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As Always, Jack: A Wartime Love Story
 
 
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As Always, Jack: A Wartime Love Story [Paperback]

Emma Sweeney (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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From Publishers Weekly

At the end of WWII, a 26-year-old navy pilot meets and falls in love with a beautiful California girl named Beebe. They have about two weeks together before he is shipped off to the South Pacific for six months. When he returns they marry, have four sons and 10 good years together before he, still in the military, is killed in a plane crash off Bermuda in 1956. At the time of his death, his wife was pregnant with a daughter. The daughter spends her life longing for information about the father she never knew. Years later, after her mother's death, the daughter finds a bundle of letters that her father wrote to her mother in the six months before their marriage. Those letters are presented along with a foreword and afterword by the daughter, Sweeney, now a New York literary agent and gardening book author. The letters portray a decent, kindhearted young man with a quirky sense of humor who is obviously in love. Aside from a few colloquialisms of the 1940s, they could have been written by any lovesick military man in history. They are often corny, sometimes boring (as they only partially open doors into the psyches driving this old-fashioned romantic correspondence) and never erotic (not even suggestive unless "Greetings, my scandalous Scandinavian" counts). While these letters are obviously very precious to the woman who discovered them, they don't offer much character development or anything unique. (Apr. 10)Forecast: While war correspondence is a crowded subgenre, this attractively packaged little book (5" 7") has a blurb from War Letters editor Andrew Carroll and a planned tour that includes a stop at Annapolis. With more than 1.5 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces, it has a ready audience alert to the perils of separation, along with many more sympathetic to that predicament.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This engaging compilation of love letters written in the early months of 1946 by a young navy pilot named Jack Sweeney can only be described as a sweet love story that captures the personality of an intelligent and fun-loving man. Emma Sweeney, an author and literary agent, has compiled these letters as an homage to the father she never knew (Jack was killed on duty in an airplane crash in 1956, leaving four sons and his unborn daughter). The preface and afterword are a heartfelt explanation of both her need to know her father and the results of her research. Unfortunately, the book does not hold as much in the way of historical value as such works as Since You Went Away: World War II Letters from American Women on the Home Front and Miss You: The World War II Letters of Barbara Wooddall Taylor and Charles E. Taylor. Additionally, Emma's mother's letters do not survive to give us a fuller picture of this courtship. However, the memoir is charming and would be a welcome addition to larger public libraries or libraries with a large collection of wartime correspondence. Maria C. Bagshaw, Lake Erie Coll., Painesville, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
WHEN I WAS ABOUT TEN years old I was nosing around in some boxes in the basement of my family's house in Coronado, California, when I discovered a large manila envelope marked "Navy Department, Bureau of Naval Personnel: Official Business." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Talented letter writer, July 14 2002
This review is from: 'AS ALWAYS, JACK' (Hardcover)
Emma Sweeney meets her father through his letters to her mother
when he was in the U.S. Navy in the 1940s.
She explains this at the beginnng of the book and the body of the book is filled with his funny and touching letters.
He was such a clever writer and he had beautiful handwriting.
There are plenty of men who probably feel the way he did, but
he could put it in writing. The last letter before he died seemed to be his way of saying 'goodbye'.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book I Have Ever Read, May 8 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: 'AS ALWAYS, JACK' (Hardcover)
This book is awesome!!! Jack is the most amazing man you will ever meet, even if it is only through his letters and his daughter's words. His letters were romantic, moving, funny, and inspiring. Every woman should read this book if for no other reason that to see an example of how she deserves to be treated and loved. This book is absolute perfection.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Intensely touching. Great Read., April 29 2002
By 
"cyberuyen" (Walnut, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 'AS ALWAYS, JACK' (Hardcover)
Emma Sweeny never knew her father Jack, a navy pilot who died before she was born. One day, she found a collection of love letters her father wrote to her mother. With each letter, the reader joins Sweeny in a journey through time, witnessing a young man fall in love with a blond he met at a dance and glimpsing into his life as a navy pilot. At times cocky and playful or sensitive and insightful, Jack is always interesting. Dramatic irony makes this intensely touching and a great read.
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