 September/October 2002
Miracle At St. Anna
by James McBride
Journalist James McBride, author of the best-selling memoir The Color Of Water paints a picture using a true historic incident as a backdrop to illustrate something out of the ordinary in his latest offering, Miracle At St. Anna. The author weaves a poignant story where a German SS unit massacred more than five hundred civilians. There were five or six survivors, including a small child, closely associated to the character Sam Train in the story.
From this scenario, the 'miracle' takes place as Train encounters a marble head that the Germans shot off a statue during a ferocious firefight. Train, looking for anything to salvage as a good luck piece, retrieves it believing that the head of the statue makes him invisible to the German front. In being rescued, the boy regards the giant Train in awe as his personal savior giving the story color and feeling. I felt that the heart of this story is relived through the eyes of the author as he uses timely vignettes interacting different aspects of each character's interpretation of whether there's a true need to fight.The fact that the author attempted to lace the main story with yet another point of contention says more for his courage and willingness to illustrate an analogy distinctive to a segment of military lore.
History's Buffalo Soldiers whose hey day after the Civil War were known for their tenacious heroics and bravery, but more often than not was ignored by the U.S. Army for what they stood for, adds intrigue to give the story a special bent. Coming home after the war there were no parades, no slaps on the back, and certainly no equal status afforded them in putting their lives on the line. The parallels to these famous figures to the characters that McBride offers here raises questions, thus allowing for a unique dilemma: How do you fight for freedom across the water when there's no freedom at home?
In tackling this subject, the author veers from the original focus causing a shift in storyline stability. The aforementioned is such a larger concern that one would wonder whether it would be served better as the subject of another book! However, value warrants itself above mediocrity with superb character makeup.
The characters: Train, a slow dim-witted man from North Carolina; Bishop, a self-claimed egocentric minister; Hector, the Puerto Rican radio man; and Lt. Aubrey Stamps, the man who is given the unenviable task of molding this unit into a cohesive set of men to do the job assigned. I felt that the author did a wonderful job of assigning flavor to the story and making all of them congruous to the roles they play. In doing so he's able to engage the differences among them.
Bigger issues are discussed in the book, but McBride seems to struggle at times reflecting on them in lieu of dealing with the moral questions that are implied throughout the book. As such, it becomes a matter of conjecture whether those questions are answered with clarity. Readers may find the last half of it an anomalous twisting of a good plot, and may find it disappointing. Switching to mainstream fiction efforts like this after writing serious literature may give the effect and propensity to scrutinize an author's work more closely than needed. Perhaps after a few more quality fiction titles under his belt, he'll be judged appropriately for a successful transition and great storytelling to boot. This could be the start that may give him a great start. This is truly for McBride fans!
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