![]() Each chapter (except the epilogue) is framed as a letter from Dana Canedy to her son Jordan, telling him about his father, his parents' lives and relationship, and his father's death. At no point was I drawn into these people's lives in a meaningful way. However, just because a situation is tragic does not mean it deserves a book. The premise is something that deserves attention-the losses attendant upon war, memory, grief-and it truly is tragic that Dana Canedy's fiancé Charles was killed in Iraq and that her son will not know his father. Ultimately, not only did I intensely dislike this book, but I don't think it's a particularly appropriate choice for this kind of program. I teach Freshman English, so I wanted to see what we were getting into. That means that all incoming freshmen will read this book and all Freshman English classes will have to feature it. ![]() I read this book because it has been chosen as next year's OneBook selection for my university. I always feel like such a bitch when I'm critical of them because it seems like I'm criticizing a real person instead of a character and, in this case, because it is about a soldier and his family, it may even seem like I'm not being sufficiently supportive of the troops. A Journal for Jordan is a tender introduction, a loving good-bye, a reporter's inquiry into her soldier's life, and a heartrending reminder of the human cost of war. This is also the story of Dana and Charles together-two seemingly mismatched souls who loved each other deeply and lost each other too soon. He finished the journal two months before his death while home on a two-week leave, so intoxicated with love for his infant son that he barely slept. And he also wrote, from his tent, of recovering a young soldier's body, piece by piece, from a tank-and the importance of honoring that young man's life. In neat block letters, he counseled him on everything from how to withstand disappointment and deal with adversaries to how to behave on a date. It is also a father's advice and prayers for the son he will never know.Ī father figure to the soldiers under his command, Charles moved naturally into writing to his son. ![]() ![]() A Journal for Jordan is a mother's fiercely honest letter to her child about the parent he lost before he could even speak. Inspired by his example, Dana was determined to preserve his memory for their son. He was killed by a roadside bomb on October 14, 2006. In 2005, Dana Canedy's fiancé, First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, began to write what would become a two-hundred-page journal for his son in case he did not make it home from the war in Iraq. ![]()
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