What do you think?
Rate this book
Eleven Days
When the story opens on May 11, 2011, Sara’s son, Jason, has been missing for nine days from a Special Operations Forces mission on the same night as the Bin Laden raid. Smart, young, and bohemian, Sara had dreams of an Ivy League university for Jason that were not out of reach, followed by a job on the Hill where there were connections through his father. The events of 9/11 changed Jason’s mind and Sara accepted that, steeping herself in all things military to better understand her son’s days, while she works as a freelance editor for Washington policy makers and wonks.
Now she knows nothing more about Jason’s fate than the crowds of well-wishers and media camped out in the driveway in front of her small farmhouse in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, waiting to hear news. In a series of flashbacks we learn about Jason’s dashing absentee father, a man who said he was a writer but whose career seemed to involve being in faraway places. And through letters Jason writes home from his training and early missions, we get a picture of a strong, compassionate leader who is wise beyond his years and modest about his abilities. Those exceptional abilities will give Jason the chance to participate in a wholly different level of assignment, the most important and dangerous of his career. At the end Sara will find herself on an unexpected journey full of surprise.
Now she knows nothing more about Jason’s fate than the crowds of well-wishers and media camped out in the driveway in front of her small farmhouse in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, waiting to hear news. In a series of flashbacks we learn about Jason’s dashing absentee father, a man who said he was a writer but whose career seemed to involve being in faraway places. And through letters Jason writes home from his training and early missions, we get a picture of a strong, compassionate leader who is wise beyond his years and modest about his abilities. Those exceptional abilities will give Jason the chance to participate in a wholly different level of assignment, the most important and dangerous of his career. At the end Sara will find herself on an unexpected journey full of surprise.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews
January 9, 2019
Jason is a member of the Special Operations
Force in the Navy Seals. He’s missing....
( right after a fictional raid on the same night that Osama Bin Ladin was killed).
His mother, Sara, is ...’crazy-worried’ of his whereabouts.
This is a very intimate story. Not at ‘all’ boring.
While Sara is waiting to get word about her son... (I was anxious to know how things would turn out) ....
we learn a lot about Jason through Sara....
.....Harvard strong possibility -
humble - many gifts - a strong athletic guy with a sensitive compassionate soul.
After 9/11... Jason was clear of what he wanted to do. He told his mother - he wasn’t going to college - but felt the need to serve in the military. She couldn’t change his mind.
This story - suspenseful and personal - is written with so much realistic emotion..
and about the emotions of war for Jason too - ( we see this in letters) - that it won’t be a story a reader forgets.
Sara was only 37 years old.. still a girl to many who knew her..
but friends started to notice changes in her.
Her increasing interest in all things military ran parallel to her son’s becoming an officer.
She loved her son!!!
“Had he decided to join the circus, she might have developed an obsession with elephants”.
“Elephants would have been easier. There was a new generation of soldiers and sailors born that September day. Sarah had not lost her son on 9/11; she lost him later to something she could not provide at home”.
Powerful - heartfelt!!!!!!
Force in the Navy Seals. He’s missing....
( right after a fictional raid on the same night that Osama Bin Ladin was killed).
His mother, Sara, is ...’crazy-worried’ of his whereabouts.
This is a very intimate story. Not at ‘all’ boring.
While Sara is waiting to get word about her son... (I was anxious to know how things would turn out) ....
we learn a lot about Jason through Sara....
.....Harvard strong possibility -
humble - many gifts - a strong athletic guy with a sensitive compassionate soul.
After 9/11... Jason was clear of what he wanted to do. He told his mother - he wasn’t going to college - but felt the need to serve in the military. She couldn’t change his mind.
This story - suspenseful and personal - is written with so much realistic emotion..
and about the emotions of war for Jason too - ( we see this in letters) - that it won’t be a story a reader forgets.
Sara was only 37 years old.. still a girl to many who knew her..
but friends started to notice changes in her.
Her increasing interest in all things military ran parallel to her son’s becoming an officer.
She loved her son!!!
“Had he decided to join the circus, she might have developed an obsession with elephants”.
“Elephants would have been easier. There was a new generation of soldiers and sailors born that September day. Sarah had not lost her son on 9/11; she lost him later to something she could not provide at home”.
Powerful - heartfelt!!!!!!
September 1, 2013
The book blurb promised a “haunting story of a single mother, and her Navy SEAL son.” Probably maudlin and jingoistic, I thought. And I took a pass…until friends urged me to give it a try. Don’t make the same mistake I nearly did. This is a fantastic book without a false note. It’s intelligently written, non-manipulative, and, in certain places, really heart rendering. And it has very much transformed my perception of Navy SEALS…a perception that recognized their heroism without fully understanding what the external and internal wars they must fight.
Sara’s son Jason is the very embodiment of a Navy SEAL – “soldier, scholar, son.” The only child of a somewhat stoical and loving mother and a much-older father who is no longer around, Jason surprises himself and his mother by signing up for SEAL training after nine eleven.
He finds himself training for a much different conflict than, say, the Vietnam War. He writes his mother, “What we are learning now is that so much of warfare is fought at close quarters, and the essence of fighting in close quarters is restraint. Restraint, intelligence, conservation. This emphasis changes the calculus of war.”
Slowly but surely, Jason goes through the rigorous training of a Navy SEAL. He learns that “feelings are things to be analyzed and discarded before the load-out.” Gradually, he learns to be in complete control of his emotions: he rarely has anxiety pangs or doubts and increasingly, his training even takes over the fabric of his dreams. Ms. Carpenter writes, “The emotional arc of an operator is not unlike that of most civilians: born idealistic, cynicism comes from experience, and then develops into caustic optimism – or acceptance – of the tasks at hand. Controlling emotion when op tempo isn’t a skill; it’s an art.”
Jason is not an automaton, though. He develops strong and protective feelings for his Team members, remains a loving son, is a scholar who knows his history, philosophy, and literature, and believes strongly in his own sense of purpose. It is very, very obvious that Ms. Carpenter has conducted many interviews with actual SEALS and she breathes life into her character.
The other side of the equation is Sara. While Jason sees heroism, she sees mindless sacrifice. To her, Jason is not a hero on a mission; he is her son, her world. And while she does not deny the risks – Jason’s father, after all, was tangentially involved with the military -- her toughness is tempered by a mother’s loving concern.
The title – Eleven Days – represents the number of days that Jason goes missing while on a high profile mission. Written with pristine precision and powerful prose, this book may break your heart. In unexpected ways, it broke mine.
Sara’s son Jason is the very embodiment of a Navy SEAL – “soldier, scholar, son.” The only child of a somewhat stoical and loving mother and a much-older father who is no longer around, Jason surprises himself and his mother by signing up for SEAL training after nine eleven.
He finds himself training for a much different conflict than, say, the Vietnam War. He writes his mother, “What we are learning now is that so much of warfare is fought at close quarters, and the essence of fighting in close quarters is restraint. Restraint, intelligence, conservation. This emphasis changes the calculus of war.”
Slowly but surely, Jason goes through the rigorous training of a Navy SEAL. He learns that “feelings are things to be analyzed and discarded before the load-out.” Gradually, he learns to be in complete control of his emotions: he rarely has anxiety pangs or doubts and increasingly, his training even takes over the fabric of his dreams. Ms. Carpenter writes, “The emotional arc of an operator is not unlike that of most civilians: born idealistic, cynicism comes from experience, and then develops into caustic optimism – or acceptance – of the tasks at hand. Controlling emotion when op tempo isn’t a skill; it’s an art.”
Jason is not an automaton, though. He develops strong and protective feelings for his Team members, remains a loving son, is a scholar who knows his history, philosophy, and literature, and believes strongly in his own sense of purpose. It is very, very obvious that Ms. Carpenter has conducted many interviews with actual SEALS and she breathes life into her character.
