There is, in America, a subculture we never talk about: the military community in peacetime, where the Brass God imposes an ancient code of honor; where the officer-as-a-gentleman returns to his lady-the most invisible woman in America, his waiting wife; and where the bedroom replaces the battlefield.
When Lieutenant Colonel Guy Garrett retires in Alaska, he carries the scars of Vietnam with him, into the era of post-Tailhook sex scandals and the rise of women into coveted military positions-one of them his own daughter. But it is his unpredictable wife Julie who wrenches his soul. Meanwhile, at her friend Mona's request, Julie Garrett sets out to retrieve hidden notebooks from their old military stairwell in Germany, sparking drama when she finds her old lover is now her daughter's commander.
Ode to a Brass God interweaves the intimate lives of the Garretts from two very different generations with five other families who once shared a communal life in Germany-and it asks the question, When the home front replaces the war front, where does a peacetime army find its enemies?
About the Author :
Judith Johnson Lee, former journalist and congressional press aide, spent much of her life on military bases in the US and Europe as a military wife, an instructor in military writing, and an editor of military regulations. In Germany she was editor in chief of a military-issued Guide to TV distributed across the continent.Judith's doctoral degree in women's studies in military ethics, from Claremont (CA) Graduate University, led to her participation in the International Society of Military Ethics. She holds master's degrees from Claremont, Niagara University, Villanova University (on a Shubert Foundation Playwriting Fellowship), and from the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium, where she set up a center for women's studies in theology.Judith coauthored and edited Holy Woman, Holy Blood, where she wrote on the military hero's sacrificial shedding of blood. Ode to a Brass God is her first novel. She resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with her daughter, Rita.
Review :
"Ode to a Brass God brings into a clear and startling spotlight the hidden story of the last(?) class of women in America-military wives-while not neglecting the second role of the military officer, as a human being. One need not be 'military' to delight in the slips and slides in a story that could be any American's experience-until the reader suddenly understands that a unique code of ethics governs this special community. Perhaps, military life may be more than an American subculture-and possibly a religion."
-Dr. Karen Jo Torjesen, professor emerita Claremont Graduate University, founder of Claremont Graduate University's doctoral and master of arts program in women's and gender studies in religion, author of When Women Were Priests
"Truly impressive! As a former Air Force military wife, my thoughts are in sync with all the nameless waiting women who live their lives unnoticed, caught in the shadow of their husband's upward trajectory."-Mary Ann Frische, former Air Force military wife
"Ode to a Brass God gives us new insight into a crucial part of military history never touched on before-military living in peacetime, including the role of parties as a peacetime way of playing war. The story grips, the characters bring back lost memories. A special salute to the author for her insight into military justice, not as abstract law but as a ruling element even in the private lives of 'civilians' in the military family."-Colonel Gerald V. Harris, US Army (retired), former commander of medical and engineering units in the New York National Guard
