In the Shadow of Suribachi

by Joyce Faulkner

Book Overview

A story of the Greatest Generation. Told as fiction, it is a compilation of the stories the author heard from her father and interviews with veterans who fought at Iwo Jima. She takes the characters... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974565202
• ISBN13: 9780974565200
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Red Engine Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Amazine Insight into Combat

A very well written tale of seven marines from all works of life who go through training together and then wind up at Iwo Jima. The story is fairly predictable, after all, what can happen to a group of men on Iwo. What makes the book so good is her ability to describe the actions, reactions and thoughts of men in combat. The key to survival, to functioning at all in combat is small unit cohesion. Ms. Faulkner seems to have grasped this better than nearly any writer I know. Her understanding and analysis of what is making these men think and act as they do in a time of utmost stress is amazing. Her description of the effects of modern weapons on the human body likewise makes you believe that she was there. Published by a very small press, this book won't get the marketing and advertising that might make it a best seller or a major Hollywood movie. As such, it is likely to remain one of those little gems that you come across once in a while.

Stories from the past

Joyce Faulkner does a great job capturing the essence of all the characters. I felt like I was in the story as though I was really involved with what they were thinking and feeling. Great Job!

Their Story Must Be Told!

Faulkner, Joyce. In The Shadow Of Suribachi. Key West, Florida: Red Engine Press, 2005. 205 pages. $15.95. Reviewed by Regis Schilken Educator: Pittsburgh Public School System Author: The Oculi Incident, The Island Off Stony Point, "The Stars," published in Dan River Anthology 2005 Joyce Faulkner is the author of In The Shadow Of Suribachi and Losing Patience. A woman of varied talents, she holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MBA from Cleveland State. ___________________________________________________________________________ In The Shadow Of Suribachi Six young marines, who have trained together as part of a unit, await the lowering of the heavy metal door of their Higgens landing craft. They stand aghast in terror at the horror taking place on the very beach they must secure. Some retch, all tremble, some pray, but their confidence comes from the brotherhood established among them as a group. They will take care of one another. They will remain safe as long as they follow their commanding officer, Sargeant Kroner. But within a few seconds as the unit stumbles ashore onto the black sands at the base of Mount Suribachi, Kroner is obliterated; exploded into a mass of eviscerated, bloody pulp that must be wiped from the hands, faces, and glasses of the brave men he promised to protect. Detached from his body, Kroner's head slams so hard against the chest of private Bill Zimmer, that he falls to the ground, dazed and badly bruised by the impact. In spite of the unimaginable atrocities of this uphill combat, Suribachi is eventually taken but at what price--a catastrophic fee paid by uncountable dead and injured. Yet, as a direct result of securing Iwo Jima, Allied Forces could now land heavy bombers for refueling and resupplying, in order to carry the malignancy of war deep into the tissue of Japan itself. Although Joyce Faulkner claims that what took place in those terrible days of February and March of 1945 is "indescribable," In The Shadow of Suribachi she reveals scenes so repulsively vivid, that one wonders if Faulkner is not somehow haunted by the ghosts of the men who fought there. Her book is a page turner--but thankfully, one can turn the pages and then leave them behind. The book begins with brief clips, snipped from the lives of six marines before their paths intersect. There is Kroner, a lad searching with his father, for any sign of life among the garbage and bodies that litter Islamorada, Florida, after the deadly hurricane of 1935. Bill Zimmer from Arkansas, carries a terrible psychological gash into battle. In 1937, he accidentally drops a rifle from a hayloft, which fires on impact with the floor, killing his younger brother. There is Arty Lieberman. He, and a few of his family, escape Germany in 1941 via circuitous route through Russia and Japan to the United States where they join Pittsburgh relatives. They bribe their way with a few precious stones. In 1942 in Ohio, Dan

Suribachi is A Book for THESE Times

If reviewing were a different sort of animal I could probably pen three lines of 17 syllables, wind up with haiku that would remain with the reader and call it day. I could describe In the Shadow of Suribachi by Joyce Faulkner with wordslike "heartfelt, consummate skill, emotional and bloody," fool a bit with the caesuras and stresses and--perhaps--give readers a better sense of the soul of the book. Having said that, there is more to this work than its essence and prose will work better to explain that. Here the author assembles disparate events like the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane in Islmorada, Fl, the infamous kristallnacht, the 1942 circus fire in Cleveland. Each real-life event is told from the point of view of a character and may--at first--feel as if they are separate stories. If the reader listens carefully, however, she will hear the intimations in each of how these young men's futures will connect, how what has gone before will affect them later as Marines fighting and suffering in Iwo Jima in 1945. This book is neither beast nor fowl. The stories (and story) are based on interviews and careful research so it is nonfiction. They are told with all the craft of a fiction writer; that makes it creative nonfiction. They are assembled in a way that would qualify it as a literary novel. A literary novel, after all, tells of the human condition. Characters in literary novels must be carefully drawn and readers should draw something from one that lives long after the last page is turned. This book, published by a new traditional press called the Red Engine Press, qualifies. Readers should know that, though they may well be mesmerized by this story (stories), it is not easy reading. Endorsed by professionals from the Army's 101st Airborne Division to history teachers, it captures what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman calls "the reality of human aggression and combat." This is a time when we, as a nation, need to fully understand what we are sending our young men and women to do. To understand it may behoove us to visit--or revisit--Suribachi. ------------ Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards.Harkening, a collection of stories, has won three and her how-to book for authors, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T, is USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004." Her new chapbook, Tracings, to be released in the fall of 2005, includes her own childhood memories of WWII. She wrote a foreword for another fall release Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel.)

Powerful and emotional historical fiction

Based on interviews with family and survivors, these historically accurate stories paint a picture of the horrors of war and the innocence of the men and women who suffer the consequences first hand. Growing up in the Vietnam era, when the story switched to Kent State, it hit me right between the eyes. Ms. Faulkner's writing style brings the various storylines together for an altogether fitting and satisfying conclusion. Great work.