White Christmas Homecoming: A Legend Is Reborn by Mark Streuber
What's It About?
“Coward!”Long after wars are over, there are wars that go on inside the heads of the people they affect. Certainly the soldiers — what they saw, what they did, what they said and how they felt. Their emotions, realized during a non-typical time in their lives, often take a toll on how they adjust once they return to more normal circumstances. For some, they will never recapture that normal — those on the battlefields as well as their loved ones.
White Christmas Homecoming: A Legend Is Reborn by Mark Streuber is a heartwarming story not so much about war but about how it cast a shadow over people and their families trying to make sense of their experiences and rebuild their fractured lives.
A HEARTWARMING STORY
Foremost among those characters is Joe Ross, a well-respected former Army Captain, war hero and good person, who now works as a maintenance man at a YMCA in New York, and takes great pride in coaching and mentoring a bunch of young boys on the Y basketball team. But he still confronts demons from that day recovering in the military infirmary when he called his former General Waverly a coward for turning the Division over to a self-serving and incapable new General. “For ten awful years,” Joe says, “I’ve carried this burden that I’ve wronged the General. Until I can tell him how wrong I was, that war will continue.”
Then there’s Joe’s budding love interest, Evie, who has demons of her own. She lost her husband to the war – not that he was killed in it, but rather he was a different man when he returned and their marriage ended. Learning that Joe was a former military man makes Evie jittery about a possible relationship, knowing the effects of war.
The story also introduces readers to former soldiers Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, who launch successful careers as entertainers. The transition of their play from initial success to a tired act is the catalyst behind much of the plot line and the interaction between many of the characters, all with stories to tell and war connections of their own to come to terms with.
A FEEL-GOOD TALE WITH PLENTY OF EMOTION
And of course, there’s General Waverly, now dependent on the snowfall in Vermont to keep the fortunes of his inn and ski lodge successful. Waverly also has unfinished business to resolve with Joe Ross.
Mark Streuber has created a feel-good tale with straightforward writing, easy dialogue, and plenty of emotion that practically bleeds off the characters. The title implies a Christmas story — and the narrative does in fact revolve around that holiday. But this is a story for all season and any reader who likes to invest in fictional characters and find truths within them.
As Joe hems and haws at his moment of truth, Bob offers an explanation that summarizes the key theme in this book: “I don’t mean to be heartless, Joe. But we all have bad memories. We saw things we can’t get out of our minds. And when they rise to the surface, we have to push and shove those memories back into those dark corners whence they came.”
“It’s a tough business for all of us.”
About Mark Streuber:
Mark Streuber is a writer, a musician and author of the novel Rock-IT! Towne. He specializes in fresh and original stories which take wing through his journeys across America. Thematic elements are incorporated into his novels through his love of music, his love of interesting places and people, and of all things Christmas. His focus is on strong character development, and he enjoys the challenge of the subplot – writing the story within a story, within the story. He has spent years developing and writing stories that combine aspects of music, the places and people he meets, and holidays such as Christmas and the 4th of July into vivid and lively stories. When not traveling the open road, Mark lives in Iowa with his wife and grown children.
