A friend gifted me with this book and I wasn't sure what to expect since I knew this was the author's first novel. Wow! What a debut! The book is classified as "historic fiction" which is a genre I normally wouldn't care much about - but Anna's Boys turned out to be a page-turning great read, filled with characters who had me emotionally invested in their lives from the outset.

Bill Pezza is a writer who understands the notion that the political is always personal, and therein lies the power of this novel. Pezza, who is also apparently a high school history teacher, doesn't drag us into a political treatise on why the United States entered the Vietnam conflict, or try to analyze its dark course; instead, he uses this controversial war and simply (albeit dramatically) examines the very personal ways it impacted the lives of seven young friends and the people who loved them.

The way Pezza crafted this compelling tale brings to mind the 60s slogan "Think globally, act locally." The global spectrum of the war is the catalyst for what happens to the boys, but their individual stories, and how they played out in a working-class community, are what drive the book. Thankfully, the author avoids the trap of being preachy or persuading readers to take a pro or anti-war stance. We see and experience the war through the eyes of the young men who are all significantly affected, but end up taking very unique journeys during those tumultuous years. Friendship is their enduring bond, and Pezza does a beautiful job revealing the connections too powerful for even a divisive war to destroy
-Fiction Lover
Never knew "Historic Fiction" could be this good!, August 6, 2006

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