Book Review: The York Patrol: The Real Story of Alvin York and the Unsung Heroes Who Made Him World War I's Most Famous Soldier by James Carl Nelson

 As any good Tennesseean will tell you, Davy Crockett was born at a lower altitude than the song would credit. Ill words will not be spoken about Saint Dolly of the Vax and free children's book under any circumstance whatsoever. And we are the birthplace of organized, democratic government in the United State. However, most hailing from the Volunteer State will get a little hazy on our most famous of war time hero Alvin York. Sure, Gary Cooper "gobbled like a turkey to get them Germans to pop their head up" and all he wanted was "a piece of good fine bottomland." But did the real Alvin York? I know movies never get it right and had only a working knowledge of the man from Pall Mall, so I grabbed this one off the NEW BOOKS shelf at the library. 

While I learned a good deal about York, this book left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth for two reasons. The first being the repeating of phrases setting up York. Often within the same page, or the next Nelson would write something to the effect of THE MAN FROM THE STICKS, WHO HAD COME TO JESUS, AND ONLY WANTED TO KNOW WHAT THE WAR WAS ALL ABOUT did XYZ. I lost track of how many times a phrase like that appeared, and it got annoying to read. Nelson did a great job of York's background, so even the most inattentive reader would have remembered details like this Still every few pages we got a reminder that Alvin C. York of Pall Mall, Tennessee was (to use a term from Tennessee's National Anthem) "Wild as a buck but sweet as soda pop", joined a Conservative Christian church, originally registered for the draft as a conscientious objector, and once in the Army repeatedly asked his ranking officers what the war was really about. We got it, move on!

Secondly, I think it missed the mark of it's title. 90% to 95% of the book was about Alvin York, and NOT the men that made up the rest of the patrol. York's background was detailed, but where was that same detail for the other men? Blurbs here and there, and skims of their lives are included but it's still "The Alvin York Show" when you boil it all down. Granted there might not have been enough meat on the bone to make a whole book about these men, but they didn't just show up in France! Even their afterwards were afterthoughts when compared. For a book titled THE UNSUNG HEROES, this was mostly the same old song and dance. For a book trying to punch holes in the hero's journey, this one would have made Joseph Campbell proud. 

The repeating monikers, and paltry detail to the rest of the main character gave this book the feel of a college paper trying to meet a word count, handed in with a huge font and narrow margins. If you are a student of World War I, Alvin York, or Tennessee history, I can assuredly assume you already knew most of what is contained in this one. If you are not, you will pick up some information that will help you the next time someone mentions Gary Cooper at a cocktail party. I learned and came away with a better understand of The York patrol, but am glad this was a library book check out.