{"id":9174,"date":"2023-05-03T22:13:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T21:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9174"},"modified":"2023-05-04T07:04:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T06:04:35","slug":"book-review-richard-eager-a-pilots-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9174","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REViEW: Richard Eager, A Pilot\u2019s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I was lucky enough to be sent a free review copy of this excellent book. I\u2019ve actually had it quite a while now. I was initially somewhat chary of reading it, as it has the look of a self-published work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, I believe, it is. Either that or it\u2019s published by a small specialty publisher. Whatever the case may be, it is sometimes a bit like one might expect such works to be; a bit amateurish, and would\u2019ve benefited from some firm but fair editing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said all of that, I\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Truth be told, it\u2019s very well written, esp\u2019 so for someone who isn\u2019t primarily an author or writer, but a good ol\u2019 U.S. of A. \u2018flyboy\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many chapters start with Eager\u2019s poems. And whilst they\u2019re not Shakespeare or Longfellow, I think they\u2019re a good inclusion, showing another facet to a military man many might\u2019ve assumed could be lacking in sensitivity or artistic leanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasionally it\u2019s a tad repetitive. And when Eager renders conversation, he does so – especially regarding his own \u2018voice\u2019 – in a somewhat stiffly formal manner. One suspects recorded transcripts of these moments might\u2019ve been slightly less stuffy, or expository.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, Eager was the son of a high school principal, a good Boy Scout, and a military man, through and through. So there\u2019s a slim chance, I suppose, that he really did talk as he renders himself here. But I really suspect not. His character comes across as too human. And sometimes his speech here is almost robotically leaden!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the thing is, he lead a very interesting life. And he was, by the sounds of it (admittedly his own self-portrait) a pretty \u2018good egg\u2019, as we Brits might say.* The book itself was written at the urging of friends and family. And they also helped bring it completion in its current form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much it owes its interesting back and forth structure – it jumps around from youth to adulthood in a very engaging way – to Eager, and how much to later editorial interventions, I\u2019m not sure. It\u2019s a clever way to make the book more compelling, and works a treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We learn about what seems to have been a pretty idyllic all-American childhood, with trips to a cottage in the mountains (built by his father and others). And then how he managed to get himself enrolled on a unique flying course, before the war brought America into the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We learn about his family. And early romances. There\u2019s even a very funny bit about a teacher he\u2019s fond of and a fart in her classroom that she mis attributes to poor young Dick! And then there\u2019s a really touching and moving bit about his dog, Judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is woven into the more \u2018officially\u2019 significant story of how he wound up becoming Monty\u2019s pilot, flying the victor of El Alamein around in a U.S. B-17 bomber converted into an airborne office-cum-taxi. But Richard Ernest (earnest and eager!) Evans\u2019 life is ultimately fascinating for both his civilian and military experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s supplemented by lots of pertinent photos, some very personal to Eager, some stock WWII ref, but still very relevant to the story this book tells. There\u2019s also detailed \u2018chronology\u2019, lots of his correspondence, and a very useful glossary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This truly excellent book tells the story of a very interesting and seemingly very decent man, living through extraordinary times. I\u2019m not a military man myself (although I love military history). But nevertheless, Richard Evans, I salute you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m writing this review as I near the end of the book. The vast majority of which is given over to childhood and young adulthood (I haven\u2019t yet read the epilogue, which I suspect summarises some of the rest of his life). I\u2019ve really enjoyed the read, and would definitely recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*He often refers to the various form of national linguistic peculiarities he encounters, serving in WWII alongside Canadians, Australian, Brits and his own fellow Americans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was lucky enough to be sent a free review copy of this excellent book. I\u2019ve actually had it quite a while now. I was initially somewhat chary of reading it, as it has the look of a self-published work. And so, I believe, it is. Either that or it\u2019s published by a small specialty … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “BOOK REViEW: Richard Eager, A Pilot\u2019s Story”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2nY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9175,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174\/revisions\/9175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}