Review: Home on Leave
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 3, 2013
April 3, 2013Thanksgiving 1942  ( A sequel to The First Christmas of the War) by Alan SimonA review by Anthony T. Riggio"Thanksgiving 1942" By Alan Simon is the second book in the Coleman Family saga and I hope there will be future books telling of the happenings of this most interesting family during the WWII years.  When I read the first book The First Christmas, I concluded this was a matriarchal run family but the second book Thanksgiving shifts to the more paternal role in the hierarchy of authority, though other readers may disagree with this conclusion.  The five children of the Coleman family are a bit older in this sequel and the two teen age boys are on leave from their flight training with the US Army Air Force in Arizona.  The book was read on my Kindle and it was an equally short read as the first book and I read in two short sittings. The Coleman saga is about family relationships during a changing time in American family life.  Having been born around the commencement of the war, I have some child hood memories that are imbedded in my memory cells and I was able to feel the plentiful emotions demonstrated in this warm story.  I recommend this book for adults and young readers to get a glimpse of life during a seemingly simpler time yet one of great family suffering.  My father served in the Pacific with the US Navy and experienced five major amphibious landings as a coxswain on LSM's (Landing Ship Men).  My paternal uncle was in the USAAF and saw plenty of action flying B 17's and B 25's.  Both survived the war and both were changed from the teenaged men before the war to men with living scars and memories of the struggles they experienced.Thanksgiving 1942 is about family values, family leadership, teen age struggles, finding love and experiencing the unknown futures of relationships in a time of war.