'THE COLDEST NIGHT'............A YOUNG LOVER WALKS THROUGH HELL.....

The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead (2012)    A BQ confession.......since we gravitate to thrillers, we don't delve into as much literary fiction as do other avid readers......(yes, we're aware we might miss out on tons of great writing, but we've endured so many bad experiences plowing through called 'celebrated' contemporary novels.......where you could flip the pages 12 at time and not miss a thing.....)

            Normally, we'd especially shy away from a book like "The Coldest Night"..... with.beautifully crafted prose, so elegantly polished and studied, that it reads like a classic, mythic fable being read to us on chilly Autumn night, sitting by a fireplace......

            Damn if it didn't suck us into its spell.......we tore through it in a day, lost in the dreamlike visions of its romance......and awestruck at its depictions of the bottomless horror of warfare....

             A primal tale in three simple sections unfolds, taking place in the early 1950's.........Henry Childs, a raw-boned West Virginian 17 year old ranch hand falls into the white hot passion of first love with Mercy, a girl of wealth and privilege. The romance predictably
outrages Mercy's father and older brother, so the young lovers escape to New Orleans........

             Mercy's brother Randall catches up with them, beating Henry senseless and spiriting Mercy back home. When Henry recovers, he automatically follows the path of all the men in his family......enlisting in the Marines as the Korean war rages.....

             And here, in the book's lengthy middle section, is where author Olmstead makes his story truly unforgettable......in which Henry and his Marine division, overwhelmed by thousands of Korean and Red Chinese soldiers, find themselves  in Hell on earth.......an inferno of agonizing death and mutilated, destroyed human bodies.  Olmstead unerringly piles on the horrors of warfare to the point where you may even want to close the book and look away........

             With Henry miraculously surviving his time in Korea, the book moves on to its hauntingly sad final chapters, detailing Henry's return home......(and this is where we'll say no more......you simply have to go right out and grab a copy right now....)

            It's been some time since we handed a rating like this to a book, but we're thrilled to do it.........5 stars (*****), a FIND OF FINDS.....and even more rare, a definite re-read for us some time in the future. It's that good.