Synopses & Reviews
Sergeant Steve Maharidge returned from World War II an angry man. The only evidence that heand#8217;d served in the Marines was a photograph of himself and a buddy tacked to the basement wall. On one terrifyingly memorable occasion his teenage son, Dale, witnessed Steve screaming at the photograph: and#147;They said I killed him! But I didnand#8217;t kill him! It wasnand#8217;t my fault!and#8221;
After Steve died, Dale Maharidge began a twelve-year quest to face down his fatherand#8217;s wartime ghosts. He found more than two dozen members of Love Company, the Marine unit in which his father had served. Many of them, now in their eighties, finally began talking about the war. Theyand#8217;d never spoken so openly and emotionally, even to their families. Through them, Maharidge brilliantly re-creates Love Companyand#8217;s battles and the war that followed them home. In addition, Maharidge traveled to Okinawa to experience where the man in his fatherand#8217;s picture died and meet the families connected to his fatherand#8217;s wartime souvenirs.
The survivors Dale met on both sides of the Pacific Ocean demonstrate that wars do not end when the guns go quietand#151;the scars and demons remain for decades. Bringing Mulligan Home is a story of fathers and sons, war and postwar, silence and cries in the dark. Most of all it is a tribute to soldiers of all warsand#151;past and presentand#151;and the secret burdens they, and their families, must often bear.
Review
Helen Benedict, author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq and Sand Queenandldquo;Through deep and sensitive interviewing, Dale Maharidge has achieved what many have previously thought impossible: he has opened up the andquot;silent generationandquot; of World War Two veterans and enabled them to tell their stories. These veterans, US marines and Japanese who met as enemies in the Pacific, are no mythologized heroes or villains, but flesh-and-blood humans describing the true horror that has always been, and always will be, war. Maharidge enables these survivors to speak of the war with such honesty that they strip away all its glamour, break your heart and win it all at once. Part memoir, part vivid history, part a searing examination of war trauma, Bringing Mulligan Home gives us an entirely fresh look at andquot;The Good Warandquot; that may well change our view of it forever.andrdquo;
Kirkus
andldquo;A moving memoir. . .A powerful narrative of the dark side of American combat in the Pacific theater and the persistence of resulting injuries decades after the war ended.andrdquo;
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes
andldquo;Gripping and unforgettableandmdash;a sonandrsquo;s search for his father in the shattered ruins of the Pacific Warandrdquo;
New York Postandldquo;A scrupulous and heartfelt analysis of what it was like to be andldquo;a cog in the biggest battle in the Pacific.andrdquo;
Minneapolis Star Tribuneandldquo;Mulligan is that rare thing: a book propelled into being by heartfelt urgency and prodigious skill, a mission truly accomplished.andrdquo;
Wall Street Journalandldquo;Bringing Mulligan Homeand#160;offers bracing eyewitness and some fine writing.andrdquo;
Cleveland Plain Dealerandldquo;Unexpectedly upliftingandrdquo;
Huntington Newsandldquo;A wonderful story. The author brings to the art of non-fiction the rhythm and suspense of a tall tale. Masterfully written.andrdquo;
Sea Classics Magazineandldquo;Wrenching, powerfulandhellip;.This is a reflective work that will prove of great interest to all war veterans, their families, and others interested in them.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Now an Audible Original "THE DEAD DRINK FIRST"
Sergeant Steve Maharidge returned from World War II an angry man. For a long time, the only evidence that remained of his service in the Marines was a photograph of himself and a buddy that he tacked to the basement wall. When his son, Dale Maharidge, set out to discover what happened to the friend in the photograph, he found that wars do not end when the guns go quiet. The scars and demons remain for decades. Bringing Mulligan Home is a story of fathers and sons, war, and what was, for some, a long postwar.
Synopsis
Sgt. Steve Maharidge, like many of his generation, hardly ever talked about the war. The only sign he'd served in it was a single black and white photograph of himself and another soldier tacked to the wall of his basement, where he would grind steel. After Steve Maharidges death, his son Dale, now an adult, began a twelve-year quest to understand his fathers preoccupation with the photo. What had happened during the battle for Okinawa, and why his father had remained silent about his experiences and the man in the picture, Herman Mulligan? In his search for answers, Maharidge sought out the survivors of Love Company, many of whom had never before spoken so openly and emotionally about what they saw and experienced on Okinawa.
In Bringing Mulligan Home, Maharidge delivers an affecting narrative of war and its aftermath, of fathers and sons, with lessons for the children whose parents are returning from war today.
Synopsis
Sergeant Steve Maharidge returned from World War II an angry man. For a long time, the only evidence that remained of his service in the Marines was a photograph of himself and a buddy that he tacked to the basement wall. When his son, Dale Maharidge, set out to discover what happened to the friend in the photograph, he found that wars do not end when the guns go quiet. The scars and demons remain for decades.
Bringing Mulligan Home is a story of fathers and sons, war, and what was, for some, a long postwar.
Video
About the Author
Dale Maharidge has been teaching at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University since 2001. Before that he was a visiting professor at Stanford University for ten years and spent fifteen years as a newspaperman. Several of his books are illustrated with the work of photographer Michael S. Williamson. The first book, Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass (1985), later inspired Bruce Springsteen to write two songs; it was reissued in 1996 with an introduction by Springsteen. His second book, And Their Children After Them, won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1990.