Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Candlestickmaker

Author: Dennis McDougal

Narrator: Michael Meenan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-31-13

Publisher: Dennis McDougal

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Aboard the spy ship U.S.S. Argosy in the war-tossed waters off the coast of Vietnam, three young American sailors form an unlikely bond. Each has fled an America they were raised to love but somehow no longer understand. When forced to choose whether to face combat or stay and fight the war in the streets, they sign up for a war that reflects the conflict that raged inside each of them. The one thing of which they were certain was that the only people in the world they could depend on were each other.

As their friendship deepens in the bars and brothels from Hong Kong to Subic Bay, Ernie Brigham and his companions slowly become aware of a dark secret aboard the U.S.S. Argosy. Upon their return to the America they left behind, they are changed at best, lost and damaged at worst, but ultimately sobered by a war that never should have been fought.

In the tradition of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, and Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, The Candlestickmaker recalls a Vietnam that seared disenchantment into a post-World War II generation who learned to question authority at all levels. A coming-of-age story bookended by revelations that shatter readers' illusions about patriotism, government, and the nature of modern warfare, The Candlestickmaker takes listeners on a voyage that will guarantee they never read the Mother Goose nursery rhyme to their children in quite the same way again.

Members Reviews:

The Candlestickmaker

This book held my interest throughout!! Great story. The relationship of the 3 men in the tub was touching. After reading the story I went back to the beginning and reread the part describing the lawyers office. Very funny. Will read again just to see what else I missed in the first reading. Brought back memories of that sad time in our history.

McDougal Genius

I'm so impressed with McDougal's writing. I couldn't stop reading once I started; not in a frantic way, but with a deep interest in the life of the story. This is GREAT storytelling.

Was this story going anywhere?

I was compelled to finish this book because I kept trying to figure out where the story was going. I felt zero connection with any of the characters; the mains seemed only half developed, and there were too many other minor characters. So much time was spent on introducing a multitude of characters that I found myself unable to recall who each was (how many Roberts do we need?), why he was important and what he had to do with the great secret of the ship. A secret that's described in the beginning and "revealed" with little detail or actual revelation in the final chapter. None of the information pulls together the described events, which seem typical and not instigated by secret government programs. The whole experience seemed like an excuse to highlight rape, racism/homophobia, rampant drug use, military impropriety/impunity and confused youth without actually provoking any real thought or making any new comment. I had little expectation for this book, yet I was disappointed in the end.