Glimpses of Paradise: 1920s Los Angeles

Glimpses of Paradise, by James Scott Bell, is a stand-alone novel that brings more of Bell’s historical fiction: early 20th century Los Angeles and courtroom drama. (Click here for an interview with the author about this book) Starting in 1916 in rural Nebraska, the story follows the lives of two young people – Doyle Lawrence, son of a well-to-do lawyer; and Zee Miller, a wild preacher’s daughter. Through various circumstances during and after World War I, the two find themselves out in Los Angeles, where most of the story takes place. Zee pursues an acting career in the silent-film era of Hollywood, and Doyle bums his way to Los Angeles as a down-and-out doughboy.

“Kit Shannon” series fans will enjoy this book, which introduces the lawyer again: now in her early forties, widowed, and still practicing law. Yet she is clearly not the star of this book, but more in the background. The courtroom drama is also at a minimum in this book – a few scenes of a pre-trial hearing, but nothing more. As with the previous books, the author does a decent job of portraying the setting – in this case, early Hollywood, bootleggers and the general crime of the early 1920s, within the Los Angeles setting. Bell’s research in Christian Apologetics and history is well done, too, with some biographical information about evangelist R.A. Torrey. Torrey is the only historical character in this book (aside from brief references to well-known movie stars, never directly featured, such as Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford), yet Glimpses of Paradise brings forth interesting information about this man. The information on Torrey, though – including a brief biography at the end of the book – is generalized, without reference to his particular beliefs; no mention is made of his involvement with the Keswick movement (part of the Holiness movement, a precursor to modern-day Pentecostalism).

The main weakness in Glimpses of Paradise is perhaps that the main characters are not particularly likeable, especially at the beginning. We all know about the returning soldiers from war, including the ones that had trouble readjusting to society. Yet these typically included soldiers that came back without a leg (or other physical impairment) and/or those that lacked strong family support. Doyle returns physically unharmed, and has plenty of love and support from many family members. He isn’t exactly shell-shocked, but just seems to have an incredibly bad attitude (exhibited to some degree even before the war), as he callously rejects and runs away from his family. Zee Miller doesn’t seem any better – a selfish, self-centered brat who takes rebellion to a level not usually demonstrated by young women raised in small-town America before World War I.

For all these initial shortcomings, the story does improve later on. We soon forget the original setting and focus on the activities of both characters in Los Angeles. Some new, likeable characters, such as Molly, are introduced along the way. The author uses the characters Doyle and Zee to provide great contrast in character study, as we observe how they react to their circumstances. Indeed, both characters left to themselves are hopeless and sinful (as we all are), yet through the grace of God at least one character changes and grows. Still, both Doyle and Zee have to learn life the hard way.

Glimpses of Paradise is overall a nice addition to Christian historical fiction. It offers fans of Kit Shannon a follow-up, and for readers generally an interesting story about life in Los Angeles (and the depths of depravity) during the early 1920s.

The Shiloh Legacy: World War I Veterans 10 Years Later

Bodie Thoene’s Shiloh Legacy series includes two more books after the great beginning of In My Father’s House. The next two books, A Thousand Shall Fall and Say to This Mountain, are written as a double-novel, one continuous story that takes place ten years after the first book’s end. Through these two books, we explore the world of America in the last half of 1929 – the Stock Market Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.

A Thousand Shall Fall sets the scene in the last two months before the crash, a snapshot of life during the crazy days of the booming Wall Street right before its collapse. The concluding book picks right up where the previous one left off, at the beginning of the actual stock market crash in late October, through the end of that year. As with the first book in the series, the novels again follow the lives of several World War I veterans in their lives across America – Oklahoma, Ohio, and New York City – to give a broad picture of classic American life in the late 1920s.

