Journalist Stein's portrait of WWII veterans who meet weekly in Monterey, Calif., to share their thoughts and feelings is touching and straightforward, reminiscent of Tuesdays with Morrie
. Members of the titular club range from their 70s to 80s and are stirring representatives of honor, self-reliance, honest effort and commitment to ideals larger than themselves. What makes the book unusually affecting is that the men are imperfect, eccentric and sometimes prejudiced. There's vigor to Stein's characterizations and solid grace in his writing. The dominant protagonist is Stein's father-in-law, Moe, a former navy ensign, confrontational but loyal and generous. Boyd Huff, history professor and former prisoner of war in a Nazi camp, demonstrates "inextinguishable optimism" despite having a schizophrenic son and losing two other children. Yet there's no self-pity or whining, and war experiences are candidly recounted. The men's patriotism is dramatized when Stein tells of slight, skinny 19-year-old Harry Handler fighting in Okinawa and becoming a leader. Handler exemplifies a soldier who was patriotic, but didn't view himself as a hero, simply a man with "moral clarity" and a sense of responsibility to his country. On a more personal level, Stein addresses old age through Moe's terror of developing Alzheimer's and Cooper's potentially fatal cancer. The book, however, is never depressing. Attorney Stuart Walzer eloquently sums it up when he says young people look at his friends as "old men waiting to die... we're all gonna be old and waiting to die. It's just a matter of what you do with it." Photos. Agent, Joy Harris. (Feb.)
Forecast:
A 25-city radio tour and author appearances in New York, L.A., San Francisco and Washington, D.C., could draw readers to this feel-good gift book.
