Another 5 star review of my novel GASSED: a tale of the war to end all wars

Perhaps the most damning remark one could issue about a contemporary novel is to label it “old-fashioned.” However, in her new work, Gassed, a story about the fortunes of a WWI infantryman fighting for his life in the trenches, followed by an equally difficult struggle to heal upon being shipped home blinded and burned by Yellow Cross, Carley Eason Evans has given a startling vibrancy to the idea of being old-fashioned. Writing in the hullabaloo of 2017 she has managed to bring to life a distant era while simultaneously creating a story with the feel and cadence of a work that was composed in the earlier era by someone like Edith Wharton. War is hell, as we all are aware, and when shells are bursting all about them soldiers turn the air purple with curses that edit out none of the words forbidden in polite company. However, in novels like All Quiet on the Western Front such words do not appear. Indeed, it was Norman Mailer in The Naked and the Dead who pushed the boundaries by the then daring ploy of allowing his soldiers to say “fug” as a substitute for a word we all know very well. All too soon no word was taboo.

However, without any diminishment of the horrors of warfare Ms. Evans has placed us shoulder to shoulder with embattled men who utter nothing stronger than “Bloody hell!” as friends are smashed to bits by artillery and grenades. By using the “accepted language” of an earlier time I find she keeps us more deeply immersed in the story than if she had “modernized” the battle talk. Her work is as “old-fashioned” as that of Erich Maria Remarque.

With her hero assigned to a North Carolina sanatorium to heal his burned body and recover his sight, the second half of the book is a gentle, uplifting love story laced with all the expected restraint faced by all but the most sexually aggressive young Americans of that historical period. Immersed as we are in the libidinous sexual games played in contemporary TV and movie dramas, those seeking a bit of relief are sure to find comfort in the lovely, rhythmically paced romance that blossoms like a blood red rose between the wounded soldier and a lovely girl who is fighting to recover her own life from the “white plague.” Readers may well hear violins softly playing in the background as the lovers and their co-conspirators clear all obstacles that stand ready to thwart romance.

The novel also is graced with numbers of “flashback” scenes watching the lovers-to-be grow from childhood into full-blooded young Americans of the 1917 era where their individual stories marry beatifically.

GASSED: a tale of the war to end all wars

My latest novel is GASSED: a tale of the war to end all wars. GASSED is set in WWI, in the trenches of no-man’s land in France, in Lepanto, Arkansas, in Lucama, North Carolina and in a sanitarium outside Asheville.

GASSED is a tale of war and love, discovery and loss.

Jeff

Feb 10, 2018Jeff rated it it was amazing

I’ve known Carley for at least a decade, now (I think), and have followed the evolution of her as an author all the way from her first novel. Gassed is her best work, so far.

My knowledge of WWI is slim and sketchy. I always seem to remember what sparked that war, the infamous assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, right? But I don’t know much more than that.

But while this book is set during that war, and events surrounding it. I don’t think it’s really about that war. This book is about humanity and love. That’s what I got out of it, at least.

We follow the life of a young soldier named James Allen Lawton. As the book begins, he is already suffering from the results of a mustard gas bomb that hit his group of soldiers. He was unable to get his mask on quick enough, and is temporarily blinded.

But then we flash back. Back to his childhood, back to his entry into this war. Back and forth we go as we explore the life of this young soldier, and what made him the person he is.

His mother died during childbirth, so the entirety of his youth is spent with only a father, who did the best he could to raised his son. My favorite chapter in the book is the one where his father, at some considerable expense, bought young James Allen a ukulele for his birthday. James Allen didn’t quite know what to do with it, at first, but eventually learned to play it well, and then graduated to guitar, at which he excelled.

His experiences in the war are heart-rending, as he meets and loses companions in the horror that is war. As I read this book, I was reminded of the opening themes of all of the Fallout video games. “War. War never changes.” Eventually, James Allen decides that he would rather not even know the names of the other men with whom he is serving, because they probably won’t be around very long, anyway.

After James Allen is hit with the mustard gas, he is transported to a medical unit. James Allen’s injuries are serious enough that he is given an honorable discharge and sent back to the States, where he is placed in a rehabilitation hospital where a number of people are being treated for various illnesses.

Earlier in the book, there is a seemingly random chapter about a young girl named Julie, growing up with a somewhat abusive mother and a father who loves her dearly. Eventually, the father dies of what was then called “Consumption.” We know it now as Tuberculosis. Unfortunately, Julie is infected with it, as well. Her mother, not caring in the least for her, dumps her at the doctor’s office and leaves. The local doctor cares greatly for Julie and pays for her to be placed in the same hospital where James Allen winds up.

