The ACADEMY - Hardcover

Ruggero, Ed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671891693 ISBN 13: 9780671891695

Publisher: Atria, 1997

Synopsis

Once in a generation, a novel captures the full scope and drama of the U. S. military experience, with characters and conflicts that come unforgettably to life. Now Ed Ruggero, who "writes about wars and warriors with the same I-have-been-there, no-nonsense authority as Hemingway" (Col. David H. Hackworth, USA [Ret.], New York Times bestselling author of About Face), draws from his twenty-year association with West Point, the U.S. Military Academy, too create a classic for our time: a tale of probing authenticity and unrelenting suspense that takes us behind the stone walls and into the inner sanctums of one of the Army's most revered institutions.

A bitter wind is blowing from Washington across West Point, and Major Tom Gates—a muddy-boots soldier ill at ease in a spit-and-polish world—is about to face a battle more brutal than any he has ever known. It began with an all-to-human mistake—Gates had too much to drink and pushed a cadet too far—and it will explode into a political firestorm that could leave careers, lives, and West Point itself, in ruins.

Senator Lamar Bruckner has his eye on the White House, but his target is West Point. He flagrantly condemns the Academy as a waste of taxpayer money, a military ivory tower—and Gates' momentary lapse in judgement is the first charge in a smear campaign that could propel Bruckner to the presidency. Caught in the middle of Bruckner's manhunt is Wayne Holder, a fourth-year cadet, whose golden surfer looks and reputation as a ladies' man are far from the pristine image of the Long Gray Line. But for Holder to join that line, he faces a private conflict between honor and desire—upon which the ultimate fate of the Academy rests. Now, enemy lines are drawn in a war of political motives and personal emotion that touches many lives...

Kathleen Gates, Tom's wife, is as calculating as her husband is bullheaded, and she will use any weapon to protect him. Bruckner's aide, Claude Braintree, has come to West Point to further the senator's career—and will exploit the Academy to do it. Alex Trainor, a cadet from the heartland, is trapped in a personal crisis that shatters his conservative ideals. And Brigadier General David Simon dreams of taking control of the Point to re-create it in his own image.

In The Academy, Ed Ruggero brilliantly captures the honor and the controversy, the glory and the human flaws of West Point and its people. With prose as crisp as a flag snapping in th wind, this thrilling portrayal will resonate long after the last page is turned.

About this title

About the Author

Ed Ruggero, a 1980 graduate of West Point, was an infantry officer in the U.S. Army for eleven years and served as an assistant professor of English at West Point. His highly acclaimed novels 38 North Yankee, The Common Defense, Firefall, and Breaking Ranks were published by Pocket Books. Ruggero lives in suburban Philadelphia.

Reviews

Ex-infantryman Ruggero momentarily abandons Major Mark Isen, protagonist of his estimable Army series (Breaking Ranks, 1995, etc.), for an absorbing tale of sociopolitical intrigue set at the US Military Academy. Early in the school year, as West Point braces for a potentially shattering inquiry by White Houseminded Senator Lamar Bruckner, Major Tom Gates injures one of his student charges in the wake of an ill-advised disciplinary exercise. Because the overzealous officer (not a USMA grad) had been drinking before the incident, he could receive a career-ending letter of reprimand. Aware that her husband's actions could have unfortunate consequences, Kathleen Gates (an unsentimental Army brat who might teach Lady Macbeth a thing or two) launches a thoroughgoing damage- control program that extends from the sexual seduction of a hang- loose senior cadet named Wayne Holder through an under-the-table deal with the Academy's dean and an offer of perjured testimony to the Bruckner Commission's scandal-oriented investigators. Vying for the favor of their unscrupulous patron, however, the preppy hawkshaws invariably work at cross purposes, as do most of the randy, ambitious administrators and faculty members in their sights. At the 11th hour, the exacting duty/honor/country code drummed into the Army's officer corps during its West Point days helps principals pick their way through a host of conflicting agendas. At no small cost, following his roommate's suicide, Holder (an unlikely candidate for assuming responsibility of any sort) takes the decisive steps necessary to neutralize those who would do the institution serious injury for personal gain. A labor-of-love yarn in which the USMA (the author's alma mater) and its largely admirable traditions figure prominently in a neatly plotted conspiracy notable for a larger-than-life female villain. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Wayne Holder, senior cadet at West Point, is at the center of a series of scandals that endanger the very existence of the 200-year-old institution. An instructor's error in judgment leads his wife to unusual efforts to protect his job. A publicity-hungry senator's public hearings threaten major downsizing of the academy, another instructor's extramarital affair is blowing up, Holder's roommate commits suicide, and Wayne himself has misdeeds to conceal. All these plot devices and characters affect, and are affected by, the closed society of West Point. Ruggero (Breaking Ranks, LJ 11/15/95), a West Point graduate and infantry officer, has written on military life before, but here the academy itself seems to be the main character as civilians and military struggle with its motto?Duty, Honor, Country. Recommended for all public and academic fiction collections.
-?Roland C. Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671891693
• ISBN 13: 9780671891695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464