationship continues to affirm love over sex and the two become more and more committed to each other and to their love.
In some ways, however, the strength of the book also becomes its weakness.
As a strength, it is refreshing to see the story as a love relationship rather than as a sexual one. Tommy is the same innocent, naive farm-boy he had been before the consummation of their relationship. As I read the book, I admired this, but only for a while. Then, that very thing began to be the book’s weakness.
Tommy, and most of the characters actually, is static and unchanging throughout the book. He has entered into a “forbidden” love relationship and not been tortured by conscience, remorse, regret or reprehension for what he has done, although he does have flashes of wondering if he has done the right thing.
But this static, unchanging character is really a flaw in the author’s development of both Tommy and the rest of the characters in the book.
Because the story takes place amidst a brutal war, the characters endure hardships and horrors most of us don’t even want to imagine, much less live through. They wallow in mud and filth, are crawled over by rats, ridden with lice, freezing, wet, exhausted and unchanged by any of that. Moreover, they continue to be innocent, naive and pure even when they kill, have blood spattered on the, ,see bodies torn apart, literally watch as friends are turned into mush and have even killed in close-up, brutal, hand-to hand combat.
Showing changes in a character over tie and through the character’s experiences cannot be easy for an author. In fact, I am sure it is quite challenging. But in a novel dealing with crossing a cultural taboo while surrounded with carnage and inhuman behaviors, showing changes in the characters is vital.
“War is a life sentence,” someone once wrote because you are changed by it, usually scarred by it, and will never be the same again.
I wish this otherwise good novel had dealt with that issue a lot better. ( )
  PaulLoesch | Apr 2, 2022 |
Flower of Iowa is a rather good M/M Romance novel and the 4 star rating is based upon its place within that genre rather than being a more general evaluation of the book.
As a Gay Romance novel, the book is uncommonly long and filled with many more characters than would normally be encountered in a romance novel.
It is set in the Allied trenches in the middle of WW I in France. Thus, it takes place in an era and within a culture that would be very unaccepting of relationships between people of the same gender and this sense of homosexuality being wrong is a motivation for the main characters to proceed with caution as their relationship develops. The book’s primary character, Tommy has never really faced his sexual orientation due in part to his age and also in part to his upbringing. He was raised in rural Iowa where exposure to homosexuality would have been scarce if occurring at all. Certainly in such a climate, it would have been condemned.
It takes nearly 40% of the novel before Tommy and his partner Davey, experience any kind of physical relationship with each other.
These things are what contribute to the reason this is such a good book. The book focuses on the relationship and its slow, steady development rather than on the sexual conduct of the lovers.
Once they have established their love for each other, the relationship continues to affirm love over sex and the two become more and more committed to each other and to their love.
In some ways, however, the strength of the book also becomes its weakness.
As a strength, it is refreshing to see the story as a love relationship rather than as a sexual one. Tommy is the same innocent, naive farm-boy he had been before the consummation of their relationship. As I read the book, I admired this, but only for a while. Then, that very thing began to be the book’s weakness.
Tommy, and most of the characters actually, is static and unchanging throughout the book. He has entered into a “forbidden” love relationship and not been tortured by conscience, remorse, regret or reprehension for what he has done, although he does have flashes of wondering if he has done the right thing.
But this static, unchanging character is really a flaw in the author’s development of both Tommy and the rest of the characters in the book.
Because the story takes place amidst a brutal war, the characters endure hardships and horrors most of us don’t even want to imagine, much less live through. They wallow in mud and filth, are crawled over by rats, ridden with lice, freezing, wet, exhausted and unchanged by any of that. Moreover, they continue to be innocent, naive and pure even when they kill, have blood spattered on the, ,see bodies torn apart, literally watch as friends are turned into mush and have even killed in close-up, brutal, hand-to hand combat.
Showing changes in a character over tie and through the character’s experiences cannot be easy for an author. In fact, I am sure it is quite challenging. But in a novel dealing with crossing a cultural taboo while surrounded with carnage and inhuman behaviors, showing changes in the characters is vital.
“War is a life sentence,” someone once wrote because you are changed by it, usually scarred by it, and will never be the same again.
I wish this otherwise good novel had dealt with that issue a lot better.
  Paul-the-well-read | Apr 21, 2020 |
näyttää 2/2
lisäsi gsc55 | muokkaaReviews by Amos Lassen (May 25, 2015)
 
lisäsi gsc55 | muokkaaKirkus Reviews (Feb 3, 2015)
 
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Teoksen muut nimet
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Englanninkielinen Wikipedia

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Winner, Foreword Indies Book of the Year (Gold - War & Military Fiction); 2 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards (Gold - Fiction: Romance, Silver - LGBTQ); IPPYs Bronze Medal (Military/Wartime Fiction); Finalist, Lambda Literary Awards (Gay Romance) In the tradition of historical novels about the epic war that tore Europe in half, Lance Ringe's Flower of Iowa is a sprawling tale of battle, courage, the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of love. This unforgettable book has been described by Kirkus Reviews as "accomplished, touching historical fiction" that "packs a remarkable amount of flavor and detail" and provides "a compelling love story." Stephen Fry called it "... a truly wonderful WW1 novel. A gay romance, but not sappy or silly. So truthful and touching." Flower of Iowa recalls Hemingway??s A Farewell to Arms, if that classic tale of love and war had featured two men at the bruised heart of the story. Taking place in France during the final months of the bloody war in 1918, Flower of Iowa focuses on American soldier Tommy Flowers. As the naïve young man struggles to learn how to be a good soldier, he becomes attracted to Nicole Lacroix, a young French barmaid. However, Flowers finds himself in a rivalry for her affections with his brash Australian lieutenant, Jamie Colbeck. At the same time, Tommy befriends British soldier David Pearson ?? a friendship that soon develops an unexpected intimacy. Baffled by their feelings, but committed to exploring them further, Tommy and David do everything to spend time together, even after David is wounded and sent home to England to convalesce. When Tommy and David are parted again by the war, a compassionate nurse, Sister Jean Anderson, generously devises a scheme by which she will secretly shuttle love letters between the pair until they can reunite. Equally tragic and hopeful, dramatically stirring and historically faithful, Flower of Iowa takes its place among the memorable novels about the Great War, distinguishing itself with a gallery of compelling characters, meticulous research and exhilarating storytelling that vividly captures the war that changed the world forever. Flower of Iowa is the first published novel by veteran journalist and writer Lance Ringel. Long fascinated with The Great War, Ringel first began work on the book in 1992 at the height of the controversy surrounding President Bill Clinton??s campaign promise to repeal ??Don??t Ask, Don??t Tell.? Ringel envisioned a saga that examined a relationship between two soldiers set against the backdrop of WWI. This idea launched him into a five-year journey across America and through Europe in a quest to make sure that Flower of Iowa was as historically accurate as possible. Ringel visited former battlefields across the French countryside and their surrounding towns, as well as numerous museums and libraries in Europe and the United States. While the first draft of Flower of Iowa was completed in 1997, Ringel continued to make periodic revisions of the manuscript over the past 17 years. However, as the centenary of World War I drew near, the author decided it was the perfect time to share his book with the huge audience of WWI enthusiasts in Americ

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