Book Review: The Reunion by Dan Walsh

The Reunion, By Dan Walsh

Revell Books

Romantic Fiction
ISBN:  978-0-8007-2121-3
$14.99
September 2012

 

Putting the puzzle pieces of life together is necessary work, one that is joyful for some and a challenge for others, full of heartache and despair and discovery about the choices and events that created the current situation. In his latest novel, The Reunion, Walsh explores these challenges from the perspective of a man who’s learned to appreciate a second chance at life.

 

Told from several viewpoints, the novel slowly pulls together a mosaic of lives affected by the Vietnam War era. Aaron Miller, a decorated vet who hit rock bottom before realizing he needed a bigger Influence to help piece his life together, works at a Florida residence campground, performing maintenance not only on the physical trailers and sites, but subtly on the people who come and go. Through his faith-filled eyes, he is able to see the challenges others face, and uses his practical experience to not only listen, offer advice where warranted, but also to subtly repair breeches in their lives. Now if only he could find the last pieces of the picture of his own life, the children he left so long ago, he could receive the forgiveness he longs for.

 

Miller’s life picture is filled in through his encounters with a teenager in need of help, another Nam vet ready to check out of life, his children who don’t know him, and a man who needs to find him. Dave Russo, the reporter-turned writer who is struggling as a single parent with a dream, is challenged to find the hero who saved the lives of his fellow platoon survivors so he can be thanked properly. Russo has only a name as a lead: Aaron Miller.

 

The Reunion reads a bit like a plate of spaghetti, many noodles combining to create a satisfying dish. Walsh peels away at his story line and characters through the thoughts of others. While sometimes I felt the story was watered down by leaping into another character, I appreciated each challenge and the amount of research Walsh did to develop a lovely novel of happily ever after.

 

“Available September 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

New from Dan Walsh - The Deepest Waters

The Deepest Waters

By Dan Walsh

ISBN: 978-0-8007-1980-7

April 2011

$14.99

Revell

Ship wrecks, dysfunctional families, theft, and slavery come together in Dan Walsh's third novel, The Deepest Waters. The story takes place over the course of four days in 1857. A couple on their honeymoon travel by sea from San Francisco to New York City to meet his family and encounter tragedy. Walsh bases his book on a true event. A paddlewheel steamship went down off the eastern US coast, and some of the reported human interest stories, such as a bride packing along her wedding gifts, add poignancy to this work of fiction.

The reality of being adrift both on land on sea was well-described; the characters each drawn lovingly. The California Gold Rush is downplayed to the point that Walsh doesn't reveal the reason a single woman, Laura, apparently doing nothing, was far from her family home until well into the novel, or the business John had been engaged in until nearly the end. Walsh succeeds in portraying a devastating shipwreck and strong characters who survive because of their hope and faith, not necessarily that the other lives through the ordeal, but that no matter what happens, God will take care of them.

How to tell this story, to keep up the drama of the sinking ship, the angst of parting so soon as the wedding, rescue, being set adrift at sea, family issues, multiple cases of shipboard dynamics, even the undercurrents of slavery, is a challenge. The beginning of John and Laura's relationship might have been considered too slow but I would have preferred that to the flashbacks and constant interruption in place and time and narrator. There is a lot of activity going on from at least three scenarios during the same time period over four days, which may appeal to some readers but I like to read quickly, so I had to backtrack several times.

Although there is plenty of excitement, there are also many convenient happy coincidences. The cover is beautiful; the book easily readable for distracted moms and business people who snatch moments for a good story at lunch and toddler naptimes. However, Walsh's style and description is engaging and maturing, and that's what we reader fans like to see in authors we follow.

Available April 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.