A Sound Like Thunder Author:Sonny Brewer From Publishers Weekly — To tell a classic, if overwrought bildungsroman?complete with teenage boy, quiet younger brother, alcoholic father, possibly cheating mother and a boat?Brewer returns to Fairhope, Ala., the setting of his 2005 debut, The Poet of Tolstoy Park. As WWII rages in Europe (Pearl Harbor is still a sleepy navy outpost), 16-year-o... more »ld Rove MacNee's Granny Wooten, who always gave him "the right book at the right time," dies. On the day of her funeral, Rove witnesses his violent, alcoholic father, ship captain Dominus MacNee, threatening his German neighbor, Josef Unruh, with a knife. Soon, Dominus, a locally notorious philanderer, is in jail on attempted murder charges, leaving Rove to figure out whether his mother, Lillian, is having an affair with Josef. As Rove tumbles out of childhood, Josef offers him a fixer-upper boat, and Rove goes to live on it, taking comfort in his family's tradition of fishing, sailing and living on the sea. Though the story can buckle beneath the weight of its sentimentality, Brewer's fans will enjoy his graceful crafting of characters and the budding romance between Rove and Anna Pearl, a schoolmate with a "fire-bearing spirit."« less
This is the kind of book every writer dreams of writing. If you are a connoisseur of great writing,then this is the book for you. If you are an aspiring writer, then read and study this book. If you are looking for a book to edify as well as entertain, then this book is for you. You don't have to know a lot about sailing or the Gulf Coast to thoroughly enjoy this book. It is a masterpiece.