Of course, ten years have passed, and so new characters are introduced – especially Birch and Trudy’s young boys Tommy and Bobby, and Max Meyer’s son David. While the Tucker family portrays the idyllic rural family living out in the sticks of Shiloh, Arkansas, David Meyer is a street-wise city kid living in Philadelphia, who seeks out his father living in another big city, New York. A Thousand Shall Fall thus provides plenty of contrasts – life out on the farm, small-town gossip and racial strife, as opposed to the dark life of gangsters and the free-wheeling wealthy consumed with the Stock Market. Though the Tucker story is interesting enough, the New York plot is a much greater page-turner; Davey Meyer is an especially fascinating character, in a story somewhat reminiscent of Charles Dickens novels.

After resolving some of the suspense in A Thousand Shall Fall, the concluding book deals more with characters and their relationships. How will the Tucker family, Jefferson Canfield, and Max and his son survive the Great Depression? After wondering about the Warne family in Ohio (never mentioned in the first half of the 1929 story), we also get their view – and that of Jefferson’s family -- living in the Rubber Capitol of Akron, Ohio. This last book focuses more on personal religious faith, as Max continues to come to terms with his life – beyond just finding out about David. The black characters, mainly the various family members of Hock and Willa Mae Canfield, are also well-developed and strong in their hope in God against all the terrible circumstances they face.

Apparently many of the characters are featured in other Thoene books (Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles), but "The Shiloh Legacy" only has brief references to characters in the "Zion Covenant" series. One line mentions Max’s "rookie reporter" John Murphy, but even more interesting is the revelation of the "D’Fat Lady" singer, as the identity of Hattie Canfield, one of Jefferson’s sisters. But several of the characters, including Ellie Warne (briefly introduced here as a 9-year-old, nicknamed "Boots"), show up in the "Zion Chronicles" series. As I read these books I could not help but consider, too, that the children of 1929 would indeed grow up to be the young adults of the World War II era. The "Shiloh Legacy" is another excellent series from Bodie Thoene, one that could easily go beyond the three books in the set.

In My Father's House: Post-World War I America

Bodie Thoene’s "Shiloh Legacy" begins with In My Father’s House. Starting near the end of World War I, In My Father’s House covers a tumultuous period of history: the horrors of the Great War, the Flu Epidemic, and then the racial violence of the post-war years.

The story follows the lives of several young soldiers in France at the war’s end – their last battles, the Armistice celebrations, welcoming home and their adjustments to post-war life. The story at first includes Max Meyer and his affair with a young Irish woman, but that particular plot gets to a certain point and then stops (to be resumed, apparently, in the next book in the series). In particular, In My Father’s House details the lives of Ellis Warne in Ohio, and several other characters – farmboy Birch Tucker, black soldier Jefferson Canfield, and Jewish Trudy Meyer – residing in Western Arkansas. Through the two settings – Ohio and Arkansas – we see the major issues confronting both regions, including the Ku Klux Klan’s influence in both the Jim Crow South and the politics of suburban Ohio.

The "Shiloh Legacy" series is said to include some of the characters referenced later in the Zion book series. Having read the "Zion Covenant" pre-World War II series, it was nice to meet the younger Theo Lindheim, if only briefly.

As with their other novels, the Thoenes again bring a well-researched story rich with information about the time period. The year 1919 was among the more violent in race riots, and the story makes reference to such things as the Chicago riot and the general anti-immigrant, isolationist attitude of most Americans. President Woodrow Wilson even makes a brief appearance, and characters later follow-up with the news of Wilson’s unsuccessful attempt to have the U.S. join the "League of Nations."

The one weakness is the author’s tendency – so common in modern-day historical fiction works – to project today’s politically correct ideas, especially concerning racial issues, onto the major characters of an earlier time period. At times it seems that some of the characters (especially Trudy Meyer and Birch Tucker) are mere transplants from our day, with seemingly no clue about black-white relationships in the early twentieth century. Even Doc Warne seems amazingly out of step with his contemporaries, considering the economic and social circumstances.

As the first part of a series, this first novel has a seemingly abrupt ending, one that leaves too many unresolved plot threads. The next two books in the series continue the story over the next decade. In My Father’s House is an excellent start to a trilogy about these World War I veterans and their families, in their lives after the Great War.