Marching Home: To War and Back with the Men of One Americantown

by Kevin Coyne

Book Overview

Of the sixteen million Americans who served in the armed forces during World War II, not quite a thousand were from Freehold, New Jersey-a bustling courthouse town home to a diverse populace that reflected the varied faces and aspirations of the nation. Award-winning author Kevin Coyne's chronicle follows six young men from Freehold through the war and back home again-to a town and a nation on the brink of changes larger than any of them could have...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142003867
• ISBN13: 9780142003862
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

We've lost one of our heroes

I enjoyed reading this book as I am from the area. History can get boring when you have to memorize facts. This history is more than facts, these are real people and their real experiences. Sadly, one of the men portrayed in the book passed away this passed Saturday, January 31, 2010. Jim Higgins was well known in Freehold and he will be missed. Another from the greatest generation.

Extraordinary View of Ordinary Lives

In Marching Home, Kevin Coyne offers a touchingly intimate and unsparing look at the lives of six small-town WWII vets. The men are presented as complete human beings, with strengths and weaknesses intact. The author avoids the cloying sentimentality and overreaching generalizations that characterize many recent works about the "greatest generation", allowing the reader to form his or her own opinions and attachments to the central characters. The affection we feel for these men and their town grows naturally as we share their struggles and triumphs. The six men are drawn with such tender honesty that we will know them as we know our own fathers, grandfathers, and uncles - many of whom we will understand more fully after reading this extraordinary book.