cover image Love and War: Pearl Harbor Through V-J Day

Love and War: Pearl Harbor Through V-J Day

Robert Easton. University of Oklahoma Press, $34.95 (397pp) ISBN 978-0-8061-2336-3

The disruption and emotional travail experienced during WW II by Robert Easton ( Power and Glory ) and his wife, Jane ( Memories of the '20s and '30s ), are recorded in this candid, literate, often poetic collection of their correspondence. While field artillery and infantry officer Robert acknowledges ``the horror and fascination of war'' from his vantage point in Europe, his share of its discomfort, drudgery and danger was in part mitigated by memorable encounters and episodes, observed here with a novelist's eye. Meanwhile, Jane, an Army hospital Red Cross volunteer, gamely coped alone with her father's death, two births and raising a family. Sustained by their love, humor and hopes--and also shadowed by fear--these gifted and likable people not only withstood the three-year separation but grew in understanding while playing their roles on both fronts of the global drama. Photos not seen by PW. (June)