The Typist
Written with the stunning economy of language for which Michael Knight’s work has always been praised, The Typist is a rich and powerful work of historical fiction that expertly chronicles both the politics of the Pacific theater of World War II, and the personal relationships borne from the...
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Written with the stunning economy of language for which Michael Knight’s work has always been praised, The Typist is a rich and powerful work of historical fiction that expertly chronicles both the politics of the Pacific theater of World War II, and the personal relationships borne from the tragedies of warfare. When Francis Vancleave (“Van”) joins the army in 1944, he expects his term of service to pass uneventfully. His singular talenttyping ninety-five words a minutekeeps him off the battlefield and in General MacArthur’s busy Tokyo headquarters, where his days are filled with paperwork in triplicate and letters of dictation.But little does Van know that the first year of the occupation will prove far more volatile for him than for the U.S. Army. When he’s bunked with a troubled combat veteran cum-black marketer and recruited to babysit MacArthur’s eight-year-old son, Van is suddenly tangled in the complexand riskypersonal lives of his compatriots. As he brushes shoulders with panpan girls and Communists on the streets of Tokyo, Van struggles to uphold his convictions in the face of unexpected conflictespecially the startling news from his war bride, a revelation that threatens Van with a kind of war wound he never anticipated.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780802119506 (0802119506)
Publish date: August 3rd 2010
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Pages no: 208
Edition language: English
Nice prose. Could use more plot and character development. An enlisted man relates his experiences in Tokyo during the American occupation following WWII.Someone got a little too Hooked on Phonics. The word is corpsman, not "coreman."