The other side of the equation is Sara. While Jason sees heroism, she sees mindless sacrifice. To her, Jason is not a hero on a mission; he is her son, her world. And while she does not deny the risks – Jason’s father, after all, was tangentially involved with the military -- her toughness is tempered by a mother’s loving concern.
The title – Eleven Days – represents the number of days that Jason goes missing while on a high profile mission. Written with pristine precision and powerful prose, this book may break your heart. In unexpected ways, it broke mine.
July 18, 2017
I was expecting something a bit different when I read some of the reviews. Not that I was disappointed or didn't like it, but it wasn't what I had thought it would be. It's hard to write a book about SEALs, make it have virtually no action, but still be interesting. Carpenter did that.
The book is about Sara, a single mother with Washington connections, and Jason, her son, who grows up and enlists after 9/11. It switches view points and jumps in time. Sara had an affair with a man who has high level connections, and got pregnant. He didn't stick around, but is a shadowy presence until his death is reported. Jason grows up, joins the SEALs, and then Sara gets the call no parent wants to hear: Your son is missing after a mission.
The time jumps are about Sara raising Jason, and his training with the SEALs. It captures a parent's worry and the closeness between soldiers. In the "now" Sara gets a lot of calls, gifts of food, and even a guest in the from of Sam, Jason's former Team mate who medicaled out after losing an eye. Eventually, she gets the call that they found him and her friends come together to get her to his side. The trip has surprise after surprise as she learns little is what she thought it was.
The good: rich emotions, the devotion of Jason to his team and Sara to Jason is never in doubt. There's some decent history about Special Forces along the way as well.
The bad: She writes a bit oddly. Question marks are a rarity. Jason's girlfriend is around a lot but never gets a name. We get that the characters feel deeply but not always a good handle on why. The missing father is kind of a jerk IMHO. Decent read, but NOT a military action tale. More a story of a mother and her love for her son.
The book is about Sara, a single mother with Washington connections, and Jason, her son, who grows up and enlists after 9/11. It switches view points and jumps in time. Sara had an affair with a man who has high level connections, and got pregnant. He didn't stick around, but is a shadowy presence until his death is reported. Jason grows up, joins the SEALs, and then Sara gets the call no parent wants to hear: Your son is missing after a mission.
The time jumps are about Sara raising Jason, and his training with the SEALs. It captures a parent's worry and the closeness between soldiers. In the "now" Sara gets a lot of calls, gifts of food, and even a guest in the from of Sam, Jason's former Team mate who medicaled out after losing an eye. Eventually, she gets the call that they found him and her friends come together to get her to his side. The trip has surprise after surprise as she learns little is what she thought it was.
The good: rich emotions, the devotion of Jason to his team and Sara to Jason is never in doubt. There's some decent history about Special Forces along the way as well.
The bad: She writes a bit oddly. Question marks are a rarity. Jason's girlfriend is around a lot but never gets a name. We get that the characters feel deeply but not always a good handle on why. The missing father is kind of a jerk IMHO. Decent read, but NOT a military action tale. More a story of a mother and her love for her son.
September 11, 2013
The events of 9/11 led to a whole new generation of voluntarily enlisted soldiers, those who wanted to serve their country. Sara’s son, Jason, who is a literature/poetry lover with eight well-connected godfathers, seemed to be Harvard bound. But after 9/11 happened during his senior year of high school, he decided he wanted to become a Navy SEAL. His father, who he last saw when he was 8 years-old, and who was reported dead years ago, was a CIA-type journalist who was 30 years older than Sara (they never married). David remained a mostly absent father. Sara, while holding tight to Jason emotionally, knows she has to let him go. And Jason, who loves his mother, wants to grow up and begin his independence.
Ten years after Jason begins his service to his country, he is a well-respected, distinguished navy SEAL, a soldier, a scholar, a son. He is known as the “priest,” because of his ways of pacing the hallway and night, and because he is so quiet and “that he must have a direct line to God from the pool.” He can stay under water for a superhuman amount of time, so that his colleagues and officers joke that he has a third lung. He keeps his mother in the loop in a need-to-know kind of basis, writes her letters, calls her when he can, tells her minimally about his deployment missions. He has learned the art of being on the Team: restraint.
“Restraint might not be the first thing next to Godliness, but it’s close. Restraint is part of the ethos.”
Sara is as fiercely independent as Jason, and except for a few tentative involvements (one with the most visible and active godfather), has remained single, and her love and energy is all for her son. She is content editing papers at home, running through the woods and countryside for exercise, and tending her garden.
As the story begins, it is 2011 and Jason has been missing 11 days on his latest mission/deployment. It is all Sara can do to keep herself together while she waits. One of Jason’s close friends and former mate on the “Team” (as the SEALS are referred), who lost an eye on a mission with Jason and is now a civilian, comes to stay with Sara, which gives her great comfort.
The book explores Sara’s relationship to Jason and his to her, her relationship to David, and how Sara and Jason perceive his role in the war, on the Team, and their shared love of literature a strong bond that reaches out between the two, even when the secrets he must keep distance them.
“If it be now, ‘tis not to come;
If it be not to come, it will be now.
If it be not now, yet it will come:
The readiness is all."
ELEVEN DAYS had a transformative effect on me; it allowed me to understand Jason’s chosen life, and what it meant to choose “Sparta” over “Athens.” This book is tender, fierce, and, like Jason and Sara, restrained in its beauty.
Ten years after Jason begins his service to his country, he is a well-respected, distinguished navy SEAL, a soldier, a scholar, a son. He is known as the “priest,” because of his ways of pacing the hallway and night, and because he is so quiet and “that he must have a direct line to God from the pool.” He can stay under water for a superhuman amount of time, so that his colleagues and officers joke that he has a third lung. He keeps his mother in the loop in a need-to-know kind of basis, writes her letters, calls her when he can, tells her minimally about his deployment missions. He has learned the art of being on the Team: restraint.
“Restraint might not be the first thing next to Godliness, but it’s close. Restraint is part of the ethos.”
Sara is as fiercely independent as Jason, and except for a few tentative involvements (one with the most visible and active godfather), has remained single, and her love and energy is all for her son. She is content editing papers at home, running through the woods and countryside for exercise, and tending her garden.
As the story begins, it is 2011 and Jason has been missing 11 days on his latest mission/deployment. It is all Sara can do to keep herself together while she waits. One of Jason’s close friends and former mate on the “Team” (as the SEALS are referred), who lost an eye on a mission with Jason and is now a civilian, comes to stay with Sara, which gives her great comfort.
The book explores Sara’s relationship to Jason and his to her, her relationship to David, and how Sara and Jason perceive his role in the war, on the Team, and their shared love of literature a strong bond that reaches out between the two, even when the secrets he must keep distance them.
“If it be now, ‘tis not to come;
If it be not to come, it will be now.
If it be not now, yet it will come:
The readiness is all."
ELEVEN DAYS had a transformative effect on me; it allowed me to understand Jason’s chosen life, and what it meant to choose “Sparta” over “Athens.” This book is tender, fierce, and, like Jason and Sara, restrained in its beauty.
December 31, 2013
The lack of complex characters who need things from each other (other than the mother and son), the ill-explained and over-done allegiance that the protagonist has for the father of her child (a man who seemed to impress everyone, though whom the readers never really get to see in action and therefore have to decide for themselves; a man who, quite honestly, fits the counterpoint stereotype of the protagonist he impregnated), the seemingly blatant disregard for narrating the present moment, and the blind faith support of Jason's TEAM and his choices made this book a let down for me. It came highly recommended and I am especially interested in female civilian authors writing about contemporary war. But time and time again, the narrative of this book failed to glue together and the characters seemed like unfulfilling and unexplained cliches. I'd be willing to read it again, as a study in perhaps what I missed and what needed to be revised for more craft and finesse...but I wouldn't recommend it to others.
