I really appreciated receiving this book for review. In the end, it was not my kind of book, because I find it confusing and hard to follow when books switch back and forth between two narrative streams separated by decades. The juxtaposition between the anti-war sentiments of the 1970s and the situation of men actually fighting an arguably "just war" in the 1940s was interesting though. The book being based on historical events was also interesting, but as always with fictionalized history I would have appreciated details on what was known and what was changed. This was a first novel for the author and I hope he continues to write.

Having been a young adult at the time of the Vietnam War the moral and ethical questions raised by the book ring true.
A father who served in the Pacific, an uncle who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and a brother who did not come home from Vietnam this book serves to make one continue to struggle with the questions put forth. Not an easy read but a worthwhile one. Thank you JK Hall! ( )

This is a well-written and thought provoking historical fiction account based on the author's father's experiences growing up in a dysfunctional and abusive family then heading off to fight as an officer in the Second World War. Along the way Captain Hall meets Captain Shinn. The paths of the two Captains cross numerous times and it is Shinn (who becomes a University professor in New York) who recounts his actions and those of Captain Hall to his students who are struggling to understand the morality of war, especially the ongoing Vietnam War.
A recommended read. Thank you J.K. Hall for writing this and for the photo of your father on the book cover that makes it so relatable and real. ( )

"Rare Encounter" by J.K. Hall is a book about war, however, it is more anti
war than pro war. The narrator is Professor Schinn at Columbia University Union Theological Seminary who has experience the horrors of war having been a soldier in WWII.. The story takes place in the seventies when students on campuses are protesting against the Vietnam war and this particular college is the seat of great unrest.

Professor Schinn has created an anti-war seminar based upon his war experiences and those of his friends. Other faculty members don't want him to offer this seminar and he is threatened with academic discipline. Students taking it appear bored but need it to graduate. Once Schinn makes the story more personal students become more attentive.

Schinn tells about the soldiers leaving the US and traveling to London, England to serve on a military transport. They are serving on a stripped-down version of the Queen Elizabeth. They are housed in hammocks hanging from the boat's ceiling and experiencing terrible food resulting in stomach problems. Many incidents are related that tell of the tragic devastation to men's minds and constitutions during war and the ethical dilemmas most soldiers face in battle. Readers will appreciate the raw quality of the descriptive writing and the compelling stories of courage and compassion they find in this interesting book. ( )

4.5 stars rounded up for a thought provoking book about the morality of war and the decisions that individuals make in the crucible of war. The book opens with the description of John William Hall, 1 of 2 principal characters in the book. The first 100 pages describe John's life as a teenager in rural Oklahoma and his enlistment in the Oklahoma National Guard.
Part 2 introduces the 2nd main character, Roger Lincoln Shinn, a graduate of Heidelberg College, B.A. , 1938, and Union Theological Seminary, summa cum laude, 1941. With these degrees, he could be an Army chaplain, but he enlists in the Army as a private and later volunteers for Officer Candidates School. He meets John Hall on the troop ship to England in 1944. They are both Captains and form a bond.
The rest of the book switches back and forth between WWII and 1965 Union Theological Seminary, where Roger Shinn is now a professor. The horrors that he endured in WWII resurface as the US escalates its presence in Vietnam. He starts attending anti war rallies. He has not talked about his time in WWII to anyone since the end of the war. But he decides to resurrect these memories and talk to his class of students in his Ethics and Philosophy course.
His very personal recollections, along with those of John Hall, form the rest of the book. This book brought back memories of the US at that time. The country was as divided then as it is now.
I recommend this book to any WWII vet or anyone interested in the decisions men make during war.
Thanks to John Kyle Hall, Windage & Elevation Press for sending me this book through LibraryThing.
The author bio does not mention any relation to John William Hall. It took me 10 days to read this book, thinking about the moral questions raised in the book.
Two quotes: 13 year old John Hall: "Like Oklahoma roads the boy was more length than breadth. Though he rarely failed to reach his destination, the hems of his garments never seemed to reach theirs. His garb was old and had lost much of its color like grass too long under a bucket."
Roger Shinn, describing the death of a soldier to a conservative colleague critical of his anti war comments: "I was there Eb. That bullet flew so damn true. I heard a pop then a wwwhhhiiiit. It entered his neck, a perfect kill shot, and blasted out the other side. Blood doesn't ooze or drip, you know, not from a wound like that. It coursed out of the breach in that numinous nineteen year old soldier like some sacred scarlet arc. Must have been a four or five foot surge before it bent towards the earth." ( )