ARTICLES OF WAR

George Tilson is known as "Heck" to his fellow soldiers because he doesn't swear as they do. The Iowa teenager, headed for the war in Germany shortly after D-Day, doesn't share his comrades' sense of adventure either. During his first horrific exposure to combat, he discovers an awful truth about himself. He's a coward. Yet his behavior is only viewed as cowardice during wartime. The rest of the time it would be considered humane. His ultimate confrontation with the inhumanity of war comes when he's selected to be a member of a firing squad, a kind of perverse penance for his battlefront actions. J.D. Cullum narrates with a tone of spiritual withdrawal that seems exactly suited to the moral dilemmas faced by Heck. Both story and reading are compelling, their message challenging. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE/JULY 05]