50books_poc | Miracle at St. Anna (James McBride) [#1]

The setting is Italy in World War II. Four Buffalo Soldiers — members of the 92nd Division, which had African-American soldiers and white commanders — get cut off from their unit and find themselves trapped in a small, mostly ruined village that has already survived one devastating German attack in reprisal for suspected partisan activities. Smart, responsible Lt. Stamps, conniving, charming ex-street preacher Bishop, moony, trilingual Puerto Rican Hector, and the simple gentle giant Train, who has taken a badly injured Italian boy under his wing, spend several days in the village, wondering how to follow their orders to capture a German for questioning, waiting for their army to come and get them before the Germans do, and learning a lot about the villagers and themselves. When partisans show up with a German prisoner, things start to happen, fast and furious and ugly.

This was probably not quite the book for me. Although it was interesting and in many places exciting, I didn't buy into it that much emotionally. The story is told from multiple viewpoints, and the only one I really felt for was weary, intelligent, overburdened Stamps. Many of the characters seemed more like archetypes than human beings. Also, McBride is given to lengthy flashbacks that function as infodumps. The only one that really grabbed me was the ironically-told history of the marble statue head that Train is dragging around, convinced that it will protect him and the boy. I also felt that McBride didn't play fair with the mystery elements of the plot, in that there was no way I could have guessed at the solutions from what was given earlier, so there was no "aha!" moment at the reveal.

On the other hand, the character interactions and their internal monologues do say a lot about the situation of African Americans at that time, and how they seemed to the Italians, and vice versa. The depiction of the white American officers back behind the lines, mostly through their reactions to the plight of the squad trapped behind enemy lines, is interestingly varied as well.

This is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in this period of history. You should note that there are some grisly episodes of violence - it's a war story - but McBride has a journalist's detachment about these incidents and doesn't wallow in them, which helps.