AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile
With her soft and confident voice, narrator Cassandra Campbell gives a splendid reading of Freeman’s book about her father’s and his brothers’ experiences in WWII and how these impacted her family. The three brothers all attended the Naval Academy, with the youngest being a logistics officer in the Philippines. What was seen as a cushy assignment became the opposite when he was wounded in the Japanese invasion and taken to Japan, where he eventually died in captivity. Campbell’s soft, clear voice is appropriately nuanced and expressive, and she affects different voices for male and female quotes and dialogue without sounding artificial. Moving at a steady and easy-to-follow pace, she enunciates well. This production is a perfect match of narrator and text. M.T.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
Highly dramatic history. [Freeman’s] book is liable to break the hearts of Unbroken fans, and it’s all true.”
– The New York Times
“A masterpiece of storytelling, infused with heroism and adventure. This moving portrait of three brothers is a brilliantly researched and written history of America’s wartime role in the Pacific.”
– Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of Those Angry Days
“An evocative real-life tale of agony and triumph about brotherly love and a young American who discovers his personal courage amidst the tortures of war. Freeman had me rooting for these Jersey boys on every page.”
– James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers
“Better than fiction because it is real.... The Jersey Brothers demonstrates that a well-told story is just that, whatever its genre.”
– New York Journal of Books
“A gripping, deeply moving saga of an American family whose experiences cast a new light on one of the most harrowing and heroic periods in American history. In their devotion to each other and to their country, these three brothers inspire us with courage, intelligence, and exceptional resilience.”
– Sally Bedell Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen
“The Jersey Brothers shines in singularity. A blend of history, family saga and family questions, [Freeman’s] first book proves to be a winning and moving success.... A decade in the making, The Jersey Brothers adds an authoritative entry to the vast canon of war literature, one that elicits cheers, tears and a few jeers.... Freeman’s dogged investigative skills, the truth they reveal and her ability to render it with grace combine to make her book — a gripping story of courage and carnage, heroism and horror, devotion and death — unforgettable.”
– Richmond Times-Dispatch
“A captivating tour-de-force that immediately stands tall with the best of other World War II combat literature.... Freeman weaves together a story that will tug at the emotions of anyone who has ever known someone who has worn our nation’s uniform in peacetime or at war.”
– San Antonio Express-News
“In her moving new epic The Jersey Brothers, Sally Mott Freeman captures a story of love, devotion and perseverance shared by three inspiring siblings caught in the epicenter of some of the war’s most crucial actions... A rare look into the deepest personal emotions of a family of America’s Greatest Generation.”
– The Dallas Morning News
“The Jersey Brothers brings welcome comparisons to Laura Hildebrand’s Unbroken... both masterfully written stories of endurance and sacrifice that tell bigger truths than the experience of individuals during wartime.”
– Naval History
“Deserves a translation to screen as compelling as “Saving Private Ryan.’’ The Jersey Boys lasting message is: If we learn from our past we can prevent such atrocities in the present. This book is so much more than a summer read; it should be a required one.”
– Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“The Jersey Brothers captures the real-life story of three brothers whose bond to family and love for country take them to extraordinary lengths at one of the most pivotal points in American history. From the decks of the USS Enterprise to the depths of the Japanese prison camps, Sally Mott Freeman takes readers on an epic journey in this remarkable tribute to the Greatest Generation.”
– Senator John McCain, New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Soldiers
“A terrific book that I was just totally captivated by.”
– Hillary Rodham Clinton
“A great summer read by a splendid writer.... The characters are vividly drawn, the action riveting, and the suspense almost overwhelming.”
– Karl Rove, New York Times bestselling author of Courage and Consequence
“A searing story of courage, love, and family. The Jersey Brothers is impressively broad in scope—from Roosevelt’s White House to the great battles of the Pacific to prisoner of war camps deep in the Philippine jungle—and brimming with endlessly fascinating details that only real soldiers could know.”
– Jay Winik, New York Times bestselling author of 1944
“Do we need another book about WWII? If it is as engaging as The Jersey Brothers, the answer is a resounding yes.... The Jersey Brothers is an important addition to the historical record; it's also a spellbinding cliffhanger.”
– New Jersey Monthly
“Richly informed by Freeman’s deep research, The Jersey Brothers is a powerfully evocative story of three brothers and their remarkable love, courage, and adventure during a decisive moment in World War II.”
– Don Katz, founder and CEO of Audible and author of Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America
“An obvious labor of love.... A touching, suspenseful and deeply troubling story of one family’s patriotic devotion and betrayal.... Meticulously researched and compelling history.”
– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“As engaging and readable as a fine novel.”
– Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Freeman’s riveting account reads like fiction, and proves that the well of compelling war narratives has nowhere near run dry.”
– Business Insider
“Author Sally Mott Freeman takes an intimately human approach to this war story, adding a meaningful and memorable chapter to our understanding of the Greatest Generation.”
– The Amazon Book Review (Best Book of the Month)
“This true tale would make the perfect Father’s Day gift.... A touching, intimate tale of family, loyalty, and the harsh realities of war, this well-researched true story is bound to please any dad – just don’t be surprised to find him bawling his eyes out by the final page.”
– BookTrib
“A riveting war story. But it is a family story as well, its gripping moments in time meticulously assembled by Freeman.”
– Bergen Record
“Too exciting to be quite believable as fiction; luckily, it’s entirely true.... Deeply researched, intelligently judged, vividly presented.... And at its heart [The Jersey Brothers is] a serious, indeed deeply moving, family novel: you’ll remember the mother of these guys as vividly as the brothers themselves.”
– Sullivan County Democrat
“This story of pain and brotherly love... makes the perfect choice for a summer read.”
– Asbury Park Press
“This nonfiction book is one that reads like a novel.”
– Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
“Freeman proves to be a strongly motivated researcher, who poignantly conveys a sorrowful experience encountered by thousands of American families in WWII.”
– Booklist
“A touching story.... Provides insights into Japanese treatment of POWs and the daily life of these prisoners.... Recommended for readers looking for personal accounts of World War II.”
– Library Journal
Library Journal
03/01/2017
Freeman's (board chair, the Writer's Ctr.) latest book is an investigation into her uncle's fate. Barton and his brothers Benny and Bill were navy officers during World War II. While serving in the Pacific theater, Barton was captured during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The primary theme is the family's attempts to determine Barton's whereabouts during and after the war, with the conflict in the Pacific as the backdrop. The narrative provides insights into Japanese treatment of POWs and the daily life of these prisoners. Some chapters are nearly documentary histories, with transcribed correspondence among family members. Some flaws hinder the book's value, including its length and that many conversations are not cited. Interviews conducted more than 60 year after World War II form the basis for much of the content. VERDICT A touching story that would have been better in abbreviated form. Recommended for readers looking for personal accounts of World War II, instead of a history.--Matthew Wayman, Pennsylvania State Univ. Lib., Schuylkill Haven
AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile
With her soft and confident voice, narrator Cassandra Campbell gives a splendid reading of Freeman’s book about her father’s and his brothers’ experiences in WWII and how these impacted her family. The three brothers all attended the Naval Academy, with the youngest being a logistics officer in the Philippines. What was seen as a cushy assignment became the opposite when he was wounded in the Japanese invasion and taken to Japan, where he eventually died in captivity. Campbell’s soft, clear voice is appropriately nuanced and expressive, and she affects different voices for male and female quotes and dialogue without sounding artificial. Moving at a steady and easy-to-follow pace, she enunciates well. This production is a perfect match of narrator and text. M.T.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-03-21
The plight of three brothers and their mother during one of the most shameful episodes of World War II.The abandonment of American servicemen in the defense of the Philippines in 1942 propelled Freeman—a former speechwriter and public relations executive and current board chair of The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland—to re-create the tragic story of her uncle, Barton Cross, who suffered a long imprisonment in Japanese POW camps. In a fluid, restrained, and deeply researched narrative, the author returns to the awful chaos just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Cross, a Supply Corps officer on the submarine tender USS Otus, was wounded by shrapnel in the subsequent Japanese air attack on Cavite Navy Base, Manila, and inexplicably left behind by his ship at Sternberg Hospital. Moreover, while Gen. Douglas MacArthur had ordered the evacuation of the Army wounded on the last vessel to depart Manila before the city fell to the Japanese, the 30-some Navy wounded were again neglected. They were eventually transported over the next three years—along with thousands of other captured American servicemen—from one miserable Japanese POW camp to another. "The macabre displays," writes Freeman, "were intended to humiliate the captured Americans and brandish the new Japanese dominion over the Filipinos." Meanwhile, Cross' two older half brothers, Benny and Bill, "lifelong protectors" and "Annapolis-minted officers," along with their mother, Helen, frantically lobbied to find news of their lost brother, as conditions in the camps were notoriously bad, and several of the POW ships were bombed late in the war by U.S. attacks. Freeman has reopened the long-closed inquiry into her uncle's account and scoured the diaries and letters that Helen wrote to Washington, D.C., as well as those written by fellow prisoners. The result is an obvious labor of love, a touching, suspenseful, and deeply troubling story of one family's patriotic devotion and betrayal. A grieving family ultimately finds closure in this meticulously researched and compelling history.