Most people agree that staring down a lion to defend your child or jumping into a swollen stream to rescue someone requires great courage. However, most people don’t associate courage with the refusal of a young man to go to war. Peter Flanigan represents that individual whose personal integrity demands that he not participate in killing nor even register for the draft, even if it means rejection by friends and community, incarceration, physical torture, or death. Jack Gilroy has created a character whose life trajectory is rather common, but whose commitment to his conscience is a testament to extraordinary courage.

The novel Absolute Flanigan is set in a coal industry ravaged community in Pennsylvania just before the beginning of World War II. Peter’s hardscrabble existence is typical among the community, but his life is further complicated by being born illegitimate. His life revolves around his sacrificial mother, Catholic school and football. As America’s entry in the war approaches, most people are demonizing the Germans or Japanese while glorifying their righteous duty to defend the homeland. Peter is not so sure about any of this. Deep within himself, he just can’t see himself going into other countries and killing people.He remembers the bitter words of his disabled Uncle Frank, a WWW I veteran, saying “ the Great War wasn’t any victory, it was a major loss of young blood” or the evaluation of that war by the U.S. Marine war hero, Major General Smedley Butler, “War is a racket. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.” Meanwhile his peers, his Church and community lobby him to enlist and 'do his part’.

He is not afraid to fight. He just doesn’t feel right about all the tough talk, flag waving and hate making. Peter seeks counsel from his mother, a Jesuit priest, a rabbi and a Women’s Rights activist. All suggest he seriously reconsider his ’absolutist’ position in that it will probably result in his jailing and possible great physical and mental harm. Ultimately, Peter refuses to even register for the draft and is eventually incarcerated and tortured while in custody.

The story doesn’t end there as he is later on 'chosen’ to be a Montana smoke-jumper and plutonium guinea pig, due to his exceptional resilience.

Howard Zinn, a WWW II bombardier and famous peace activist, concluded that “even so-called good wars against fascism like WWW II -- don’t solve any fundamental problems and they always poison the minds and souls of everybody on both sides.” Jack Gilroy gives you the hope in Absolute Flanigan that this fact doesn’t always have to be realized after one is involved in war. It can be felt in the heart and acted on, if courage and commitment are there.

This book may be purchased at River Read Bookstore, 5 Court Street, Binghamton, NY 13903 or contact the author at www.jackgilroy.com

Read more about this book at BookLovers Review

Tim Wolcott March 2010