Finding Sgt. Kent:

September 13, 2018

 

I never went to war. I never received an invitation. My lottery umber was just too high in 1972. I have—perhaps an unintended penance—spent 10 years or so caring for veterans of a half-dozen wars in VA hospitals, listening to their stories, and collectively I don’t think there are a finer cohort of individuals on this planet. This work of fiction, of course, does not reflect the life experience of a particular soldier, but might easily relate to any soldier. In my novel, a soldier returns home haunted by memories of of war, and tries to track down family members he’s  never known. From Kirkus Review: "Robert Kent  served as a sniper in Afghanistan, rising to the rank
of master sergeant before he was discharged after some 15 years of service. Now he finds himself in a veterans hospital, alone and plagued by memories of past violence, emotionally lost but not yet ready to surrender to despair. Dr. Zilker,  his  preternaturally patient therapist, prods him to  discuss the last day of his tour of duty  in Afghanistan, during which he was involved in a  ferocious firefight and badly wounded. Over the course of three tours, he was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star Medal, but they provide him with no relief from his nightmares. Before he enlisted, he had a difficult childhood—he never knew his Vietnam-veteran father, and his mother drank herself to death when he was 15. He was taken in by a foster family in his teens. At Zilker’s encouragement, Robert decides to track down his surviving relations, aided by little more than his parents’ names and letters that his father wrote to his mother while serving overseas. Robert’s longing to get to know his family members is palpable, and, by extension, his desire to discover something new about himself: “now I was going to get to turn over all the pieces on the game board.” The author’s
prose artfully balances a poetical sensitivity with the gritty anger of his protagonist. Also, his descriptions of military life—and of combat, in particular—feel impressively authentic. The novel’s chief source of strength, however, is the author’s literary restraint; it’s a study in the raw power of unsentimental expression, as well as an extension
of Robert’s wounded laconicism. The book offers a sensitive look at the psychological ramifications of combat, raising tough questions without offering facile answers. A poignant dramatization of the emotional fallout of war." Available on Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble, and all fine bookstores.

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Submitted by:
Raymond Hutson