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Nanette: Her Pilot's Love Story
`Nanette , a temperamental P-39 Airacobra, was a Gopher squadron plane flying against the Japanese in New Guinea.
- GenresAviation
186 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 16, 2026
lovingly, darkly simple.
October 2, 2018
There are a lot of reasons to read a WW2 memoir - the chance to get inside the mind of a great warrior like Robert Johnson in Thunderbolt or be an eyewitness to history like Dusty Kleiss' Don't call me a hero - but Nanette is worth a read because this is the story of an ordinary person's WW2 experience. Park's main concern is getting through the war alive - he's not afraid to admit that he doesn't complain when a mission does not encounter Japanese aircraft.
At the core of the story is Park's relationship with a P-39, Nanette. The P-39 had view good traits and more bad ones - it often struggled in combat against frontline Japanese fighters unless it was at low altitudes.
The strengths of this memoir are that it offers a real, unvarnished look and has a strong sense of humor. In my view, it is a better book than Catch-22.
Well written, frank, with a good sense of humor - a book that will also provide insights. The book is good throughout, but Chapters 12 and 13 were at another level for me. Park's observations include his views on race viewed in how clothes washer was viewed.
An outstanding read.
At the core of the story is Park's relationship with a P-39, Nanette. The P-39 had view good traits and more bad ones - it often struggled in combat against frontline Japanese fighters unless it was at low altitudes.
The strengths of this memoir are that it offers a real, unvarnished look and has a strong sense of humor. In my view, it is a better book than Catch-22.
Well written, frank, with a good sense of humor - a book that will also provide insights. The book is good throughout, but Chapters 12 and 13 were at another level for me. Park's observations include his views on race viewed in how clothes washer was viewed.
An outstanding read.
October 10, 2021
Wow. This was a book that was by turns deep, horrifying, moving, and hilarious, and told in such an amazing authorial voice. For all the abuse the P-39 Airacobra gets, it is a nice change to see a pilot write about it so fondly, and to muse more broadly about "living machines," as he put it. There's a personal investment and care there that adds depth to this war memoir, something that evokes a warrior carrying and caring for a blade that has a name. Further, his love of the P-39 has an added charm of the sort you might see in a devoted fan of a team that doesn't win the championship. He knows it's not the best, but the best is not the point. And in the end, it was one little P-39 that helped Park weather some of the darkest times of the war.
March 6, 2022
Some WW2 memoirs just get under your skin. The type that make you feel that you are listening to the author over a beer, their narrative bubbling with their personality and perspective.
Despite being a fairly slim work it is brimming with irony, satire, and earnest retrospect. Although there are memories by people who on paper have more accolades and are more celebrated, rarely are they able to tell their story as well as Edwards Park.
Despite being a fairly slim work it is brimming with irony, satire, and earnest retrospect. Although there are memories by people who on paper have more accolades and are more celebrated, rarely are they able to tell their story as well as Edwards Park.
March 9, 2019
This is a great, idiosyncratic, unfailingly honest book about flying P-39s in combat in 1942.
One memorable part discusses the armament of the P-39. "The cannon was originally a 37-millimeter antitank gun which fired rather slowly - whump-whump-whump, like that - and since you were sitting on it in the little cockpit, your legs straddling it, the firing of it vibrated your prostate so that the whole essence of war became mildly sexual. I do not know if this was intentional. Later cannon were 20 millimeter and fired much faster - babababababa, like that - and titillated you in a subtly different way. Some men enjoyed it more. I was a 37-millimeter man myself."
Park writes about a squadron mate who got drunk every night, then when he had to pee in the middle of the night just rolled to one side and peed on the ground without leaving his cot. One night he got confused, rolled the wrong way and peed right into his boots.
Then there was the P-38 pilot who was scared shitless in combat and wanted nothing more than to go home, yet he somehow had five victories. Visiting the author one night he got drunk and told them his plan was to drink as heavily as possible with the hope that it would eventually degrade his flying skills to such an extent that he'd be sent home. How did he handle the hangovers, he was asked. He answered that he went out to his plane early and sucked oxygen for a while before each mission. That way he also depleted his oxygen supply and often could leave for home early. He complained about the gung-ho pilots would "would hack up their mothers to be me. And all I want is to go home."
One memorable part discusses the armament of the P-39. "The cannon was originally a 37-millimeter antitank gun which fired rather slowly - whump-whump-whump, like that - and since you were sitting on it in the little cockpit, your legs straddling it, the firing of it vibrated your prostate so that the whole essence of war became mildly sexual. I do not know if this was intentional. Later cannon were 20 millimeter and fired much faster - babababababa, like that - and titillated you in a subtly different way. Some men enjoyed it more. I was a 37-millimeter man myself."