James Allen and Julie meet, soon after he arrives, although he cannot yet see her. They become friends, and she leads him on walks through the outdoor surroundings at the hospital, describing the scenery to him. She always wears gloves and a mask, for fear of infecting him.

Within a few weeks, he recovers his sight, and continues to fall for Julie. Even though she is dying, he asks her to marry him, to which she agrees.

That’s as far as I will go in telling the story. Too many spoilers, already, I guess. But I was captivated by the character of James Allen, and then by Julie, as well. As I stated earlier, I believe this to be Carley’s best novel, so far. The only criticism that I might have at all is the placement of the final chapter. I wonder if it might have been better to end with the previous chapter, that concludes with james Allen finally singing the song that he had been trying to write for Julie.

Read this book. I think it deserves to be a best-seller. I can even see it as a movie. Maybe Ryan Gosling plays james Allen, and Rachel McAdams could play Julie. I know. They’ve already done The Notebook together. But still . . .

ADAM IMMORTAL

ADAM IMMORTAL is my 10th novel; my first science-fiction undertaking.

Here’s a recent review you may enjoy:

It is rare today to find a novel that lays out its tale in such efficient, succinct and uncluttered language. Offering a wide cast of engaging characters–several of them humanoid robots–Adam Immortal generates a narrative that clips along with unflagging pace and vigor as it imagines an entirely believable future world set in a 2056 mid-American hospital. At the outset the novel seems to be the story of Adam, an astoundingly adept robotic heart surgeon the hospital administration has purchased to control the spiraling costs of its advanced medical procedures. However, as event piles upon event, Mark, the human surgeon, colleague to Adam and narrator of the yarn moves ever more inevitably to the center as he wrestles with the ethical question: Have robots an inalienable right to develop and engage with the emotions felt by their human co-workers? Empathically engaged with Millie, his family’s robotic cook, housekeeper and child minder at one pole and Adam at the other, Mark seeks a viable answer to questions so daunting that they may not be answered short of a ruling by the Supreme Court. Author Carley Evans makes it abundantly clear that advances in robotic technology, which may free us from onerous tasks, also will impact what it means to be human. The conflict is skillfully laid out against the framework of her scientifically accurate and medically authentic description of a “brave new world.”

T.G.E.

I AM SOFIE

Published my latest novel this week. I AM SOFIE is my first historical novel, based on the diaries and letters of Hans and Sofie Scholl, two young people who stood against Hitler. These Munich University students along with their circle of friends and their professors formed the Weiss Rose — the White Rose — movement. Together they wrote six leaflets which they distributed across Germany and parts of Europe, calling upon ordinary Germans to rid themselves of their stupor and complacency and resist the Nazi Party and put an end to the atrocities.

I usually don’t publish on Kindle, but this volume is available as an e-Book as well as a trade paperback.

Additionally I am publishing a “special edition” which will contain color maps in an appendix.

My bathroom reading

I never understood why people read in the bathroom although I know they do. Recently, I’ve been grabbing my own novel, AS FROM A TALENTED ANIMAL and randomly reading parts of it while sitting on the toilet. Yes, very graphic — I know! I know!

What I’ve found is wherever I turn in the book, I enjoy it.

Biased? Probably. Yet, I have some distance from the work now and it’s comforting to know I like it, too.

Promoting your books is like climbing your own private mountain

Book promotion is a pain in the _______ (insert your fav descriptor here).

Book promotion is — for me — like climbing my own private mountain, a mountain no one has climbed before me with no footholds or handholds outlined in chalk residue, no hardware previously hammered into the rock face, no clear path above.

This mountain is stark, barren, unloved.

I climb it one movement at a time, ever upward.

Each sale or give-a-way or donation — yes, donation! — is movement in the correct direction, toward the summit.

If I ever summit, I’ll admire the view.

Sold a copy of AS FROM A TALENTED ANIMAL

On Thursday, a reader of my novels asked me if I had a copy of my latest work with me. I said that I did. He wanted to purchase it, so I trotted out to my car, retrieved the copy of AS FROM A TALENTED ANIMAL and brought it to him. He gave me a check; I signed the novel for him and thanked him for his continued support.

I believe in supporting artists.

I own three original paintings by a fine artist I know personally. His name is Austin Power and he works out of NYC. His watercolors are delicate but speak volumes about the human condition. I love them as I love him.

And so, I thank those of you who support me! You have no idea how much you mean to me as a novelist and a person.