Devotion: Hannah Kent

Product Information

The Korean War is often called the “Forgotten War,” and I have to confess that virtually everything I knew about it I learned from watching M*A*S*H while growing up. However, after reading Devotion, I will certainly never forget that war. When Lonnie and her husband James took on Elle as their nanny they opened doors to whole new world for her. As Elle had been struggling to make ends meet, she is now whisked into a world of fancy homes, vacations and parties that she would never have been privy to in "her world" outside of her job. As Lonnie welcomed her into their lives with open arms, she also gained a friend in her. She loaned her clothes, treated her to things that a normal employer what not. She made her a part of the family and saw her as a confidant and friend.

This book is extraordinary. I now understand how important it is for me to trust an author. I am generally uncomfortable with magical realism and usually avoid books in which it plays a part. I knew nothing about this book before I read it however, other than it was written by Hannah Kent, both of whose previous novels, Burial Rites and The Good People, I loved. When this book’s storyline developed into magical realism therefore, I trusted Hannah Kent to take me with her on the journey and oh! What a journey it is! Ella's obsession with Lonnie is definitely unhealthy, and pretty creepy. She says some weird stuff, and it's evident very early on that she's going to cause some drama for the happy family. That image of Brown comes from the camera of his wife, Daisy. She took it just months after their daughter, Pamela, was born, and the determined look in Brown’s face gives a clue as to what made him special. Kent chronicles the horrendous conditions these people had to endure on board ship for six months. A lot would not get to see the shores of South Australia and for those that did they would soon realise that life in the New World was going to be no easy matter.When the study was concluded, the professors told Brown that due to the shape of his skull, he was supposed to be a moron.

The Korean War is known as the Forgotten War, or as the veterans of that war call it, the Forgotten Victory. Many of them were already veterans from WWII, and many others had been too young to fight in WWII but were now fighting in this war. I didn't know much about the Korean War before going into this, so it was interesting to learn more about it, what forces were involved, what the stakes were and all that. It's presumptuous, clichéd, unfinished, and ultimately boring. While the sentence structure and word choices were beautifully rendered, the cohesiveness was less than desirable. Trying to read the passages felt clunky and uninspired. Ella is a broke 26 year old woman living in NYC and sleeping with men solely to have a meal put in her stomach. Imagine her surprise when she interviews with a wealthy family for a nanny position and they take her on immediately with hardly any questions asked. She feels as if her life is suddenly taking a turn in the right direction. But mainly, this is a love story, with passions running high and overshadowing everything else. These are girls in their teens. There is no question that it is praiseworthy for the writing alone, and I enjoyed the history. I did become impatient with Hanne’s continuous, overflowing of declarations of love. For me, this is a case of sometimes less is more. (I know, I know, this review is long, but almost half of it is Kent’s glorious prose!) Based on the book Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship and Sacrifice by Adam Makos, here is the official synopsis for Devotion:Extraordinarily daring . . . a remarkable novel, an almost visionary celebration of the death-defying power of the women’s love' - Sunday Times Hannah's second novel, The Good People was published in 2016 (ANZ) and 2017 (Feb, UK; Sept, North America). It was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Indie Book Award for Fiction and the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year. It has been translated into 10 languages. Please excuse me on my not so very organised review as I've been crying my eyes out for the last 10 minutes... Hudner was more than Brown’s comrade, he was his friend. Hudner was a member of a prosperous Massachusetts family. His father owned a grocery store chain, and Hudner had attended the prestigious prep school Phillips Academy Andover. He had admired Brown’s professionalism, his sense of humor and the way he’d stood up to racial abuse at Glenview. To Hudner, Brown was like family.

The book tells the story of "an act of courage and unbreakable friendship" (not exactly my description) which took place during the seige of the embattled UN X Corps around the Chosin Reservoir in the winter if 1950, and tells the story of the two main protagonists, their squadron mates and a group of US Marines in the period before their deployment and during the seige.For readers of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat comes an unforgettable tale of courage from America’s “forgotten war” in Korea, by the New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Call. Kahn, Joseph P. (November 13, 2017). "Thomas J. Hudner Jr., 93, war hero and veterans' affairs commissioner". The Boston Globe . Retrieved November 9, 2022. This is Makos' second book, following on from A Higher Call. That one I described in a Goodreads review as a great book riddled with errors and typos. This one has fewer errors and no typos that I noticed, but it does have its own irritations. So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?

D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 20, 2022). " 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' Heads To Summer 2023; Sony Dates 'Equalizer 3' Among Other Release Changes". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022 . Retrieved April 20, 2022. Hanne Nussbaum the main protagonist and the other half of the love story was by any definition obsessed an obsession that drove her to perform the incomprehensible. Their daughter, Thea, is Hanne’s age, but Hanne isn’t interested in meeting more people. She prefers to be alone in the forest, listening to the magic there. Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". www.oscars.org . Retrieved January 24, 2023.I won't tell you any more than this, but this is IMO a literary, historical,. and personal work that should be read by everyone. I will recommend it to all my friends. I seldom do this, but this book is worth it. It is on par with other recent excellent books such as "Unbroken" and "Boys in the Boat." It goes far beyond names, dates and places. and gives us precious glimpses into a particularly tense time and the people who lived them. I like the way God has divided up the days and nights. No matter how difficult or challenging a specific day may be, the breaking of dawn brings new hope. God wants us to regularly put the past behind and find a place of “new beginnings.” For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.