Philip Roth

A group of young fighters in the U.S. Air Corps awaits each day's dangerous combat by sharing their dreams and fears while creating new--and possibly short-lived--friendships

After Shepard's exhilarating first novel, Flights, this book comes as something of a disappointment. Set during World War II, it is the curiously static story of a bomber crew stationed in England. Though Shepard goes to great lengths in delineating a realistic portrait of these men, the book never takes off. Unlike the cliched Hollywood crew, who exude esprit de corps and gallant fatalism, the men of the bomber Paper Doll are little more than boys, dreading every mission. The central character, flight engineer Bobby Bryant, is immature and fearful, but he desperately wants the crew to become heroic buddies. Unlike Biddy, the protagonist in Flights, Bobby is not a compelling character whose pain becomes the reader's. Yet this novel is manifestly the work of a gifted writer, illuminating with unsentimental clarity the tragic confusion of men, young in years and experience, thrown into the senseless carnage of war.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The author of Flights has chosen a familiar topic for his second novel. A young and inexperienced B-17 flight crew is stationed in England during World War II. The members of the crew compare themselves to flight crews in wartime movies. They idolize Clark Gable, who is an Air Force officer. They bicker, they joke, they carouse, they gossip, they comfort each other, they form mutually exclusive bondsall in anticipation of their first big mission. When the day finally arrives and they face the realities of war, they share the experience as a group, but each reacts individually, in his own private way. Shepard has done a commendable job of individual and collective character development, but the novel drags as both crew and reader await the big event, which comes too slowly to sustain interest. Recommended for large fiction collections. Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.