November 12, 2013
Even before they stormed the secret compound in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, the Navy SEALs were men of legend. Their punishing training and especially their death-defying missions elevate them to the status of godlike warriors at a time when our nation prefers to rain down lethal force by joystick. Not surprisingly, amid the thousands of titles inspired by 9/11 and its aftermath, we need many shelves just for the books about Special Ops men — from the dramatic histories and CIA-approved memoirs to the attendant thrillers, diet books, children’s stories and, yes, romance novels, all featuring Navy SEALs.
This summer, some big guns have been firing for a quiet work of military fiction by a first-time novelist named Lea Carpenter. She was a founding editor of the literary journal Zoetrope, earned an MBA from Harvard and worked for the New York Public Library, a résuméwhich may not suggest much affinity for SEALs. But her father was a soldier, and “Eleven Days” has been praised by — among others — former senator Bob Kerrey, a SEAL himself in Vietnam; and former Army machine gunner Kevin Powers, whose Iraq war novel, “The Yellow Birds,” was a finalist for the National Book Award.
It’s easy to see why these thoughtful, real-life veterans would be drawn to this story. Despite its tight, thriller title, “Eleven Days” is largely a novel of stillness and reflection. It delivers scenes of military adventure eventually, but not until we’ve soaked up the muted anxiety of a single mother named Sara waiting for news. In the opening paragraph, Sara “is no longer sure what she fills her days with.” Her only son, Jason, a 27-year-old Navy SEAL, has been missing for nine days. Two officers have come to her house in rural Pennsylvania and told her that they have “a general idea of where he was, but that they could not tell her any more than that.” She can stand not knowing where he is — he’s never been able to tell her any details about his secret operations — but not knowing if he’s dead or alive has blanched her days in terror. And yet she must sit gracefully in this crucible of fear while reporters and TV crews buzz around the end of her driveway, hoping to catch some award-winning image of grief or delight when the news finally arrives. Neighbors clean her house and bring covered dishes; politicians express a grateful nation’s concern; someone donates a new refrigerator. “She did not hear most of what was said or remember who had said it,” Carpenter writes. “She knew that things like sleeping and eating were necessary but remembered to do them only when prodded.”
While trapping Sara in that claustrophobic setting that constrains all her activity to the frozen movements of waiting, Carpenter keeps “Eleven Days” in motion by constantly slipping back in time. Short scenes show us Sara’s brief affair with a much older CIA operative. We see their son, Jason, as an artistic little boy, an impervious football player and a determined new recruit — one of that great wave of people drawn to military service by the flames of the twin towers. Carpenter is particularly sympathetic to Sara’s struggle to understand and accept the purity of Jason’s patriotism, a feeling her own hippie parents couldn’t have fathomed. “She’d never known what love of country meant,” Carpenter writes, “until she’d observed her son, and seen him develop his own instinct for it.”
Jason’s stoic demeanor and Herculean stature, his appreciation for the classics and his deep regard for his mom — all these golden qualities should render this young patriot about as lifelike as the Statue of Liberty. But Carpenter’s greatest accomplishment here may be her success at creating an Olympian warrior who seems entirely human, modest and decent. As she puts it, “The military’s culture suited him: its ethos of invisibility matched his.” Short, intimate scenes, told in restrained, unsentimental prose, present him just that way: a great serviceman who has no regard for the trappings of greatness. Regardless of your politics, as you watch Jason nervously train for “drown-proofing,” or encourage another frightened recruit, or rehearse a complicated mission so that no unarmed civilians will be hurt, it’s impossible not to swell with pride for these people who devote their lives to the United States.
As a novel, though, this mission is not without some snafus. At times, Carpenter seems almost allergic to excitement, unwilling to let her scenes gather the power they naturally possess. These are, after all, the coolest guys in the world engaged in the most harrowing missions of the past decade. But too often, in the middle of some gripping ordeal, the author breaks in with flat-footed explanations of military service or historical context, spraying flame-retardant all over her pages.
And a tougher editor should have defended Carpenter from clunky observations that sometimes strafe these paragraphs: “Having seen one too many things he is not sure he can ever forget, he will slowly start to relearn how to access his feelings. . . . Controlling emotion when op tempo is high isn’t a skill; it is an art.” Medic! Grandiose lines that reduce characters to psychological cliches are particularly deadly: “Having grown up without a man in his life, he was now determined to pass the world’s hardest test for becoming one.” In a novel as svelte as this one, such slips sound off-key.
More problematic is some needless melodrama involving Jason’s late father, which distracts from the novel’s starkly realistic tone. And worse, there’s Jason’s never-named “godfather,” a string-pulling political operative who adds nothing but a cheesy swirl of intrigue to a novel that boasts plenty of native intrigue.
Fortunately, none of these missteps shatters the story’s absorbing progress or mars its solemn conclusion. Carpenter’s intelligence and sincerity find powerful expression in the novel’s sophisticated structure, which finally merges past and present. Although her frequent allusions to epic war poetry emphasize the persistence of ancient values, “Eleven Days” makes plain that something fundamental has changed since the days of the Argonauts. Today’s Jasons fight in ways the world has never seen — and may never publicly see. But this story reminds us that each of these warriors, no matter how brave and tough and deadly, is still some woman’s beloved son.
This summer, some big guns have been firing for a quiet work of military fiction by a first-time novelist named Lea Carpenter. She was a founding editor of the literary journal Zoetrope, earned an MBA from Harvard and worked for the New York Public Library, a résuméwhich may not suggest much affinity for SEALs. But her father was a soldier, and “Eleven Days” has been praised by — among others — former senator Bob Kerrey, a SEAL himself in Vietnam; and former Army machine gunner Kevin Powers, whose Iraq war novel, “The Yellow Birds,” was a finalist for the National Book Award.
It’s easy to see why these thoughtful, real-life veterans would be drawn to this story. Despite its tight, thriller title, “Eleven Days” is largely a novel of stillness and reflection. It delivers scenes of military adventure eventually, but not until we’ve soaked up the muted anxiety of a single mother named Sara waiting for news. In the opening paragraph, Sara “is no longer sure what she fills her days with.” Her only son, Jason, a 27-year-old Navy SEAL, has been missing for nine days. Two officers have come to her house in rural Pennsylvania and told her that they have “a general idea of where he was, but that they could not tell her any more than that.” She can stand not knowing where he is — he’s never been able to tell her any details about his secret operations — but not knowing if he’s dead or alive has blanched her days in terror. And yet she must sit gracefully in this crucible of fear while reporters and TV crews buzz around the end of her driveway, hoping to catch some award-winning image of grief or delight when the news finally arrives. Neighbors clean her house and bring covered dishes; politicians express a grateful nation’s concern; someone donates a new refrigerator. “She did not hear most of what was said or remember who had said it,” Carpenter writes. “She knew that things like sleeping and eating were necessary but remembered to do them only when prodded.”
While trapping Sara in that claustrophobic setting that constrains all her activity to the frozen movements of waiting, Carpenter keeps “Eleven Days” in motion by constantly slipping back in time. Short scenes show us Sara’s brief affair with a much older CIA operative. We see their son, Jason, as an artistic little boy, an impervious football player and a determined new recruit — one of that great wave of people drawn to military service by the flames of the twin towers. Carpenter is particularly sympathetic to Sara’s struggle to understand and accept the purity of Jason’s patriotism, a feeling her own hippie parents couldn’t have fathomed. “She’d never known what love of country meant,” Carpenter writes, “until she’d observed her son, and seen him develop his own instinct for it.”
Jason’s stoic demeanor and Herculean stature, his appreciation for the classics and his deep regard for his mom — all these golden qualities should render this young patriot about as lifelike as the Statue of Liberty. But Carpenter’s greatest accomplishment here may be her success at creating an Olympian warrior who seems entirely human, modest and decent. As she puts it, “The military’s culture suited him: its ethos of invisibility matched his.” Short, intimate scenes, told in restrained, unsentimental prose, present him just that way: a great serviceman who has no regard for the trappings of greatness. Regardless of your politics, as you watch Jason nervously train for “drown-proofing,” or encourage another frightened recruit, or rehearse a complicated mission so that no unarmed civilians will be hurt, it’s impossible not to swell with pride for these people who devote their lives to the United States.
