Review
Title: Under Old Glory: A Novella of War, Love, and Faith
Author: Chris McClelland
Publisher: Independent
Genre: Historical Fiction
Year Published: 2021
Number of Pages: 93
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 978-1091849839
Price: 5.50
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
I didn’t know quite what to expect from Chris McClelland’s Under Old Glory, and I am not quite the target audience, but I still found some things of interest. The novella seems aimed at a young audience, with the story likely ideal for some mature middle-grade readers. McClelland’s work feels like an expansion of a story that you could expect to see in the Ensign or the youth magazine formerly known as The New Era. Some readers might immediately find that off-putting, but once I acclimated to that genre, I found some surprising ideas contained in this fairly straightforward story.
Under Old Glory is at its best when it allows for quite complex and nuanced emotions to shine through, what could have been presented in didactic and moralizing tones. McClelland’s story follows two Mormon brothers, Bill and Hyrum Fratelli, who enlist in the US Army during World War I. McClelland offers some compelling insight into Hyrum’s faith and the ways that the violence of war causes him to question some of what he thought he knew. To the novella’s credit, the questions that plague Hyrum are not dismissed out of hand, but are presented as legitimate questions to have and to ponder. The tensions and questions were resolved a little too quickly for my tastes, but that’s largely a convention of the genre that McClelland is working in (as much as I would like to have seen those conventions pushed and challenged a bit more).
I found McClelland’s prose a little straightforward and simplistic, but again, that’s largely fitting, I think, for the age and genre the novella is aiming for. While I wished for something that pushed the boundaries a bit more of this sort of story (dwelling longer and more deeply on the questions and concerns of Hyrum, the complicated mix of feelings surrounding many of the events, etc.), Under Old Glory largely accomplishes what it sets out to do. A nice, straightforward, and faith-affirming tale for young readers.
For more information on author Chris McClelland go to https://www.blogger.com/profile/06021902020636906542