Sons

by Evan Hunter, Ed McBain (pseudonym)

A generational saga of American men at war.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

396 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Better known by his pseudonym Ed McBain.

Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952. While successful and well known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956.

Reviews

[Michelle Bacon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out not really liking the book at first. It was difficult to follow along which character was talking and who's story I was following. However after about 30 pages in I realized with the symbols after the month listed 1 tree meant the Grandfather 2 trees meant the father and 3 trees meant the grandson. I was left a little lost at the end because there were a few questions that were left unanswered, but overall it was a decent book.

[Paul Szydlowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in college and it remains one of the most memorable books I've read. It is the story of three generations of men who fought in WWI, WWII and Vietnam, with theirs stories interwoven throughout the book. It's been 40 years since I read it, so I'm not sure how I would rate the book today, but to a nineteen year-old fighting-aged youngman, it resonated like little else at the time.

[Steve Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is terrific. Just finished with tears.

[Roger Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a little confusing because of the layout. It follows the lives of three generations of men when they were about age eighteen to twenty and each of them tells his story in the first person. Each chapter is named as a month. It starts out in November of 1963 and that chapter is labeled November. The next chapter is labeled December and it takes a while to realize that it is December 1942 and that the new narrator is the father of the narrator in the November chapter. Then comes January, but it is not immediate that you understand that it is January of 1918. The entire book is like this and even though the months are sequential you always have to figure out which year it is and which generation is the narrator and viewpoint character. It is a bit disorienting.