Seize Your Copy The Candlestickmaker Written By Dennis McDougal Distributed In Booklet

is an excellent book, It is deliciously American, full of sex, intrigue, and painful awareness, Every American who thinks they understand America's influence in the world should read this book, Every American who thinks they understands America's influence in their life absolutely MUST read this book, "They can teach you whatever you need to make war, but you learn to make peace on your own, "

The Candlestickmaker takes us back to a time best remembered through a haze because the reality was sometimes worse than our senses could handle, America, the land of the free, was in a state of chaos, a generation trying to figure out what was real and what was a lie, "Always question authority" being the mantra to live by, but when questions got too prickly, the answers were better kept below the radar, Three men, each from different backgrounds, with different dreams and aspirations, bonded together, but traveled three paths, The story weaves through the journey taken, one that should have been a proud journey, but turned out to be quite the opposite, The Candlestickmaker is the one who receives the wisdom and light and is the only one with the ability to find freedom from the disasters occurring on all levels,

The secrets they learned, about each other and about their mission would change the course of their lives completely, as well as the lives of a generation who played in the gardens of peace and love with flowers in their hair, and ended up cynical and angry at a government which participated underhandedly in the game of war.


Dennis McDougal writes with truth and grit, and although his first novel, it's written with the same attention to detail as all his previous books, Coming from a seasoned journalist, the story of The Candlestickmaker could very well be the true story of hundreds of others who unknowingly participated in the true evils of war, and still wonder exactly who was the enemy.
The Candlestickmaker follows Ernie Brigham as he and his fellow soldiers are changed by what they experience during the Vietnam War, The story is complex and interesting, and shows how people both in the military and back home were changed by the war, I did have a tough time getting into the story at first, as the characters dialogue was full of racist/homophobic remarks I guess to reflect attitudes of the time, but I still think that the overall plot/storyline is strong.
I was compelled to finish this book because I kept trying to figure out where the story was going, I felt zero connection with any of the characters the mains seemed only half developed, and there were too many other minor characters, So much time was spent on introducing a multitude of characters that I found myself unable to recall who each was how many Roberts do we need, why he was important and what he had to do with the great secret of the ship.
A secret that's described in the beginning and "revealed" with little detail or actual revelation in the

final chapter, None of the information pulls together the described events, which seem typical and not instigated by secret government programs, The whole experience seemed like an excuse to highlight rape, racism/homophobia, rampant drug use, military impropriety/impunity and confused youth without actually provoking any real thought or making any new comment.
I had little expectation for this book, yet I was disappointed in the end, I still feel as lost as the three main characters supposedly were, review to follow Aboard the spy ship U, S. S. Argosy in the wartossed waters off the coast of Vietnam, three young American sailors form an unlikely bond, Each has fled an America they were raised to love but somehow no longer understand, When forced to choose whether to face combat or stay and fight the war in the streets, they sign up for a war that reflects the conflict that raged inside each of them.
The one thing of which they were certain was that the only people in the world they could depend on were each other, As their friendship deepens in the bars and brothels from Hong Kong to Subic Bay, Ernie Brigham and his companions slowly become aware of a dark secret aboard the U.
S. S. Argosy. Upon their return to the America they left behind, they are changed at best, lost and damaged at worst, but ultimately sobered by a war that never should have been fought.
In the tradition of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, and Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, The Candlestickmaker recalls a Vietnam that seared disenchantment into a post World War II generation who learned to question authority at all levels.
A comingofage story bookended by revelations that shatter readers' illusions about patriotism, government, and the nature of modern warfare, The Candlestickmaker takes readers on a voyage that will guarantee they never read the Mother Goose nursery rhyme to their children in quite the same way again.
.