Review: Can’t Go Home Again
When those who come home, don’t.
Those who serve always come back changed, and reconnecting with loved ones can be difficult – like trying to find a way past a glass wall. The Christmas season can exacerbate the feeling and make matters more trying.
What if the Spirit of the Season lent a helping hand?
The story
Each of the tales in this collection focuses on veterans coming home as Christmas Day approaches. Many of the stories are science fiction or fantasy oriented, but not all of them are. Nor are the resolutions to these tales easy or sanguine.
Follow a group of lycanthropic SEALs as they wait for a High Value Target to arrive in William Lehman’s Christmas in the Mountains. Then prepare yourself for a female sniper’s story of fighting zombies in Soccer Mom, by Cedar Sanderson. D Lawdog’s Memories, Like Dust follows a first responder arriving at a crash scene that leaves him and a family devastated and searching for a ray of hope in the Christmas season.
The Way the World Ends is a space opera by Fiona Grey. What happens when the men at the sharp end have only duty to drive them forward? When their government leaves them – along with the colonists they were supposed to defend – to die on a world with inhospitable native inhabitants? Denton Salle’s The Weight of the Past follows a veteran who lost his first love on the battlefield and now struggles not to lose his pregnant wife. Meanwhile, JL Curtis’ Home For Christmas emphasizes that there’s more than one way to ameliorate the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress.
Christopher DiNote’s Tracking Santa brings St. Nickolas to help a veteran in need, so he can be there for his wife and daughter. Nothing is worse for a pilot than to be permanently grounded, so Santa comes to see the family in need of a Christmas gift that can’t be found under the tree. Empty Chair remembers those who have fallen and will not be coming home when no one else will countenance the memory, and Homeless No More brings the Fae themselves to see what may be done for those who struggle with demons none else can see.
Every story has something to offer, but these are some of the stand outs in the line up. Can’t Go Home For Christmas is not your average feel-good anthology of cookie-cutter Christmas tales. It looks at the darkness of the trenches, at the losses and the grinning demons…and then it reaches for the toolkit that will light the lamps to keep these beasts at bay.
The characters
The characters are all excellent. The heroes and heroines have different degrees of post-traumatic stress and what works for one may not help the other. That’s the beauty of having multiple stories on the same theme with different leads; every character is an individual, which means his or her method of healing is as well.
The world
Each world is varied: some are like enough to ours to be no different, others are in fantasy or science fiction settings. But even with the emphasis on character, there is enough description for each setting to be vibrant and memorable in its own way. A reader will not have difficulty remembering them once he finishes the successive tales.
The politics
Politics only intrude into the stories insofar as they affect the characters in their separate situations. Otherwise, the anthology is completely apolitical.
Content warning
This book contains cursing, swearing, and descriptions of combat that may be upsetting for younger readers. Beyond this, there is nothing objectionable in the book at all.
Who is it for?
Veterans – particularly those who have post-traumatic stress. The intention of the authors is to provide bibliotherapy for veterans and their families. Bibliotherapy is a tool that primarily relies on fiction to achieve its goals, and the authors’ aim for Can’t Go Home Again is to “model a path for hope and healing.” The positive reviews on Amazon attest that the model works, and veterans who have read it have recommended it there.
Why read it?
It’s a good collection of Christmas-themed stories written by authors – several of whom are veterans – for veterans. If a reader wants insight into Post-Traumatic Stress, is related to a veteran, or knows one who might benefit from the book, then this is a must-purchase and a must-read. Post-traumatic stress isn’t the end of the road…
…and though it isn’t easy, it is possible to go home again – just in time for Christmas.
Thanks for the kind words. This was the third short story I ever wrote, and the easiest. Cedar told me she was putting together an anthology (this one) and based on what she had read of my work, wondered if I would like to submit something.
After reading the other works in this book, I felt humbled to even be considered in the same book as some of these folks. I don't have PTSD, but I have enough shipies, partners, and battle buddies that do, to understand it. (of course, reflecting back as I write this, nearly everyone I know says they don't have it, even those that do, so YMMV.)
What I do know is that PTSD is not a new thing. It has existed for as long as there has been combat, or near death experiences. It's gone by different names through the years, it's been called "seeing the elephant," Cafard, Shell shock, Battle fatigue, and many other names. No civilization I've ever heard of has completely evaded it. Some reduced it greatly, and those that did, all did it in the same way. They kept the unit together, and transitioned them slowly from front lines to civilian street, with guys that have been there and done that helping them to transition.
What they haven't done, is take them from the front lines, send them "back to the world", given them a one week class on getting a job, and showed them the gate with a few pieces of paper in their hand, and the "thanks of a grateful nation." (that usually isn't, and doesn't.)
It's even harder for the First Responders, they're "in the world" already, and you're expected to go from pulling some guys head and helmet out of the dually on a big rig, (his body and his bike were 30 yards back) or getting shot at by a KID, or maybe pulling someone's body out of a fire and having them die in your arms on the way out. (the smell is the worst) to going home and playing with the kids, and shopping for Christmas, like flipping a switch.
None of those things happen often, but I've experienced two of the three, and I know guys that have experienced all of these, some several times.
One thing that does help is talking about it. The trouble is that there's a level of required trust, in order to do so. No one that has been through the bad is going to talk about it to someone that they don't trust completely. Not the "I'm a therapist, you can trust me, everything said in this room is confidential" level of trust, but the "I'm good with him with a gun at my back, going through the door" level of trust.
This is one of the strengths of fraternal organizations. They are a place where trust bonds are built to the point where people who have "been and done" feel safe enough to talk about it.
The internet, and the computer age (among other things) is killing those organizations, as people just can't be bothered to create a "tribe" in their town, because they can create an "internet tribe" that is even closer to their own values and beliefs.
It's not the same.
Typing on a keyboard does not replace sitting around a campfire or in the corner of the lodge, with a whiskey in your hand, and talking about it.