First Time Solo
Genre: Kindle Edition
Brand: Freight Books
Author: Iain Maloney
Price: £0.00
A gripping and ultimately deeply effecting literary debut, First Time
Solo is more than a war story, it is a beautifully rendered portrait of
men preparing for conflict and a society on the brink of seismic social
change. It's 1943 and Jack Devine, a farmer's son, is finally called up
to the RAF. Jack dreams of becoming a pilot, breaking hearts, and
returning home a hero. The realities of training are very different,
with boredom, bullying, and casual violence the norm. Drawn together by a
love of jazz music, Jack makes friends with Terry, a worldly Welshman
dabbling in the black market; Joe, an active Communist, as well as
Yorkshire poet Doug. Jack, Joe and Terry form a jazz band to surprising
acclaim and for a while an alternative future to that preordained for
each seems possible. But the initial camaraderie soon gives way to
simmering resentment as age-old tensions resurface, ultimately resulting
in tragedy.
Solo is more than a war story, it is a beautifully rendered portrait of
men preparing for conflict and a society on the brink of seismic social
change. It's 1943 and Jack Devine, a farmer's son, is finally called up
to the RAF. Jack dreams of becoming a pilot, breaking hearts, and
returning home a hero. The realities of training are very different,
with boredom, bullying, and casual violence the norm. Drawn together by a
love of jazz music, Jack makes friends with Terry, a worldly Welshman
dabbling in the black market; Joe, an active Communist, as well as
Yorkshire poet Doug. Jack, Joe and Terry form a jazz band to surprising
acclaim and for a while an alternative future to that preordained for
each seems possible. But the initial camaraderie soon gives way to
simmering resentment as age-old tensions resurface, ultimately resulting
in tragedy.