"When Is Daddy Coming Home?": An American Family during World War II

Rating:
Summary: A touching tale
Review: This is a sweet little family story of World War II that comes with a sad ending. You know what's coming, but it still gets you in the solar plexus, the heart and the tear ducts. Richard Carlton Haney humanizes his father, and also brings in his mother and the Wisconsin homefront (it could be anywhere), while avoiding so many of the cliches that have become common of late. The truth, including one heartbreaking picture among the many interesting pictures, is wrenching enough. The text of the actual letters to and from Pfc Clyde Haney follow the main story, and are a wonderful addition.

Rating:
Summary: A Moving Tribute
Review: When Is Daddy Coming Home is a very well written and heart moving story about how WWII impacted the author, his family and his life. The author's father, drafted later on in the war, and sent to Europe after those in his classification were determined to be exempt from the draft, was killed on a mission that didn't need to take place, after the glider he was in was hit right before it landed. The theme of the story, however, is the relationship between the author, his mother, and father. This is what we read about throughout the book, and this is what makes this story such a sentimental one. The author also reminds us that for every soldier that went overseas, there was a family, or friend waiting at home, and, many times, these people were left to carry on after the soldier was killed. I thank the author for sharing his story with us. This is a great book and I highly recomend it.

Rating:
Summary: You Will Not Come Away Unmoved
Review: With stories of young men coming home from Iraq in coffins the timing on this book is perfect. Many books are written on the history of World War II, from big stories of the movement of great armies, to the tales of heroic acts. This is not such a tale but a simple story of a young boy in Wisconsin (but the same story took place in every state). The young boy, born in November of 1940, writes of life in America during the war. Living in a happy family he was four years old when the telegram arrived at his family's home informing them of his father's death.

His father did not die the heroic death that you make movies about, it was an ordinary soldiers death. What makes it special is the writing in this book. At once historical, memories and poignant. It is an often heart-rending picture of life in wartime America.

Don't attempt to read this book without a hankerchief at hand.