Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Big Diehl understood his nature, early-on. Raised as a cowkid on a ranch in northeastern Colorado, Diehl yearned for something more, something encompassing the truth of himself. He became a soldier. Served honorably in Iraq. Found precious love along the way. Yearned to return to Wyoming where his future awaited, where an unfinished reckoning beckoned.

BOOK REVIEW:
Immediately we are drawn to Diehl. He’s a very likable person, strong, kind and caring. The author does a first class job of describing life in the military, the macho posturing, the furtive glances, chances taken and not taken.

Seaton’s descriptions of life in Iraq during the war were painted with vivid clarity. Just one example concerning the heat of the desert:

"The fury of dust storms in July and August enveloping everything in their path, a haze palpable, a thickness to the air, breathed in as ashes still hot from a dying fire. The heat throbbed, day in, day out. A hundred twenty degrees in the shade, where shade became a commodity worthy of worship, more immediately pliant than prayers to saints or saviors for the gift of survival where survival loomed uncertain."

This is poetry. If Seaton hasn’t been in the desert himself, he’s done a magnificent job of faking it.

This story is about luck. Diehl had a measure of good luck, however, some around him faired less well. Tolerance and intolerance, happiness and sadness sit side-by-side in this coming-of-age novella. It’s pages are rich in emotion, tragedy and hope. There will be a full-length novel which picks up where this story ends. I will be one of the first in the queue to read it.

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