GOOD BOOKS
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A good book not only entertains, it also teaches you something and touches your heart.
Miracle at St. Anna
by
James McBride
For a glimpse of WWII on the Italian front, as seen through the eyes of soldiers of the US Army’s 92nd Infantry Division (Buffalo Soldiers), you must read James McBride’s MIRACLE at ST. ANNA.
Inspired by accounts told by James’ Uncle Henry, and based on a true story, this tale of courage, love, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption is both a haunting psychological narrative and a first-rate military thriller. Thoroughly researched, it is the fruit of interviews and written accounts of veterans of the 92nd Division, the Italians who fought with them and the Germans who fought against them.
MIRACLE at ST. ANNA tells the story of a simple giant of a man named Sam Train and the critically injured Italian boy he struggles to save, putting his own life in danger. It’s the story of a man named Bishop, a smooth talking preacher/gambler, who had lost his faith long ago, but who couldn’t fail to miss the miracles happening around him. And Hector Negron, a Puerto Rican draftee who had no more desire to fight the white man’s war than the Negro soldiers. Their commander, the educated Stamps, caught up in his own struggle for equality, alternately looks down on and cares for his charges. McBride also provides a searingly honest look at the war time sacrifices and suffering of the Italian people.
The head of the statue Primavera plays a pivotal role in the story. McBride recounts the history of this valuable artifact: the quarrying of the marble, its journey to France and the starving French sculptor who was commissioned by a duchess de’ Medici, wife of the Duke of Florence, to carve the statue for the Ponte Santa Trinità, "the most beautiful bridge in Florence".
James McBride’s prose is stunning. MIRACLE at ST. ANNA is by far one of the best books I’ve read in the past year. His ability to place the reader in the mind of each of his characters, including that of a child fractured by the horrors of war, is utterly brilliant.
Published in 2002, MIRACLE at ST. ANNA was made into a major motion picture, directed and co-produced by Spike Lee. McBride is also the author of Song Yet Sung and The Color of Water, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. A graduate of Oberlin College, with a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, he has written for the Washington Post, People, Boston Globe, Essence, Rolling Stone and the New York Times.
*****
Other reviews of GOOD BOOKS:
The Legacy of a Singular Life, by Julia George
Traveling Through W.W. II, by Arthur Pranger