John W. Cassell

"Lest We Forget" is a short story with a powerful message. Many father's had served in war, witnessing death and destruction firsthand, asked to perform impossible tasks, always living in harms way and then surviving that part of your life. Many had prayed to their God during that time, setting pacts and negotiating for things in the future. Surviving the war without shedding blood doesn't necessarily mean that a person is unscathed. Those invisible wounds have brought down the strongest of soldiers over time, many feeling guilty for not dying with their friends, causing them to suffer a life of guilt and despair.

Now your daughter enlists into the military and is deployed to Iraq. You worry about her and feel helpless that you are unable to protect her. How far would you go? What are your options? Could you make the same choice?

"Lest We Forget" keeps one thinking long after putting the book down. Is any of this possible? Great job John Cassell!

John Podlaski, author
Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel… (mais)

I received this book from Library Thing to read and review. This is a rather short book that moves quickly through a short period of time, during which the newly minted State’s Attorney, Ed Cranford, fights a small-town political machine. However, the setting can be anywhere, whether a large town or small. The fight would be the same. The book moves quickly and is very focused. There a number of characters who are introduced quickly who become key players in the story. As I read the book, I kept wishing the book was longer, so the author could have spent more time developing the storyline and the characters, so I would not feel so rushed reading it. I also would have appreciated a more leisurely flow of information, so I could more easily absorb it because the story is very good and realistic. As it is, I felt like I was on some amusement park ride, careening this way and that, just hanging on. I prefer books that don’t make me feel as if I am cramming for some test or, worse still, taking a test with a time limit. Frankly, because so much was crammed into such a short space and time, I think the book’s length detracted from my enjoyment of it. This is a good story, but I think it could have been even better if it did not seem as if the author was in such a big hurry to finish it. The author is an excellent writer and chooses his words carefully. There are no wasted words or descriptions, just bare bones. I found the main character likeable but would have preferred more time to get into his mind and thought processes. There are also some subplots, which were never fully developed, and only made it more difficult to stay focused on the story. Good story, true to life, just too compressed for me to fully enjoy.… (mais)

I received this novel through the LibraryThing Members Giveaway.

While this tale of one man fighting political and judicial corruption within his own purview is set in the ‘80s it is easy to see how by simply changing a few names it could be the lead story from any media outlet thirty years later. Le plus ça change le plus ça reste le même.

Initially, I thought the setting of this novel to be Small Town U.S.A., but the more I read, the more I felt that perhaps it was more of a rural subdivision or borough of some larger city. There were other perplexing moments in this novel, which I ultimately chalked up to a lack of knowledge of the American political and judicial system. There were such a mix of levels of political offices and varying departments with their hands in the pot that it was a bit difficult keeping them sorted. Eventually I concluded that this was a deliberate way for the author John W. Cassell to give the non-official a sense of just how convoluted politics and the law can get. While we assume they are supposed to be making decisions to keep us functioning and adapting laws to ensure order, they are often at loggerheads when the ultimate goal is the economy. This is where we realise that economy and individuals are not viewed as compatible and one must decide with which they will side.
Cassell’s protagonist Cranford has all of this to deal with as the man with the dubious role of State’s Attorney, a role I determined sits at the apex of both points of view. As the fulcrum between money and humanity, it is a place where sometimes one must skirt the lines to take back control of what is right, by not allowing cynicism and complacency to run roughshod.

I appreciated the appendices explaining radio codes and ‘insider terms’, but felt that an brief explanation or chart explaining the different political positions and what level of government they are meant to serve would be quite useful for a non-American market. I searched the internet for information and found that it impeded the story’s flow. Otherwise, I quite liked the message and the spark of hope that perhaps in time, with the right people, that politics and the law can share a stage.… (mais)