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(More customer reviews)"Paul, Betty, and Pearl" is a love story played out against the backdrop of World War II. The story begins with Lieutenant Paul Van Vliet's arrival in Hawaii a few months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Paul is with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. A single man, he is reunited with his sister Dottie, who has lived in Hawaii with her husband for several years. Through Dottie, Paul meets Betty, who is married to Naval officer Eric Lundstrom. At a party a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Paul and Betty realize they have a strong mutual attraction, and one thing leads to another, resulting in an adulterous relationship that lasts throughout the war. To say any more about the outcome of Paul and Betty's relationship would be a spoiler.
In the first few chapters, the story was somewhat reminiscent of James Jones' novel "From Here to Eternity," but that book ended shortly after Pearl Harbor. "Paul, Betty, and Pearl" covers the period from mid-1941 to early-1946. In most fictional WWII stories, the central character is a fighting man, either an infantryman, a flyer, or a sailor. Paul Van Vliet, however, is in the Army Signal Corps, which was tasked with such functions as battlefield telephone and radio communications, and radar warning of air attacks. It was interesting to me, a WWII junkie, to read about the role that the Signal Corps played in military operations. This is not a techno-war story, and the reader isn't buried in arcane technical details and jargon, but it was a nice departure from most war stories. In any case, the story focuses on Paul and Betty and the events around them, not the hardware.
"Peter, Paul, and Pearl" isn't the colossal soap opera that Herman Wouk's "War and Remembrance" was with its dozens of characters and action spanning the globe. It's a smaller, more intimate story that follows Paul's assignments in Hawaii, the U.S., North Africa, and Europe. Paul and Betty stay in touch with each other during the war, although they must be careful not to raise suspicions that would cause a scandal in that more decorous era. And Paul and Betty are not bad people, they're struggling to be honorable while at the same time being deeply in love with each other.
The major characters are finely drawn and well developed. Paul and Betty and their family members are real flesh-and-blood people with both strengths and weaknesses. Some of the characters are not always admirable, but there are no real villains, just ordinary people caught up in events beyond their control and trying to make the best of things. In telling their story, the author very skillfully recreates the wartime era with its customs, music, and language, which gives a realistic feel to his writing.
In the story, Paul is involved in the radar warning system that actually detected the Japanese planes approaching, but whose operators assumed that the planes were American B-17 bombers flying into Hawaii. In the aftermath of the attack, Paul and a number of ranking officers come under much scrutiny for the failure to alert the military forces on Hawaii. Combined with other issues like torpedo nets not being in place and watertight doors not being closed on the warships anchored in Pearl Harbor, historians have been debating for almost seventy years whether there was a political or military conspiracy to ensure that the attack was successful, thus forcing the U.S. into war. After the war ended in 1945, these allegations continued, leading to Congressional investigations as both political parties tried to smear each other with the blame. The author does a fine job of exploring the conspiracy theory and weaving it into his novel as an intriguing element of the story.
My only negative comment about "Peter, Paul, and Pearl" is that in a few sections, the formatting for the Kindle was off, leaving some lines of text very short. This was a bit distracting, but not enough to affect my enjoyment of the book.
"Peter, Paul, and Pearl" is the first book of a trilogy, and I'm definitely planning to read the other two novels. However, the book isn't one of those "to be continued" sagas where you have to keep reading the series to get any resolution to the story. It could easily be read as a standalone story, since it has a very satisfying ending that ties up all the loose ends.
The bottom line: Two thumbs up for some first rate historical fiction.
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Paul, Betty, And PearlThe central theme of this novel is an adulterous love affair during World War II; it is about the maturation of the main characters. Paul is a young Army officer;Betty is the wife of a naval officer, Eric; they have a six-year old daughter, Rosalie.Paul and Betty witness the attack on Pearl Harbor.Betty then goes to Washington, D.C., to work as a civilian for the Navy, learning self-reliance.Eric goes into combat.Paul is stationed in D.C.; he and Betty continue their tortured love affair.Paul then takes part in the Normandy D-Day landing and the Battle of the Bulge, maturing as an officer. As the War ends, the Republican Party tries to bribe or coerce Paul into joining in its attempt to blame the Democrats for the surprise at Pearl Harbor.A mysterious colonel in the Pentagon sides with Paul.At the same time, Paul and Betty risk his career and her custody of the child (and the child's happiness) by revealing their love. T
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