As a novel, though, this mission is not without some snafus. At times, Carpenter seems almost allergic to excitement, unwilling to let her scenes gather the power they naturally possess. These are, after all, the coolest guys in the world engaged in the most harrowing missions of the past decade. But too often, in the middle of some gripping ordeal, the author breaks in with flat-footed explanations of military service or historical context, spraying flame-retardant all over her pages.
And a tougher editor should have defended Carpenter from clunky observations that sometimes strafe these paragraphs: “Having seen one too many things he is not sure he can ever forget, he will slowly start to relearn how to access his feelings. . . . Controlling emotion when op tempo is high isn’t a skill; it is an art.” Medic! Grandiose lines that reduce characters to psychological cliches are particularly deadly: “Having grown up without a man in his life, he was now determined to pass the world’s hardest test for becoming one.” In a novel as svelte as this one, such slips sound off-key.
More problematic is some needless melodrama involving Jason’s late father, which distracts from the novel’s starkly realistic tone. And worse, there’s Jason’s never-named “godfather,” a string-pulling political operative who adds nothing but a cheesy swirl of intrigue to a novel that boasts plenty of native intrigue.
Fortunately, none of these missteps shatters the story’s absorbing progress or mars its solemn conclusion. Carpenter’s intelligence and sincerity find powerful expression in the novel’s sophisticated structure, which finally merges past and present. Although her frequent allusions to epic war poetry emphasize the persistence of ancient values, “Eleven Days” makes plain that something fundamental has changed since the days of the Argonauts. Today’s Jasons fight in ways the world has never seen — and may never publicly see. But this story reminds us that each of these warriors, no matter how brave and tough and deadly, is still some woman’s beloved son.
September 16, 2013
I had initially avoided, "Eleven Days" the debut novel by Lea Carpenter, because I was afraid it would hit "too close to home" as I have two close family members who are serving currently active duty in the Navy. I was urged to read it by fellow reading friends and I'm glad I did, even though it was difficult at times.(I'm not going to review the plot as others have done so well.)
Carpenter has clearly researched the story thoroughly and so we are given what I assume is an honest look into the close-knit and necessarily secret, Special Forces world. She augments with eerily relevant history both recent and ancient. I think it is here, in the melding of historic and current warfare; the differences and the similarities, that Carpenter is genius. She focuses our attention on the fact that wars and their attendant warriors go back to the beginning of humanity; it's in our nature. What ELSE is in our nature, is for mothers to worry and mourn, but also to celebrate with pride.
Carpenter did a great job showing how the military is a big family, and that teamwork and honor are the noblest of terms for those who serve our country by putting themselves in harm's way.
However, one flaw did leap off the page at me; the warrior Jason's mother, Sara, even while watching a service member's casket arrive at Dover, says she never imagined being in that position with her own son, or imagined feeling those emotions. UNBELIEVABLE; all close family members of men and women serving have imagined that "unimaginable"...that's why I was hesitant to read the novel in the first place. We think about it. We think about it ever single day.
Carpenter has clearly researched the story thoroughly and so we are given what I assume is an honest look into the close-knit and necessarily secret, Special Forces world. She augments with eerily relevant history both recent and ancient. I think it is here, in the melding of historic and current warfare; the differences and the similarities, that Carpenter is genius. She focuses our attention on the fact that wars and their attendant warriors go back to the beginning of humanity; it's in our nature. What ELSE is in our nature, is for mothers to worry and mourn, but also to celebrate with pride.
Carpenter did a great job showing how the military is a big family, and that teamwork and honor are the noblest of terms for those who serve our country by putting themselves in harm's way.
However, one flaw did leap off the page at me; the warrior Jason's mother, Sara, even while watching a service member's casket arrive at Dover, says she never imagined being in that position with her own son, or imagined feeling those emotions. UNBELIEVABLE; all close family members of men and women serving have imagined that "unimaginable"...that's why I was hesitant to read the novel in the first place. We think about it. We think about it ever single day.
September 5, 2013
Worships the military viewpoint, though ... I mean worships
July 22, 2017
Lea Carpenter has crafted a masterpiece. Her precise language depicts angst, love and manages to parse military jargon. Sara is a young mother whose son's nickname is Priest. I simply could not put this one down.
August 25, 2013
Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter is a beautiful, poignant, and powerful novel. I could not put it down once I started reading it. It held me in its grip like a vice and I lost a night's sleep while reading it. It is that good.
The story is primarily about a single mother named Sara who has raised her son Jason with unconditional love and respect. Jason's father, David, left Sara early on. What David did for a living is somewhat vague. He had connections to the CIA and also to journalism. He was often in foreign countries where war was going on but his role was not defined. He was thirty years older than Sara and he died when Jason was six having little to do with their lives. Sara was very much in love with him. Jason has grown up to be an intelligent, action-minded, and respectful young man. His mother states that Harvard was not out of his reach. Jason, however, chooses to go to Annapolis and becomes a Navy SEAL, joining the special forces.
As the novel opens, Jason is 19 and Sara is 37. When he enters Annapolis he is not aware of the difficulty of the school. It is easy compared to the special forces, however. Jason talks about hell week as special forces training begins. "One month ago, this class started with one hundred sixty trainees. Now they were thirty. He can see how red their eyes are. He can sense how close each one of them might be to the edge of breaking." The class further shrinks to nineteen, and then to seventeen. Jason prevails.
The opening of the novel shows Sara jogging. There are newsmen at her door and neighbors have brought over food and offer comfort. Jason has been missing in action for several days. He has gone on a mission that no one is privy to as it is top secret. Sara is terrified but she holds on to the belief that Jason is alive. That is all that keeps her going. Jason's close friend, Sam, has come to help Sara through this time. Jason and Sam had mad a pact that if anything happened to one of them, the other would go and help the family of the missing or injured.
Sara can only imagine what Jason has been doing. "None of these stories would appear in print, nor would Jason share details of them with anyone. Some of the guys, he knew, talked to their priests about things that they did and saw, but most talked only among themselves. This was not a profession that gave rise to many memoirs." Jason considered himself a warrior, a compassionate one. "Every night, every op, every house: death is always a possible outcome. Even taking into account the vast network of supports watching over them once they were at target....nothing could save an operator from an unanticipated contingency or surprise."
It is on his fifth deployment that he disappears and it is supposed to be his last deployment. He had planned to attend law school after this deployment and applications are piled up in his room. He still vacillates, however, whether he should stay in the navy. Jason is a rare person, a man who gets his ideas and ideals from the actions of the world and physical nature of his being. He is well-read and loves poetry and literature. He loves his mother and emails her almost daily. Their bond is so strong that it will be eternal.
As the days of Jason's disappearance mount, Sara relies on Sam and Jason's godfather, a man who works in D.C. on the hill. He was a friend of David's and has been very involved in their lives. As Sara becomes more and more fearful for Jason, the reader gets to know both of them. We are privy to their lives, Jason's childhood and development, and his current status. We learn about Sara's life as well and her days as a mother and independent woman who does editing for a living.
This is an amazing book that does not read like a debut novel. Lea Carpenter has a true gift with words and has created a story that amazes the reader at every turn. It is a book not to be missed.
The story is primarily about a single mother named Sara who has raised her son Jason with unconditional love and respect. Jason's father, David, left Sara early on. What David did for a living is somewhat vague. He had connections to the CIA and also to journalism. He was often in foreign countries where war was going on but his role was not defined. He was thirty years older than Sara and he died when Jason was six having little to do with their lives. Sara was very much in love with him. Jason has grown up to be an intelligent, action-minded, and respectful young man. His mother states that Harvard was not out of his reach. Jason, however, chooses to go to Annapolis and becomes a Navy SEAL, joining the special forces.
