And One Stayed Home

Authors Janice Roane and Ripley Roane Jr. recreate a fictional but factual journey of five Louisiana boys who come of age as the United States enters WWII after the Pearl Harbor attack. Their stories give a glimpse of small town life in the early forties, following each boy as he meets his destiny. Visual, detailed words of the authors compel the reader to enter the carnage of war, the pain and emotions of each boy and the ultimate entrance into adulthood. Carefree days turn into anxious days as the reader follows each boy along his path to death or victory. Both the Pacific Theatre and the European Theatre are graphic in nature but present a lifelike vision of WWII. The reader is lulled in the beginning of the novel by the pastoral imagery of the small community. The in-depth characterization of John, Jesse, Willard, and Sunny Boy allows the reader to engross themselves within each character acting out the lives of these individuals, in exuberance. The Authors are direct descendants of the warriors who became the Greatest Generation. I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul. -Invictus, William Ernest Henley WE ARE ALL AMERICANS FIRST BECAUSE OF THE GREATEST GENERATION.