Paper Doll

by Jim Shepard

During the air war over Germany, the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress tries to achieve some competence as a unit before their most catastrophic mission yetThey call their plane “Paper Doll,” the joke being its suggestion of flimsiness, inconsequence, and perishability, and none of them, from the veterans to the newcomers, feel the bravery they’d like to project. But now, despite their myriad limitations, they’ve been tasked with living through the tension and boredom of base life, saving one another’s lives, and rejoicing at those missions they’ve survived—until they’re confronted by the shock of a mission directed against the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt, a mission that will outfly the capacities of their fighter escorts and take them hundreds of miles through the most heavily defended sectors of the German Air Defense. National Book Award finalist and author of The Book of Aron Jim Shepard brilliantly illustrates both the lunacy and intimacy of these young men’s lives on the ground as well as their growing disillusionment and terror at what lies ahead. Unsentimental and unsparing in its honesty, Paper Doll portrays with stirring clarity the realities of war and the bonds forged in the face of death.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Novels, War, Aviation

432 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Jim Shepard is the author of seven novels, including most recently The Book of Aron, which won the Sophie Brody Medal for Achievement in Jewish Literature from the American Library Association and the PEN/New England Award for fiction, and five story collections, including his new collection, The World To Come. Five of his short stories have been chosen for the Best American Short Stories, two for the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and one for a Pushcart Prize. He teaches at Williams College.

Reviews

[Mark Bellingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cards on the table, I like black comedy in most any form. This fits the bill - given the absurdly short life expectancy of any bomber crew in WWII, can they become competent before dying? Most did not and died. Most that did, died. Go figure. When life is absurd, living an absurd life is normal.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nowhere near his best, but for the completist....

[Ginger Hallett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad, quickly becoming hopeless, story of American young men in England during WW2 who form the 10-man crew of a Fortress B17 bomber they named Paper Doll. The story is told mainly from the perspective of the flight engineer, Bobby Bryant, who is ill-prepared for war and knows it. Some of the other characters are fairly well-developed, in particular Gordon Snowberry, who is only 17 years old and who keeps a journal documenting his thoughts and experiences in writing and in drawings.

[Vivien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just heartbreaking.