As the novel opens, Jason is 19 and Sara is 37. When he enters Annapolis he is not aware of the difficulty of the school. It is easy compared to the special forces, however. Jason talks about hell week as special forces training begins. "One month ago, this class started with one hundred sixty trainees. Now they were thirty. He can see how red their eyes are. He can sense how close each one of them might be to the edge of breaking." The class further shrinks to nineteen, and then to seventeen. Jason prevails.
The opening of the novel shows Sara jogging. There are newsmen at her door and neighbors have brought over food and offer comfort. Jason has been missing in action for several days. He has gone on a mission that no one is privy to as it is top secret. Sara is terrified but she holds on to the belief that Jason is alive. That is all that keeps her going. Jason's close friend, Sam, has come to help Sara through this time. Jason and Sam had mad a pact that if anything happened to one of them, the other would go and help the family of the missing or injured.
Sara can only imagine what Jason has been doing. "None of these stories would appear in print, nor would Jason share details of them with anyone. Some of the guys, he knew, talked to their priests about things that they did and saw, but most talked only among themselves. This was not a profession that gave rise to many memoirs." Jason considered himself a warrior, a compassionate one. "Every night, every op, every house: death is always a possible outcome. Even taking into account the vast network of supports watching over them once they were at target....nothing could save an operator from an unanticipated contingency or surprise."
It is on his fifth deployment that he disappears and it is supposed to be his last deployment. He had planned to attend law school after this deployment and applications are piled up in his room. He still vacillates, however, whether he should stay in the navy. Jason is a rare person, a man who gets his ideas and ideals from the actions of the world and physical nature of his being. He is well-read and loves poetry and literature. He loves his mother and emails her almost daily. Their bond is so strong that it will be eternal.
As the days of Jason's disappearance mount, Sara relies on Sam and Jason's godfather, a man who works in D.C. on the hill. He was a friend of David's and has been very involved in their lives. As Sara becomes more and more fearful for Jason, the reader gets to know both of them. We are privy to their lives, Jason's childhood and development, and his current status. We learn about Sara's life as well and her days as a mother and independent woman who does editing for a living.
This is an amazing book that does not read like a debut novel. Lea Carpenter has a true gift with words and has created a story that amazes the reader at every turn. It is a book not to be missed.
March 23, 2014
This isn't your typical action novel about Special Forces. It is more a thoughtful exploration of the things that motivate individuals to make sacrifices for other people, or for the causes that they believe in. It also helps us to understand what brought them to the point of wanting to do so. The training of a SEAL is vividly described, but not over-done, thankfully, as this could have then read as a text-book as opposed to an insightful novel. I learned a lot that I didn’t know about the intensity and dedication of it all. I will now look at a SEAL with new respect for what they have personally accomplished. For me, the human element of relationships, mother to son, son to father, team-mate to team-mate is what Carpenter expertly and eloquently masters in this debut novel. Impressive first effort.
However, the subplot of political influence runs far too strongly at times, and detracted from the otherwise strong personal narrative. Another thing, (and why only 4 instead of 5 stars) the development of the character of David, protagonist Jason’s biological father, is lacking. I felt like Jason did through most of this novel, that I really didn’t know his father... did anyone? Maybe that was intentional. It is hard to review this without a spoiler that is inserted late in the novel about the life/death of Jason’s father. Suffice it to say, that it was too impersonal, and left me feeling an emptiness and sadness about it all, but maybe that was the author’s intention as well. I did keep thinking about Jason though, long after I finished the novel, a sign of good writing.
"wars and their attendant warriors go back to the beginning of humanity; it's in our nature. What else is in our nature, is for mothers to worry and mourn, but also to celebrate with pride."
I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the human element of military life. To those who want to explore the driving forces of individuals willing to sacrifice everything for their causes, and in those waiting for them at home. It reinforced, for me, my personal opinion that war is an atrocity and pointless. The losses it causes are unacceptable. The sacrifice too large for what is accomplished.
However, the subplot of political influence runs far too strongly at times, and detracted from the otherwise strong personal narrative. Another thing, (and why only 4 instead of 5 stars) the development of the character of David, protagonist Jason’s biological father, is lacking. I felt like Jason did through most of this novel, that I really didn’t know his father... did anyone? Maybe that was intentional. It is hard to review this without a spoiler that is inserted late in the novel about the life/death of Jason’s father. Suffice it to say, that it was too impersonal, and left me feeling an emptiness and sadness about it all, but maybe that was the author’s intention as well. I did keep thinking about Jason though, long after I finished the novel, a sign of good writing.
"wars and their attendant warriors go back to the beginning of humanity; it's in our nature. What else is in our nature, is for mothers to worry and mourn, but also to celebrate with pride."
I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the human element of military life. To those who want to explore the driving forces of individuals willing to sacrifice everything for their causes, and in those waiting for them at home. It reinforced, for me, my personal opinion that war is an atrocity and pointless. The losses it causes are unacceptable. The sacrifice too large for what is accomplished.
September 26, 2013
This is not a book that will be easy to review. One of the strongest things I can say about it is that it took a disproportionate time to read given its relatively low page count. The reason for that: the reader doesn't want to miss anything the author is saying about the couple at the center of this searing story. A mother. Her son. Two exceptional people whose lives are forever changed by world events. Jason is a Navy SEAL, an almost ideal person but one with a real sense of heart and purpose. Sara, his mother is equally remarkable -- someone you really want in your corner. In less accomplished hands, their relationship could have been cliched and mawkish, but Sara is painted in such uncompromising tones that her over riding love for her son is believable, and as he is her product, raised almost solely by her, his character is not without flaws, but they are forgivable against his strengths. On a personal note, the homeside scenes are set against a landscape I am well familiar with, and a drive from Chadds Ford to Wilmington's train station brought an immediacy to the proceedings for me. Highly recommended.
March 19, 2014
Eleven Days, Lea Carpenter I find it so difficult to say interesting things about books that I love. Encomiums tend to be a bit dull, and also ring a bit hollow.
So what can I say about this book? It was, to me, very nearly perfect. Beautifully written--not in a showy way, but very elegant. Every word rang true. It is a page-turner, almost a thriller, but it is also, unexpectedly, a novel of ideas. Ideas about war and parenting and love. Sara and Jason felt real to me. I can quibble with some minor aspects of the book--Jason's motivation for entering the military was a little trite, some perspective shifts near the end did not work--but the core is solid.
(I recognize this review is maddeningly vague. I am trying not to spoil anything.)
All I can really ask of a novel is that it sticks with me once it is finished. The best novels enable you to see the world from an entirely new perspective--to me, that is the purpose of fiction. This book did that. Read it.
So what can I say about this book? It was, to me, very nearly perfect. Beautifully written--not in a showy way, but very elegant. Every word rang true. It is a page-turner, almost a thriller, but it is also, unexpectedly, a novel of ideas. Ideas about war and parenting and love. Sara and Jason felt real to me. I can quibble with some minor aspects of the book--Jason's motivation for entering the military was a little trite, some perspective shifts near the end did not work--but the core is solid.
(I recognize this review is maddeningly vague. I am trying not to spoil anything.)
All I can really ask of a novel is that it sticks with me once it is finished. The best novels enable you to see the world from an entirely new perspective--to me, that is the purpose of fiction. This book did that. Read it.
February 14, 2014
I liked it, but there were a lot of things about it that bugged me. Like the stilted dialogue -- why is she too good for question marks? So distracting! I liked that it was about a mother-son relationship, but I thought the relationship itself was pretty flat, not especially nuanced, and kinda hokey. In fact, the flatness of the main relationship made me wonder whether what seemed thoughtful and nuanced about the Spec Ops/military/warrior stuff wasn't just as flat to people who have some experience in that world. Also, there was a fair amount of pretty facile men-are-like-this/women-are-like-that stuff, which I found pretty hard to take.
