Robert Olmstead’s latest novel is at first a love story centered around Henry Childs and his first love, Mercy.    Mercy’s father, a local Judge,  is totally against a simple, mountain boy dating his daughter.  The Judge tells Henry to leave his daughter alone.  Mercy knows her father is used to strong-arming his way through the town and anyone standing in his way.  Henry stands no chance against him, and Mercy knows it.  She talks Henry into fleeing to New Orleans.

In New Orleans the couple live with the help of Mercy’s relatives who share her aversion to the Judge.   Henry and Mercy set about playing house with no immediate goals other than spending time entwined in each other’s arms.  But you can feel the tick, tick of the clock.  You can feel Mercy’s slight agitation getting stronger with each passing week.  She knows her father.

Once the inevitable happens, and the lovers are separated the story takes on a gritty, life-alternating challenge just for Henry to stay alive.   This is no romance novel.  No red roses here.  Lost, and belonging nowhere, Henry, underage, enlists in the Marines to escape his broken heart.  He leaves the cozy warmth of the South and heads to the frozen tundra of North Korea.

This is where the story takes on such brilliance as we follow Henry into North Korea in 1950.  You can feel the chill creeping under your skin as Henry’s “hunters,” move toward the Chosin Reservoir and the Chinese border.  Once there, the troops are surprised, surrounded and outnumbered by the Chinese, do in large part to a failure of intelligence.   For 17 days the soldiers fight one of the most vicious battles in American military history.  The Chinese dressed in all white and attacked at night blending into the snow like arctic foxes.  Wave after wave of Chinese human assaults hit over and over again.   Many of the wounded froze to death in temperatures reaching 30° below.   You can almost feel the cold.

Olmstead depictions of Henry and his follow soldiers is spot on with all our human flaws.  No perfect fighting machines, no GI Joes, just ordinary men trying to do their best, to stay alive, to help their fellow soldier, to follow orders.  War is hell and you are right there on the battlefield inside Henry’s head feeling his feelings.   Scaryyyyy.

Even scarier is the waiting.  “Sometimes you just can’t take the waiting, Lew said.”    Scarierrr.

You wonder if Henry will ever feel warmth again.  But love with all its interruptions, in all its bare nakedness, is still the warmest and closest thing we have to heaven.

Discussions about this book were mixed in our book club.  I loved it, but I like historical fiction.  The biggest negative about the book was the love story.  However, that gave us a lot to talk about.  Love is complicated and everyone has their own opinion.  The ending was also a topic of discussion, but I don’t want to ruin the ending.  Definitely, a beautifully written book and a good book club pick.

Rating:  8.5