TARNISHED BRASS
by
MAX L. KNIGHT
Genre: Historical Fiction / Novella / War
Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
Date of Publication: September 20, 2019
Number of Pages: 114
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Patrick Michael Moynihan finds himself returning to the small Central American country where, as a young impressionistic junior officer, he was thrust into the middle of a brutal civil war.
Miguel Alejandro Xenias, once a member of the ruling elite in El Salvador, recalls his change of heart, advancement within the guerrilla movement, and his new-found hope for the country now that the FMLN is in power.
Antonio Cruz, seeking a new life in America, finds only a different kind of hatred and conflict, joins the street gang MS-13, and returns home bringing with him a new kind of warfare.
These perspectives spotlight an ongoing struggle in El Salvador that continues to impact the immigration crisis on our southern border and the spread of gang violence throughout the United States.
More than just a history of the war in El Salvador, a conflict that ended almost thirty years ago, Tarnished Brass gives voice to those who fought and those who only wanted to escape the violence.
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HALL WAYS REVIEW: Tarnished
Brass is a novella that comes in at around a hundred pages of
story, but author Max L. Knight fits in an incredible amount of information.
The book not only informs readers about events of the past, it also reminds readers
of the far-reaching effects of war, even decades later, even across oceans.
While I was happily navigating
high school and college through the eighties, like most kids in that stage of life,
I was oblivious to what was happening in El Salvador (and most of the world
outside my bubble). I lived a safe and privileged life while El Salvador lost the
decade as a war-torn country plagued by fighting factions – one of them aided
by funding, training, and weapons courtesy of the United States.
The archbishop urgently petitioned
those in power to alter course.
“In the name of God and this
suffering population, whose cries reach to the heavens more tumultuous each day…cease
the repression.”
His words were met by a
sniper’s bullet to the heart.
Many of the chapters in Tarnished
Brass are filled primarily with historical information that gives readers facts
about the political and military climate and the war’s ever-worsening impact on
the Salvadorans. The only pause in El Salvador’s war was when an earthquake
interrupted it and displaced hundreds of thousands of people who were already
suffering. Knight does a good job of keeping the plight of the poor as a
constant thread running through all the chapters. The poor never win in war -- or
in times of peace. The strength of the book is in Knight’s world-building: the
poverty, the destruction, the darkness of El Salvador.
Tarnished Brass is
well-written and cleanly edited, and its contents are engaging. The structure
of the book is unique, vacillating between storytelling and fact-telling.
There are chapters that give readers insight into the lives of the three main
characters, but none of the characters are ever fully fleshed-out or given much
depth. (The exception was a chapter dedicated to the psychological profile of a
side-character, Diana, which was profoundly sad and fascinating.) There are
other chapters in which the purpose is solely to inform, and only a few
sentences, either at the beginning or the end, tie in one of the story’s
characters to the scene. The story of Tarnished Brass is the war; the
characters within are somewhat peripheral but do serve to soften the edges of what
could easily convert to a nonfiction piece.
I was most appreciative that
the author not only included a glossary of military terminology, but he tells
readers first thing that it’s at the back of the book. (I never think to look
first.) While it is most helpful for those of us not in-the-know, the book is
still full of military acronyms and jargon that are defined once and used often
– and I found myself flipping back to figure out what was what and who was who.
Those who are students of history and politics
and military ops won’t have any issues and will probably enjoy that the book
has a more factual, less fictional slant.
As a more informed, but still
ridiculously under-informed adult, reading Tarnished Brass helped me tie
current headlines to the past. It was particularly interesting to learn the origins
of MS-13, the now international criminal gang that started as a group to
protect Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles. Following character Antonio’s
grim but realistic story was eye-opening and the most powerful of the stories
in Tarnished Brass. It was in Antonio’s story that I saw glimpses of
Knight’s storytelling and characterization prowess that he showed in Palo
Duro.
Tarnished Brass educates
readers of not only an important piece of world history, but also the impact of
the United States’s foreign policy, then and now. Intelligently written, Tarnished
Brass is a quick way to get informed while also fulfilling a reader’s need to
escape into fiction.
Thank you to the author and
Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing me a paperback copy in exchange for my
honest opinion – the only kind I give.
In addition to assignments within his basic branch, Max also specialized as a Foreign Area Officer in both the European Theatre of Operations (Germany and Greece) and within USSOUTHCOM (Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador). He received the Defense Superior Service Medal for his service in El Salvador during that country’s civil war. Max earned his master’s degree in government from Campbell University, and retired from the Army in 1997.
Upon retirement Max was hired by RCI Technologies in San Antonio and became its Director of Internal Operations. He also was the first volunteer docent at the Alamo working within its Education Department. However, following the tragic events of 9/11, he became an Independent Contractor and spent the next ten years as a Counterintelligence Specialist in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central America before cancer forced him to quit.
Max has since published a memoir, Silver Taps, and a novel of westward expansion, Palo Duro. He resides in San Antonio with his wife, Janet “Gray.” They have three surviving children; Lisa, Brian, and Sean, and three grandchildren; Tony, Nicholas, and Cecilia Marie.
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OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 8, 2019
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