Still. It was a glimpse into a very interesting world about which I know almost nothing, and that aspect was definitely compelling.
Still. It was a glimpse into a very interesting world about which I know almost nothing, and that aspect was definitely compelling.
April 10, 2018
Didn’t think I’d like this book based on subject matter—war, soldiers, special ops. But it’s deeper than that, an elegant and powerful mother/son story. Fell in love with Lea’s story in A Public Space (26, “The Experience of Being Alive and Having to Breath”, go read it!), a smart and meditative critique of the contemporary art scene. This is, obviously, different. But her writing is smooth and tight, even with some structural flaws and clichés. (The books gets epistolary at some points, and while these moments are beautiful and revealing, they seem a bit contrived). Looking forward to her forthcoming book this year.
October 18, 2018
This book review is dedicated to Billy and Kyle, two beautiful HPA men who lost their lives as members of the teams described in this book.
My father was the bravest man I know, and he proved that by never talking about bravery. It was assumed with him as it was with my mother. At the beginning of his life, before he was married, he chose to be among the last up in the Bell, staying on the bottom of the sea until he was hoisted with the rubber breathing hose, the cable having parted on the Bell's way up. He served in the submarines during WWII when those "pig boats" were called, "floating coffins." He made nothing of that. He did not tell war stories.
This novel, sparse, beautiful and resonant, allows us to see the works of the "teams," the SEALS who serve us in our modern wars to keep America safe. This first book of a masterful young woman captures the beauty of the commitment these men have to each other and their country. Anyone who wants to understand the beauty of spare writing about dark things should read this book as soon as possible. Owen understood what Sara goes through and Jason lives and dies by. He captures the feeling in "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
My father was the bravest man I know, and he proved that by never talking about bravery. It was assumed with him as it was with my mother. At the beginning of his life, before he was married, he chose to be among the last up in the Bell, staying on the bottom of the sea until he was hoisted with the rubber breathing hose, the cable having parted on the Bell's way up. He served in the submarines during WWII when those "pig boats" were called, "floating coffins." He made nothing of that. He did not tell war stories.
This novel, sparse, beautiful and resonant, allows us to see the works of the "teams," the SEALS who serve us in our modern wars to keep America safe. This first book of a masterful young woman captures the beauty of the commitment these men have to each other and their country. Anyone who wants to understand the beauty of spare writing about dark things should read this book as soon as possible. Owen understood what Sara goes through and Jason lives and dies by. He captures the feeling in "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
January 11, 2018
Eleven Days is a fantastic debut novel; all about the love a mother feels for her son, the love that son feels for his country and what happens when their worlds are torn apart. Set in 2011, Eleven Days opens in the May, when Sara’s son Jason has been missing in action for nine days. She is desperate for answers, but the government knows just as little as she does, and when Jason is all she has in the world, her world has come to a standstill.
Over a series of flashbacks we learn why Jason was so determined to join the military, about the rigorous training and preparation he has had to go through in order to be so good at the job he loves, and also about his absentee father.
I was a little bit what the hell is going on? When David suddenly appears out of the blue in Saudi Arabia, but decided to roll with it. The bit that most tore my heart out though was what happens in Afghanistan. I didn’t full on cry, but I could feel some tears pricking at my eyes.
Eleven Days has given me a lot more respect for the military as a whole, and for those who choose to serve their countries. I had only the tiniest idea of what the training regimens would be like, due to having a friend who wanted to enter the American Air Force, but this really did open my eyes to what it is really like.
This one is definitely recommended.
Over a series of flashbacks we learn why Jason was so determined to join the military, about the rigorous training and preparation he has had to go through in order to be so good at the job he loves, and also about his absentee father.
I was a little bit what the hell is going on? When David suddenly appears out of the blue in Saudi Arabia, but decided to roll with it. The bit that most tore my heart out though was what happens in Afghanistan. I didn’t full on cry, but I could feel some tears pricking at my eyes.
Eleven Days has given me a lot more respect for the military as a whole, and for those who choose to serve their countries. I had only the tiniest idea of what the training regimens would be like, due to having a friend who wanted to enter the American Air Force, but this really did open my eyes to what it is really like.
This one is definitely recommended.
Read
February 12, 2023That was very moving.
There is something in the final half that is just not believable. I hate a deus ex machina!
Otherwise, this is a beautiful story of a mother’s love for a son plus an exploration of what a modern warrior is.
Maybe I wish it had been anti-war, but that would not have been true to the book.
There is something in the final half that is just not believable. I hate a deus ex machina!
Otherwise, this is a beautiful story of a mother’s love for a son plus an exploration of what a modern warrior is.
Maybe I wish it had been anti-war, but that would not have been true to the book.
August 9, 2013
I wanted to like this book more than I did, which seems to be a running theme with me lately. I liked the characters. I liked Sara, I liked Jason. I like Sam. I liked the discussions about Seal teamwork and the bond that ties them together, which was nicely juxtaposed with Sara's constant worries.
I didn't like some of the plot points and decisions that the author made. The whole deux ex machina with David was annoying, unbelievable, and yet vaguely expected. I had a feeling something like that was going to happen, and it was pretty clear from the getgo he was the unnamed vet in the airport. I was annoyed by Jason's pedigree, and the fact that the family (I guess, really, David) was so well-connected in the government. It didn't sit right with me; it seemed to forced. The author tried so hard to make this a double layered book: on one level she writes the narrative about the struggles for a mother and enlisted son during warfare (this was done very well).
On another level she tried to create a meta discussion about war philosophies and ethics. How much does the government have a right to demand from their operators? At what points are you ready to sacrifice your life for a cause that you're not even sure about? What are those bonds really like among Teams, and how deep do they go? The discussions about Sparta and Athens and Shakepeare and Tennyson bored me, quite frankly. As an English major who also loved studying the Classics, I thought the writing came across as blunted and superfluous. She could have achieved the exact same result (discussing the grey area of battle) without coming across as so condescending. The fact that they were so deeply connected with Washington seemed weird to me, and it took away from the raw emotion of a young man leaving his life behind to become a trained killer. The clandestine plane ride to Afghanistan, the reappearance of David, the "I clearly know much more than I can tell you" attitude of all those men who had sooper seekret clearance bothered me. Sara was being humored and granted a special exception to fly across the world, because the men made it possible. She just did what she was told, when she was told. Like her son. Ah, the parallels!
I'm not describing this well, but ultimately I think I just hated David, thought he was a poorly-written and contrived character, and therefore was annoyed by anything he was connected with in the book.
All of that being said, Sara's parts were written extremely well. I thought the author did a great job of portraying a mother's fear and worry of her son being deployed, and trying so hard to taper those emotions with understanding and pride. The whole thing would have resonated more powerfully if Jason was just some kid who decided to enlist, and not the godson of some DOD guy/Senator/Congressman/Vice President/Defense Secretary whoever he was supposed to be.
Finally, I was less annoyed with the mission as I thought I would be. She left the details deliberately vague, so I guess we are to assume it was the bin Laden mission? Or at least, some parallel version of that where a Team member got left behind? I don't know, I'm glad that she left that part even a little bit blurry. Otherwise it would have been too similar to Curtis Sittenfeld's book American Wife, where she all but scream THIS CHARACTER IS SUPPOSED TO BE LAURA BUSH BUT I GAVE HER A DIFFERENT NAME, EVEN THOUGH PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING IS EXACTLY THE SAME BETWEEN THIS COUPLE AND THE PRESIDENT/LAURA BUSH. Anyway, bottom line is that I expected to be annoyed by the teasing "this is clearly the bin Laden mission but I'm just not going to say it" part, but I wasn't. So, kudos the author for that.
I didn't like some of the plot points and decisions that the author made. The whole deux ex machina with David was annoying, unbelievable, and yet vaguely expected. I had a feeling something like that was going to happen, and it was pretty clear from the getgo he was the unnamed vet in the airport. I was annoyed by Jason's pedigree, and the fact that the family (I guess, really, David) was so well-connected in the government. It didn't sit right with me; it seemed to forced. The author tried so hard to make this a double layered book: on one level she writes the narrative about the struggles for a mother and enlisted son during warfare (this was done very well).
On another level she tried to create a meta discussion about war philosophies and ethics. How much does the government have a right to demand from their operators? At what points are you ready to sacrifice your life for a cause that you're not even sure about? What are those bonds really like among Teams, and how deep do they go? The discussions about Sparta and Athens and Shakepeare and Tennyson bored me, quite frankly. As an English major who also loved studying the Classics, I thought the writing came across as blunted and superfluous. She could have achieved the exact same result (discussing the grey area of battle) without coming across as so condescending. The fact that they were so deeply connected with Washington seemed weird to me, and it took away from the raw emotion of a young man leaving his life behind to become a trained killer. The clandestine plane ride to Afghanistan, the reappearance of David, the "I clearly know much more than I can tell you" attitude of all those men who had sooper seekret clearance bothered me. Sara was being humored and granted a special exception to fly across the world, because the men made it possible. She just did what she was told, when she was told. Like her son. Ah, the parallels!
I'm not describing this well, but ultimately I think I just hated David, thought he was a poorly-written and contrived character, and therefore was annoyed by anything he was connected with in the book.
All of that being said, Sara's parts were written extremely well. I thought the author did a great job of portraying a mother's fear and worry of her son being deployed, and trying so hard to taper those emotions with understanding and pride. The whole thing would have resonated more powerfully if Jason was just some kid who decided to enlist, and not the godson of some DOD guy/Senator/Congressman/Vice President/Defense Secretary whoever he was supposed to be.
Finally, I was less annoyed with the mission as I thought I would be. She left the details deliberately vague, so I guess we are to assume it was the bin Laden mission? Or at least, some parallel version of that where a Team member got left behind? I don't know, I'm glad that she left that part even a little bit blurry. Otherwise it would have been too similar to Curtis Sittenfeld's book American Wife, where she all but scream THIS CHARACTER IS SUPPOSED TO BE LAURA BUSH BUT I GAVE HER A DIFFERENT NAME, EVEN THOUGH PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING IS EXACTLY THE SAME BETWEEN THIS COUPLE AND THE PRESIDENT/LAURA BUSH. Anyway, bottom line is that I expected to be annoyed by the teasing "this is clearly the bin Laden mission but I'm just not going to say it" part, but I wasn't. So, kudos the author for that.
August 1, 2016
Arms and the Woman
In a blog that she wrote for the Huffington Post, Lea Carpenter notes that eleven days was the period of truce negotiated between King Priam and Achilles in the Iliad after the death of Hector—an encounter movingly narrated by David Malouf in his novel Ransom. It is an appropriate reference for many reasons, not least the almost classical values that Carpenter both celebrates and espouses in her storytelling; this gripping debut novel is immediate in content, ample in moral perspective, rich and thoughtful in its human values.
Yet its modernity makes Carpenter's work quite different from Homer or Malouf. Jason, her male protagonist (yes, the reference to the Argonauts is deliberate), is a Naval SEAL officer on his fifth deployment overseas—pretty clearly somewhere in the Middle East. His mother Sara, a young single mother living at Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania, is told that he has been missing for two days. The rest of the book follows her for the remainder of the eleven-day period until he is located. It also follows Jason in flashback over some eleven years, as he swaps the idea of Harvard for Annapolis after 9/11, graduates, and undergoes the extraordinarily demanding SEAL training in Coronado, California.
It is significant that this is a war novel written by a woman. You might expect authenticity in the portrait of a mother waiting at home for news of her only son, but her ability to provide empathy without a trace of sentiment is quite remarkable. Even more remarkable is her portrayal of Jason's life, with enough military detail to rival Tom Clancy, and yet always focusing on his inner life; to call it spiritual would not be far from the mark.
In the same Huffington Post blog, Carpenter says that one inspiration for her novel was an old photograph of her father, who was some sort of special forces agent in Vietnam. Another was the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, just as she was beginning to write. It is an impressive attempt to imagine what her father must have gone through then and what those young men in the Middle East were going through now. Something of the lost father figure comes through in the novel in the person of Jason's father, David—an older man probably connected with the CIA, who loved Sara and continued to support her from a distance until his death in the 1990s. Jason's attempt to live up to his idealized image of his father is a large part of his motivation; we eventually come to realize that he has greatly exceeded it. Carpenter cannot really fill David out, though, and she is wise not to try. Her main focus is on these two younger people, mother and son, and her empathy with both is extraordinary.
As a pacifist, with little patience for the jingoistic flag-waving of the past decade, I am amazed by how much I liked this book. Yet Carpenter's achievement is to make politics vanish in the light of simple humanity.
In a blog that she wrote for the Huffington Post, Lea Carpenter notes that eleven days was the period of truce negotiated between King Priam and Achilles in the Iliad after the death of Hector—an encounter movingly narrated by David Malouf in his novel Ransom. It is an appropriate reference for many reasons, not least the almost classical values that Carpenter both celebrates and espouses in her storytelling; this gripping debut novel is immediate in content, ample in moral perspective, rich and thoughtful in its human values.
Yet its modernity makes Carpenter's work quite different from Homer or Malouf. Jason, her male protagonist (yes, the reference to the Argonauts is deliberate), is a Naval SEAL officer on his fifth deployment overseas—pretty clearly somewhere in the Middle East. His mother Sara, a young single mother living at Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania, is told that he has been missing for two days. The rest of the book follows her for the remainder of the eleven-day period until he is located. It also follows Jason in flashback over some eleven years, as he swaps the idea of Harvard for Annapolis after 9/11, graduates, and undergoes the extraordinarily demanding SEAL training in Coronado, California.
It is significant that this is a war novel written by a woman. You might expect authenticity in the portrait of a mother waiting at home for news of her only son, but her ability to provide empathy without a trace of sentiment is quite remarkable. Even more remarkable is her portrayal of Jason's life, with enough military detail to rival Tom Clancy, and yet always focusing on his inner life; to call it spiritual would not be far from the mark.
In the same Huffington Post blog, Carpenter says that one inspiration for her novel was an old photograph of her father, who was some sort of special forces agent in Vietnam. Another was the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, just as she was beginning to write. It is an impressive attempt to imagine what her father must have gone through then and what those young men in the Middle East were going through now. Something of the lost father figure comes through in the novel in the person of Jason's father, David—an older man probably connected with the CIA, who loved Sara and continued to support her from a distance until his death in the 1990s. Jason's attempt to live up to his idealized image of his father is a large part of his motivation; we eventually come to realize that he has greatly exceeded it. Carpenter cannot really fill David out, though, and she is wise not to try. Her main focus is on these two younger people, mother and son, and her empathy with both is extraordinary.
As a pacifist, with little patience for the jingoistic flag-waving of the past decade, I am amazed by how much I liked this book. Yet Carpenter's achievement is to make politics vanish in the light of simple humanity.
August 16, 2019
'A compelling story memorable by the strengh of its elegant prose.'
Toni Morrison.
Toni Morrison.
April 9, 2014
(originally published at http://nomadreader.blogspot.com)
The backstory: Eleven Days, the debut novel by Lea Carpenter, was longlisted for the 2014 Bailey's Prize and shortlisted for the 2013 Flaherty-Dunnan Prize.
The basics: Set in May 2011, Sara's son Jason, part of an elite military unit, has been missing for nine days. Jason and his disappearance are national news. Carpenter tells the story in alternating voices of Sara, in 2011, and Jason, from the past.
