Every now and then, I see a news story about how WWII vets are dying off rapidly, how we need to get their stories on paper or electrons as soon as possible. This novel, 'To Hear Thunder', feels like William Clark did just that. The most similar story I've read is 'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand, which wasn't a novel, but a biography of US Olympian and WWII hero/survivor, Louis Zamperini. 'To Hear Thunder' is a semi-historical novel, but reading it made me wonder if there ever existed a man with a story like this novel's main character, Penny Reynolds. If so, I wish I could meet him, talk to him, break bread with him...all before he passes away like the rest of our WWII vets.
'To Hear Thunder' is rich in nostalgia for simpler, less digital/electronic times. From the Great Depression in Kansas, to Colorado, to Montana, to the beginning of the US Forest Service smokejumper program, to the birth of the US Army Airborne program, to WWII in North Africa... Penny Reynolds is a busy young man. His is a cross between a hero's journey and a coming-of-age story, and William Clark tells it as if he lived it himself, or heard it from someone who did.
The secondary character, Hans Minor, is a Nazi SS soldier, and frankly, a war criminal. Portions of many chapters describe his ordeal--and his participation--in the meat grinder of Germany's early years in the war. As you might expect, Hans Minor and Penny Reynolds find their separate and unique paths converging in blood and fire on the battlefield. As in his previous novels, William Clark's greatest literary strength lies in how his prose renders the beauty-horror dichotomy of combat, plus the gritty life and dialogue of soldiers in the field.
There's a lot to like here. Like many self-published novels, you'll find the occasional errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation. Like many novels of all types, the geography gets creative at times, but I assume that's to avoid zeroing in on places the author wants to keep special, for himself. But obviously, I didn't focus on that stuff.
Beyond the characters and the story, what's interesting to me is how novels take us into the mind of the author. Mr. Clark seems to think as I think: the Greatest Generation wasn't full of perfect people, but they got it mostly right. If we read, write and think about them, and yes, talk to them while some are still with us, it may shed light on the problems we face here and now.
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