Park writes about a squadron mate who got drunk every night, then when he had to pee in the middle of the night just rolled to one side and peed on the ground without leaving his cot. One night he got confused, rolled the wrong way and peed right into his boots.
Then there was the P-38 pilot who was scared shitless in combat and wanted nothing more than to go home, yet he somehow had five victories. Visiting the author one night he got drunk and told them his plan was to drink as heavily as possible with the hope that it would eventually degrade his flying skills to such an extent that he'd be sent home. How did he handle the hangovers, he was asked. He answered that he went out to his plane early and sucked oxygen for a while before each mission. That way he also depleted his oxygen supply and often could leave for home early. He complained about the gung-ho pilots would "would hack up their mothers to be me. And all I want is to go home."
October 24, 2012
I decided to re-read this book, I was missing my saucy strumpet and need to re-infuse myself with Mr. Parks descriptions of his time in New Guinea and flying Nanette. I wrote a review of this book awhile back (it's below) and can honestly say that though years have past, the book is still one of the best I've read. Now for my original review:
For awhile I've had a fascination for the air war over New Guinea during WWII. To help me with this, I was visiting the website PACIFICWRECKS.COM looking for more material to read. In reading thru their listing of books I discovered this book; Nanette: Her Pilot's Love Story by Ewards Park.
Nanette tells Edwards Park's story as a young airman in WWII and his time spent in the South West Pacific flying Bell P-39 Airacobra. In telling his tale, Mr. Park focus's on his aircraft and it's temperament rather than on specific battles. We get to read about Mr. Park's training in the US (interestingly, he ground looped three times and was still made a fighter pilot), his trip to Australia, preparation for combat, and then flying in New Guinea. Once in New Guinea, Mr. Park is assigned to a P-39 squadron near Port Moresby. While there (and other locations in New Guinea), Mr. Park tells us about flying P-39's. Rarely does he focus on this opponents, rather he focus's on his temperamental aircraft that seems to have life of it's own. We learn how Nanette will do anything to avoid aerial combat (the only aerial engagement he describes was when he was flying a different plane), bucking, stalling, starving itself of gasoline. Instead, Nanette lives to be at low altitude, not worrying about the Zero's and Oscar's the Japanese fly.
Nanette is fabulously written! When I first got this book, I was reading another book. After sampling a few pages I became engrossed in the book. Mr. Park's writing still is first rate, his love of his saucy strumpet is shown by how clearly he descriptions her. I can't imagine having that great of a memory where I could remember every fact of how my plane performed. Because of this, I'm certain that Nanette was his first love. This book is great for those interested in P-39's, what it was like in New Guinea in WWII, or reading people's stories about going to war, this is a great book. For those wondering, I give this one a solid 5 stars!
For awhile I've had a fascination for the air war over New Guinea during WWII. To help me with this, I was visiting the website PACIFICWRECKS.COM looking for more material to read. In reading thru their listing of books I discovered this book; Nanette: Her Pilot's Love Story by Ewards Park.
Nanette tells Edwards Park's story as a young airman in WWII and his time spent in the South West Pacific flying Bell P-39 Airacobra. In telling his tale, Mr. Park focus's on his aircraft and it's temperament rather than on specific battles. We get to read about Mr. Park's training in the US (interestingly, he ground looped three times and was still made a fighter pilot), his trip to Australia, preparation for combat, and then flying in New Guinea. Once in New Guinea, Mr. Park is assigned to a P-39 squadron near Port Moresby. While there (and other locations in New Guinea), Mr. Park tells us about flying P-39's. Rarely does he focus on this opponents, rather he focus's on his temperamental aircraft that seems to have life of it's own. We learn how Nanette will do anything to avoid aerial combat (the only aerial engagement he describes was when he was flying a different plane), bucking, stalling, starving itself of gasoline. Instead, Nanette lives to be at low altitude, not worrying about the Zero's and Oscar's the Japanese fly.
Nanette is fabulously written! When I first got this book, I was reading another book. After sampling a few pages I became engrossed in the book. Mr. Park's writing still is first rate, his love of his saucy strumpet is shown by how clearly he descriptions her. I can't imagine having that great of a memory where I could remember every fact of how my plane performed. Because of this, I'm certain that Nanette was his first love. This book is great for those interested in P-39's, what it was like in New Guinea in WWII, or reading people's stories about going to war, this is a great book. For those wondering, I give this one a solid 5 stars!
