The Keeper's Son

I read this wonderful book in one day! I've walked the beach, swam the waters, watched the waves and the sunsets on the Outer Banks, and Homer Hickam takes me back there with "The Keeper's Son." The irascible, independent islanders of Hickham's Killikeet are people who live on in my imagination, and that's the sign of a great writer - someone who creates characters so real you're sure they could be part of your life if only you could get inside the pages of a book. But Hickham has gone one better, he's given us a rousing tale of World War II and the courageous islanders who fought off German U-Boats that tried to cripple shipping along the eastern coast of the U.S. Sometimes a narrative gets choppy when an author jumps back and forth between two main characters' points of view, but not Hickam's. Both the sub captain and the Coast Guard ensign are men you come to respect and care about. Added to all this is a series of love stories, the love of brothers and of fathers and sons, the love of a man and a woman, the love of a community has for its own, both native and adopted. And wait, that's not all - Hickam has added a mystery that has you guessing until the very end - is the long lost son really lost or has he come home. Hickam has hinted this will be only the first in a series of books about his Killkeet Islanders and I can't wait to get back to them. This is one book (or series of books) I'll buy for myself and not just rely on the public library to supply me. In fact, I'll probably buy it for my daughter who spent a summer working for the National Park Service on Cape Lookout as a loggerhead turtle monitor. She's going to love it because it will mean going home to her too.

I very much enjoyed Hickam's first in this series. It is a touching story of a lighthouse family nearly torn apart by the loss of the keeper's son by another son, Josh Thurlow. I love Dosie, the horsewoman (like me!). Clearly, Hickam has knowledge of horses and women. Dosie wears jodphurs and long boots just as I do (they tuck inside, you know). His writing is lilting, his use of the dialect spare but just right. I was a little afraid of this book because of the U-boats and battle scenes and such but they fit so well into the overall story that I came to understand that they were the darkness to the light that Hickam was working us toward. Thank you, Mr. Hickam, for a wonderful story. I am looking forward to the sequel!

In his seventh book Homer Hickam expertly blends facts and fiction to entertain his readers with a love story set in some of the darkest days of US history. This is very different from Mr. Hickam's successful memoir books such as Rocket Boys but is a book that this reader believes will appeal to both men and women alike and earn him a new group of fans. The main plot revolves around Josh Thurlow, son of the lighthouse keeper, and Dosie Crossan, who has returned to the island to find herself. Years before, Josh's baby brother had been lost at sea and throughout his life, Josh had blamed himself. His every thought and decision in life was painted with the brush of guilt and an attempt at redemption for his actions. The book has a large cast of characters including Krebs, a German U-Boat commander with a conscience and Vogel, a Nazi commander without one, Harro, a young seaman under Krebs' command, Doc Folsom, the island's doctor, Willow, the local "hoo-doo," and Rex Stewart, a Hollywood cowboy stuntman ineligible for the draft but 'drafted' nonetheless into the coastal horse patrol. Even though Otto is the enemy, he and Josh form a strange bond and respect each other professionally. And though Josh doesn't know it, Otto may hold the key to his brother's disappearance. This book is well researched with wonderful characters. The action holds your attention and shows a realistic picture of life at sea. It also describes day-to-day life on a remote island with such realism that you can smell the salt air and feel the sand in your shoes. Mr. Hickam writes with such attention to detail that the climactic battle scene will have you gripping the arms of your chair. The Keeper's Son should appeal to everyone. It has history, romance, local color and charm, eccentric characters and battles on land and sea. It will be a great book for the upcoming cooler weather. Curl up in your favorite chair with a cup of hot chocolate and be entertained and educated. This is the first book in a series and I anxiously look forward to the next book.

I was pleased with this book. It's romantic, adventurous, and literate. Hickam's use of the written word is marvelous. I loved the characters, all of them in this book. Josh and Dosie are a great couple as is Keeper Jack. At first, I was startled when the chapters changed to the U-boat captain, then I fell in love with Krebs and Miriam. Miriam's fate made me cry. The lost boy was a mystery that kept me hanging to the end and I love the way Hickam kept surprising me just as I thought I had the plot figured out. His writing keeps getting better and better. I will keep reading this series.

If this is the first in a series as it says on Hickam's web site, it's a great start. It's hard for me to describe this novel but I'm going to try. First, it's a page-turner. But Hickam writes with such power, and considering his earlier books, I think he is approaching a level in his work that puts him up there with the serious writers, the Updykes, the Mailers, the Steinbecks, the Hemingways, etc. and so forth. Not that I would turn readers off with those names suggesting that this is a weighty, serious book. It isn't by any means. It is a lilting book that often had me laughing aloud. Other times, though, I was taken away by Hickam's writing that gave me much food for thought. Essentially at its basic core, this is a novel of a lighthouse family and of a man in search for his brother on a quiet island where everybody just wants to be left alone to fish. Hickam weaves in a backdrop of war that is bloody and fresh in his approach. He also tells a parallel story of a U-boat captain and his crew which is quite effective and affecting. I began to understand something of the motivation of these men and the women they left behind. All in all, this novel should set Hickam along a fiction track that should be every bit as rewarding as his series of memoirs were.