In The Company of Soldiers by Rick Atkinson (Owl Books). Pulitzer-winning historian Atkinson (An Army At Dawn) accompanied the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, KY, to Baghdad. His account is far from the whitewash produced by many embedded correspondents, but is no less laudatory of the soldiers he got to know. Atkinson’s recurring themes are grimly prescient: professional soldiers eager to do a good job who manage to overcome their superiors’ inadequate planning, missing equipment and bad communication. Most unnerving, since the reader knows what has happened since, is the commanders’ growing frustration with not being told what the men were expected to do after the fall of Baghdad. — John Grooms
Queen of the Turtle Derby by Julia Reed (Random House Trade Paperback). The glut of humorous books about the South or Southerners has made it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Put Reed near the top of the pile of wheat. The Mississippi native doesn’t spout great wisdom about regional secrets, but Reed does report and comment on the region’s penchant for quirks, independence and violence — not to mention Southern women’s “gift” for getting away with murdering their husbands — in an especially articulate, honest, and deadly funny way. — Dana Renaldi
Plain Heathen Mischief by Martin Clark (Vintage). Joel King is a fire and brimstone preacher who is ruined when he’s caught diddling a 17-year-old. He serves his time but finds post-prison jobs mighty scarce, so he hitches a ride from a con artist and becomes a grifter himself — but with the intention of using his new felonious talents for the greater good. Clark, author of The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, expertly combines dark comedy, moral conundrums and the search for faith in one of last year’s most unjustly ignored novels. — John Grooms
This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2005.
