Chasing Ghosts A Memoir of a Father, Gone to War
Chasing Ghosts: A Memoir of a Father, Gone to War by Louise A. DeSalvo, published by Fordham University Press in 2016, is a poignant exploration of the author’s quest to understand her father, a World War II veteran who returned home profoundly changed. Over the course of ten years, DeSalvo delves into her father’s past, revealing the complexities of his military service and its lasting impact on their family dynamics. This edition spans 274 pages and is presented in English.
In this memoir, readers will find an intimate portrayal of a working-class man who sought to improve his life through military service, only to face the harsh realities of war. DeSalvo’s narrative uncovers the dreams and struggles of her father, from his aspirations of becoming a pilot to the challenges he faced during and after the war. The book contributes to the broader understanding of the experiences of World War II veterans, particularly those whose stories have often been overlooked. Through her reflections, DeSalvo sheds light on the emotional toll of military service and the intricate relationship between a father and daughter shaped by the shadows of conflict.
Official synopsis Publisher
When literary biographer and memoirist Louise DeSalvo embarked upon a journey to learn why her father came home from World War II a changed man, she didn’t realize her quest would take ten years, and that it would yield more revelations about the man–and herself–and the effect of his military service upon their family than she’d ever imagined. During his last years, as he told her about his life, DeSalvo began to understand that her obsession with war novels and military history wasn’t merely academic but rooted in her desire to understand this complex father whom she both adored and reviled because of his mistreatment of her. Although she at first believes she wants to uncover his story, the story of a man who was no hero but who was nonetheless adversely affected by the his military service, she learns that what she really wants is to recover the man that he was before he went away.
As DeSalvo and her father uncover his past piece-by-piece, bit-by-bit, she learns about the dreams of a working-class man who entered the military in the late 1930s during peacetime to better himself, a man who wanted to become a pilot. She learns about what it was like for him to participate in war games in the Pacific prior to the war, and its devastating toll. She learns about what it was like for her parents to fall in love, set up house, marry, and have children during this cataclysmic time. And as the pieces of her father’s life fall into place as works to piece together the puzzle of everything she’s learned about this time, she finds herself finally able to understand him.
Chasing Ghosts is an original contribution to the understanding of working-class World War II veterans who did not conventionally distinguish themselves through “heroic” actions and whose lives were not until recently considered worthy of historical or cultural attention. It personalizes the history of those sailors who served in the Navy aboard aircraft carriers and on islands in the Pacific prior to, and during World War II and contributes to the current vital conversation about the often-unrecognized effects of war and its traumas upon those men and their families. It reveals the lifelong devastating consequences of military service on those men and women who fell in love, married, and set up house. And it reveals the complexity of what it is like to be the daughter of a father who has gone to war.
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