Words of My Roaring

by Ernest J. Finney

Set in a small town south of San Francisco during World War II, Words of My Roaring is a compelling picture of the confusions, the dislocations, and the brutality of war as they affect the home front. The novel recreates a neighborhood in San Bruno and connects it to San Francisco and the larger stage of the war. Tanforan racetrack, first an assembly camp for Japanese Americans awaiting internment, becomes a naval training base for Pacific-bound recruits. The elementary school becomes a USO, and air-raid drills and blackouts are routine as California prepares for an expected Japanese invasion. We see these events through the eyes of a novice teacher, an abandoned boy, two young girls whose mother works in the shipyards and whose father enlists in the Army, and a sailor scarred by his months in the war zone. Words of My Roaring is a richly textured, emotionally charged novel about the unlikely sources of human redemption.

398 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1993

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story of the homefront in the small California town -- and Naval base -- of San Bruno is told by a school teacher, her students, and her Navy boyfriend. This would have been a good book if the author had stopped writing several chapters before he finally ended it.