Review: Thoroughly Enjoyable
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 10, 2012
This is my second book by Conroy and will not be my last.  This is set just after the Cuban Missile Crisis and is the story of the American Response to a Cuban takeover of Guantanamo Bay on Christmas Day 1962.  Conroy's understanding of history helped make this a a very satisfying book.  He used American attitudes and 1960's geo-politics to make the decisions facing President Kennedy ring true.  It was a messy set of decisions and priorities that needed to be sorted through and that kept the book interesting.  I had first thought this was just going to be a war book with lots of battle scenes and little else.  I'm glad I was mistaken.I would have liked more time spent on average Americans and their responses to the war instead of just having them explained as part of Kennedy's situation reviews.  But, adding too many sub-plots to the story could have made it feel more like he was simply emulating Turtledove.  Instead this reads like an author who has entered his maturity and has created a recognizable name for himself.I will look forward to his future releases.