November 5, 2014
WW2 in New Guinea just north of Australia. Nanette is the authors P39 fighter plane.
The introduction: "Practically everything in this book actually happened, so it's not really a novel... It's an exaggeration. Not exaggerated, however, is the bigotry of the 1940's, here expressed. The people of Gopher Squadron were racists and sexists. We felt some small guilt about the former, but not about the latter because we had never heard the word. To us, it was perfectly natural to think of woman as, among many other things, sex objects, and to regard the machines we admired in terms we also applied to women.
That was the way we were."
The above intro is a small apology, but the regard to machines we men admire, I believe, still lives on in these modern times. Mr. Parks engages us to believe Nanette has a mind of her own and in a fun an interesting story telling of an older era. Having a different military background in the "grunt" Marines of VietNam; Mr. Park's telling of every day life in his air war had a strong parallel to my own decades later, in the way men bond and deal with the ways of military and war. The bravery, fear, horror, ball busting, even the pet names we'd give our comrades, (Termite, Rabbit, Piss-Ant, Skunk-Ass). It seemed to prove to me, we're not all that much different than our Fathers.
Parks gives us a slice of life. going through training, the quirks of various models of planes he flew, the emotions of flight and the feel of 1940's New Guinea . His family in New Hampshire, and their female named cars. I guess he got it honestly.
Nanette is not a typical, "shoot 'em up" kinda war story. It's almost the opposite. Parks & Nanette take every opportunity to survive and not be heroes. Park's style is unique, fun, historical, and is a colorfully enjoyable ride in the cockpits of cantankerous, 1940's ladies of the flight.
Decades later, Parks stays in touch with his friend Morgan who stays in and becomes an Air Force "lifer". Morgan invites him to tour his base. He lets Parks sit in the cockpit of an F-105 jet. Last paragraph:
"I climbed out and looked at the great ugly mass of metal, designed not to fly, exactly, but to hurtle.
"Do you like it?" he asks Morgan.
"No," he said, tersely." "The pleasure's gone out of it."
Parks' success for the reader is, you agree with them.
The introduction: "Practically everything in this book actually happened, so it's not really a novel... It's an exaggeration. Not exaggerated, however, is the bigotry of the 1940's, here expressed. The people of Gopher Squadron were racists and sexists. We felt some small guilt about the former, but not about the latter because we had never heard the word. To us, it was perfectly natural to think of woman as, among many other things, sex objects, and to regard the machines we admired in terms we also applied to women.
That was the way we were."
The above intro is a small apology, but the regard to machines we men admire, I believe, still lives on in these modern times. Mr. Parks engages us to believe Nanette has a mind of her own and in a fun an interesting story telling of an older era. Having a different military background in the "grunt" Marines of VietNam; Mr. Park's telling of every day life in his air war had a strong parallel to my own decades later, in the way men bond and deal with the ways of military and war. The bravery, fear, horror, ball busting, even the pet names we'd give our comrades, (Termite, Rabbit, Piss-Ant, Skunk-Ass). It seemed to prove to me, we're not all that much different than our Fathers.
Parks gives us a slice of life. going through training, the quirks of various models of planes he flew, the emotions of flight and the feel of 1940's New Guinea . His family in New Hampshire, and their female named cars. I guess he got it honestly.
Nanette is not a typical, "shoot 'em up" kinda war story. It's almost the opposite. Parks & Nanette take every opportunity to survive and not be heroes. Park's style is unique, fun, historical, and is a colorfully enjoyable ride in the cockpits of cantankerous, 1940's ladies of the flight.
Decades later, Parks stays in touch with his friend Morgan who stays in and becomes an Air Force "lifer". Morgan invites him to tour his base. He lets Parks sit in the cockpit of an F-105 jet. Last paragraph:
"I climbed out and looked at the great ugly mass of metal, designed not to fly, exactly, but to hurtle.
"Do you like it?" he asks Morgan.
"No," he said, tersely." "The pleasure's gone out of it."
Parks' success for the reader is, you agree with them.
December 17, 2011
I loved this book and the era (from previous reviews). The P-39 was a pain in the *** to fly according to most accounts I've read and this guy had his share of issues with the plane. Great writing and nice finish to the book (happy ending).
August 13, 2009
A pilot's love-hate relationship with a fighter plane, at a time when the aircraft available were somewhat less than adequate with which to engage the enemy.
November 28, 2015
This was a lot of fun to read. An odd story about a plane with an apparent personality, of a type that was not loved by most of its pilots.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews