And Then We Heard the Thunder by John Oliver Killens


And Then We Heard the Thunder
Title : And Then We Heard the Thunder
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0882581155
ISBN-10 : 9780882581156
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 495
Publication : First published December 31, 1983

And Then We Heard the Thunder follows the dreams, lies, and anguish of black World War II GI Solomon Sanders during his tour of duty in Indochina, Australia, and the United States. Harvard-trained in the law and a political moderate, Sanders is married to an upper-middle-class black woman who pushes him to "make something of himself" by becoming an Army officer. Given his credentials, he appears a shoo-in for Officer Candidate School, yet he rejects the opportunity as the vestiges of Jim Crow racism, the strains of war, and his interactions with disgruntled black troops thrust him into black activism. Forced to make common cause with his race rather than with the Army, he and some fellow soldiers write a letter to American newspapers about the poor treatment of blacks in the military. For this outcry, they encounter harassment and further discrimination, resulting in a full-scale battle between black and white troops and a blood-curdling climax to this second novel by acclaimed African American author John Killens.

And Then We Heard the Thunder Reviews

  • Theophilus (Theo)

    I can't do better than the review on the title link. I read this while on active duty in the United States Air Force as a young NCO stationed in middle Georgia in the mid 1970s. I still vividly remember my feelings as I read this, the feeling of kinship I felt with the characters in Killen's story and the closeness I felt with other blacks in the military as the Vietnam war ended and I reflected on my own experiences overseas and in the South in the U.S.

  • Dave

    While this book is sometimes sloppily written (some jarring POV shifts, some less than lucid description, and one or two overwritten scenes), at other points it shines with emotion and intelligence. I'm starting to see a pattern with postwar Afro American literature: capable, sensitive protagonist confronts a very realistic hell within a revisioned history. The results are chilling and appropriate to what would become called the black aesthetic. Killens' greatest achievement, in my mind, is playing out in dramatic action and dialogue that variegated tensions occasioned by the racial history of the U.S.

  • Dylan Cook

    This book is incredibly misogynistic and an honest pain to get through. The dialogue in here is so disconnected from reality it's hard to take any character seriously. If you somehow find a copy of this book, don't bother.

  • R. L. Street

    "The world is waking up again.

    And we poor bastards sit here crying."

    Those lines will haunt me as long as I live.

  • Susan

    The hungarian translation used a rather annoying lingo.

  • Bill King

    Enjoyed reading this book but was a little disappointed with the ending.