CRITICAL PRAISE FOR JAMES RYAN'S SHOUTS
“In this big-hearted novel of New York there is the portrait of the great city that was, and the stirring people from whose lives our own have sprung.”
--James Salter, PEN/Faulkner Award winner and author of A Sport and A Pastime, Dusk and other stories, Burning the Days and other works.
“James Ryan’s book is a historical thriller written with great intelligence and urgency for our times.”
—Maureen Howard, National Book Critics Circle Award winner and author of Facts of Life, Natural History, Big As Life, and others.
“SHOUTS is an evocative and richly descriptive novel about The Bronx almost a century ago, when it was on New York City’s northern frontier. James Ryan’s book is accurate in virtually every detail and provides a wonderful way to recapture a time and a place that are now lost to most of us.”
—Kenneth T. Jackson, Ph.D.,Barzun Professor of History, Columbia University, and Editor of The Encyclopedia of New York City.
“SHOUTS is a provocative novel set in the era of the Great War about The Bronx, New York City when it was the exemplar of many German-Irish communities in our major cities. James Ryan’s book is resonant with the experiences of those times, and provides a powerful insight for these times regarding the vulnerability of civil liberties in a democracy at war.”
—Jerome J. Comello, Ph.D., (Colonel, U.S. Army Retired), Professor of Military Studies, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
“Of the books that now cross this editor’s desk, two out of every ten are in some way related to terrorism. Of these, there are a very few that deserve our attention…. In a departure from our policy of not reviewing or recommending works of fiction or novels, I am obligated to direct our reader’s attention to a sumptuous literary tapestry, an intricate weaving of history and fiction, SHOUTS by James Ryan. This is a story of a world long ago that most in America have never known or long forgotten. Ryan leaves the reader with an uneasy feeling that the acts of hatred and vindictiveness that characterized this particular era in American history are amazingly reflective of life within many of today’s metropolitan areas. The author has produced a classical narrative, rich in detail and interlaced with just the right amount of history to keep the reader impatiently turning pages until the very last word.”
--Robert H. Taylor, Editor, Parameters: The US Army War College Quarterly (The United States Army's Senior Professional Journal).
“At first glance, there may be nothing natural about The Bronx, long a byword for urban deprivation, crime and misery. But some know better, not least James Ryan, a professor of literature, West Point graduate, and child of The Bronx. In this needle-point-fine historical novel, Irish and German immigrants throng The Bronx in 1915, a time of war when loyalties are stretched to the breaking point. German spies are believed everywhere, Irish firebrands denounce their fellow immigrants from Germany and as April and Springtime unfold in The Bronx, the Lusitania is sunk with explosive consequences. What of those intermarried families with both Irish and German running in their blood? That’s where young Tommy Muldoon comes in.”
--Eileen Murphy, Arts Editor, Irish Echo
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