Engagement: A Novel

by Denise Gelberg

Overview

A window into the complexities of the Iraq War as seen through the eyes of a conservative-leaning West Point cadet and his liberal fiancée. A sweeping and gripping novel that brings stark clarity to the reality of war...

On the last weekend in May, 2003, Tomas Jorgensen and Sunny Adler celebrate their respective graduations from the US Military Academy and Vassar. Just a week later, they're celebrating once again, this time their marriage at West Point's Jewish Chapel. They're full of joy and great expectations as they begin their lives together, he as a second lieutenant at Fort Drum and she as a teacher at a school serving military families. But before their first anniversary, they're tested in ways they never could have anticipated, as Tomas is deployed to fight in America's war on terror.

This moving story of shattered illusions, courage and love in the face of suffering will resonate with readers from all points on the political spectrum, from those who opposed the war in Iraq, to the men and women who volunteered to serve.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781539771272
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	11/03/2016
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Writer, teacher, Brooklyn native, Denise Gelberg. devotes herself to writing about the things that occupy her thoughts during long swims and runs. An advocate for children, she has written about the current state of education reform in the United States, including the book The "Business" of Reforming American Schools (SUNY Press). Fertility, her debut novel, tells the story of a sterile, brilliant, workaholic attorney whose life is changed by a medical malpractice case involving a newborn infant. Her latest book, Engagement, provides a window into the complexities of the Iraq War as seen through the eyes of a conservative-leaning West Point cadet and his liberal fiancée.

Denise Gelberg lives with her husband and two dogs on fourteen acres of rolling hillside ten miles west of Ithaca, New York.

Readers can visit Denise Gelberg's Facebook page or her webpage - http://denisegelberg.forpr.net/. She can be followed on Twitter or contacted at [e-mail].

Editorial Reviews

2016-12-13
An idealistic soldier deployed to Iraq and his new wife wrestle with the emotional fallout of an ugly, protracted war in Gelberg's (Fertility, 2013, etc.) novel. Tomas Jorgensen and Sunny Adler were sweethearts in high school, and remained so when they both graduated from college in 2003. In some ways, though, they couldn't be more different—Tomas is a patriotic West Point cadet, and Sunny is a student at Vassar College, preparing for a career in education. His graduation speech is delivered by Vice President Dick Cheney and offers a rousing call to public duty, while hers is by writer Susan Sontag, who inspires the crowd with a dissident's critique of government. They marry at the West Point chapel in the Jewish faith—Maj. Arnold Weinstein, a rabbi who serves as the couple's spiritual mentor, officiates the ceremony—and the two settle into a new life together. In the beginning, their principal challenge is prolonged separation; after Tomas' first post at Fort Drum in upstate New York, he's selected for Army Ranger school in Georgia. Sunny throws herself into her new job as a first-grade teacher and into maintaining the household to dampen the pain of his absence. Meanwhile, Tomas, excited and anxious about the prospect of combat, finally gets orders to deploy with his brigade to Iraq. Soon, though, he and his fellow troops are enraged by the incompetence and mendacity of the nation's political leadership and demoralized by mounting casualties. Gelberg demonstrates extraordinary restraint, allowing the couple's collective disillusionment to build slowly but affectingly. The tenderness of their love, and its resilience, are truly endearing, and their relationship is captured in simple but often powerful prose. For example, the terrifying possibility that Tomas could die yanks Sunny into a reality that she hasn't thought through; she tells Tomas before his deployment: "All those field exercises, I knew you loved them. The whole thing seemed like an elaborate version of man-camp." But that "man-camp" was training for war, and Gelberg goes on to show that both Tomas and Sunny are emotionally unprepared for the danger he faces. Overall, this is a story that transcends political partisanship, and it's resonant because it manages to be not only topical, but also timeless. A sweeping, poignant tale of love, war, and the pain of political disenchantment.

Kirkus Reviews