My thoughts: Carpenter immediately drew me into this novel and Sara's narrative. The writing is lush and emotional. When the narration shifts to Jason (and the past), I was intrigued. Soon, however, I found myself longing for more Sara and less Jason, or rather less Jason not seen through Sara's thoughts. Structurally, Jason's narration struck me as a functional and intellectual plot device. It lacked Sara's emotionally authentic, and thus more compelling, voice.
Admittedly, this novel is the first one with a strong mother-son connection I've read since I found out I'm pregnant with a son. How much this new knowledge impacted by connection to Sara is difficult to say, but the passages in which she ponders his childhood moved me move than they might have before this knowledge:
The passage is beautiful in its own right, and it exemplifies so much of Sara's character and internal thoughts, yet I felt more like a mother character than I often do, rather than simply coming to understand her better.
Favorite passage: "Part of the blissful ignorance of not yet having had a first child is the belief that you might just be able to influence the course of their lives. Influence them to greatness. And away from danger."
The verdict: Eleven Days is a beautifully written, contemplative war novel, but it's also a novel concerned with themes much deeper and broader than war. Carpenter is clearly a talent to watch.
The backstory: Eleven Days, the debut novel by Lea Carpenter, was longlisted for the 2014 Bailey's Prize and shortlisted for the 2013 Flaherty-Dunnan Prize.
The basics: Set in May 2011, Sara's son Jason, part of an elite military unit, has been missing for nine days. Jason and his disappearance are national news. Carpenter tells the story in alternating voices of Sara, in 2011, and Jason, from the past.
My thoughts: Carpenter immediately drew me into this novel and Sara's narrative. The writing is lush and emotional. When the narration shifts to Jason (and the past), I was intrigued. Soon, however, I found myself longing for more Sara and less Jason, or rather less Jason not seen through Sara's thoughts. Structurally, Jason's narration struck me as a functional and intellectual plot device. It lacked Sara's emotionally authentic, and thus more compelling, voice.
Admittedly, this novel is the first one with a strong mother-son connection I've read since I found out I'm pregnant with a son. How much this new knowledge impacted by connection to Sara is difficult to say, but the passages in which she ponders his childhood moved me move than they might have before this knowledge:
"Art and writing: these were his early passions. And that pleased her; it somehow reinforced her sense of herself. It reinforced that she had not ever been owned by anyone--not a government, not a military, not a man. It also reinforced her dreams for what she wanted her son to be. She wanted him to be free from the demons that had come with what his father did, or at least what she knew of what he did. She didn't want a son who grew up to be familiar with words like Kalashinikov, katusha, or jezail--unless he learned them from a Kipling poem."
The passage is beautiful in its own right, and it exemplifies so much of Sara's character and internal thoughts, yet I felt more like a mother character than I often do, rather than simply coming to understand her better.
Favorite passage: "Part of the blissful ignorance of not yet having had a first child is the belief that you might just be able to influence the course of their lives. Influence them to greatness. And away from danger."
The verdict: Eleven Days is a beautifully written, contemplative war novel, but it's also a novel concerned with themes much deeper and broader than war. Carpenter is clearly a talent to watch.
October 14, 2014
I wanted to read this book as I have an abiding interest in stories that deal with war. Especially modern warfare. Especially when they are written by civilians.
While there were a few glimmers, this book could not have disappointed me more.
Pacing was a problem. To read this book often felt like I had a morphine drip hooked up to my arm. It is SLOW. Mind you, I am not a reader who needs explosions, twists and turns, or crackling action. I was not hoping to read something that could eventually turn into a summer blockbuster. After the initial situation that sets the book into motion is introduced at the VERY BEGINNING of the story, the vast majority of it is a regression into the memory of the main character. This would be fine, if it seemed like ANYTHING were going on in the present. While this may have been purposeful on the part of the author, it is far from effective. By the time I had gotten one third through the book, it felt like the orchestra was still warming up as I'd begun to wonder when something, anything would happen on stage.
On to the characters. They are lifeless composite sketches. Totally wooden. They are not convincingly alive. Especially the mother. Perhaps the author had begun to sense this, as she decided at one point that 30 PAGES should be devoted to a conversation between the main character and one of her close confidantes as they take a plane ride over the ocean. I certainly don't mind long long dialogues. What I do mind is when they make me feel like I'm, well, stuck on an airplane within earshot of a conversation that I couldn't be less interested in. Nothing relevant, nothing surprising.
What is it about the son that failed to engage me? Perhaps that the author had gone to such an extent to make him seem exceptional and without blemish that he did not seem to be a real human. Except for the one quirk that he referred to his mother as "Mommy" for his entire life, even after he joined the Special Forces. This did not make him seem more human. It made him seem both unbelievable (in the literal sense) and maybe secretly weird too.
To be fair, in the last, oh, I'd say 30 or so pages just as I began to wish for a quick ending, it began to pick up somewhat as I was FINALLY given some insight into what was actually happening in the present moment.
Maybe there's the rub right there: The book is 260 pages long. Of that I would say about 50 of them are used to narrate events in the present. The lack of present-moment context that I got from each of the characters only served to make them seem uncompelling and lifeless.
In case you are still wondering, I do not recommend it.
While there were a few glimmers, this book could not have disappointed me more.
Pacing was a problem. To read this book often felt like I had a morphine drip hooked up to my arm. It is SLOW. Mind you, I am not a reader who needs explosions, twists and turns, or crackling action. I was not hoping to read something that could eventually turn into a summer blockbuster. After the initial situation that sets the book into motion is introduced at the VERY BEGINNING of the story, the vast majority of it is a regression into the memory of the main character. This would be fine, if it seemed like ANYTHING were going on in the present. While this may have been purposeful on the part of the author, it is far from effective. By the time I had gotten one third through the book, it felt like the orchestra was still warming up as I'd begun to wonder when something, anything would happen on stage.
On to the characters. They are lifeless composite sketches. Totally wooden. They are not convincingly alive. Especially the mother. Perhaps the author had begun to sense this, as she decided at one point that 30 PAGES should be devoted to a conversation between the main character and one of her close confidantes as they take a plane ride over the ocean. I certainly don't mind long long dialogues. What I do mind is when they make me feel like I'm, well, stuck on an airplane within earshot of a conversation that I couldn't be less interested in. Nothing relevant, nothing surprising.
What is it about the son that failed to engage me? Perhaps that the author had gone to such an extent to make him seem exceptional and without blemish that he did not seem to be a real human. Except for the one quirk that he referred to his mother as "Mommy" for his entire life, even after he joined the Special Forces. This did not make him seem more human. It made him seem both unbelievable (in the literal sense) and maybe secretly weird too.
To be fair, in the last, oh, I'd say 30 or so pages just as I began to wish for a quick ending, it began to pick up somewhat as I was FINALLY given some insight into what was actually happening in the present moment.
Maybe there's the rub right there: The book is 260 pages long. Of that I would say about 50 of them are used to narrate events in the present. The lack of present-moment context that I got from each of the characters only served to make them seem uncompelling and lifeless.
In case you are still wondering, I do not recommend it.
September 25, 2013
War and its warriors
Although not long at under 300 pages, “Eleven Days” is a heavy book, powerful with bold ideas about war and its warriors, a novel that has the narrative drive to keep you reading and to make you think about heroes and heroics of waging war, but also the loss and futility of it all.
The media vans and crowds of onlookers are encamped outside Sara’s farmhouse in suburban Pennsylvania. They’re waiting for news of her son Jason, a member of the elite Special Operations Forces, who has been missing since the Sunday night the world learned of the Bin Laden raid, nine days ago. The story follows Sara for the two anguished days she endures until she learns what’s happened to her only son.
While Sara waits, the story weaves in and out of the past. We learn about Jason’s father, ostensibly a writer but someone politically connected who often seems to be operating in shadows somewhere in the world, and about Jason’s decision on 9/11 to abandon plans to attend Harvard to attend the Naval Academy and join the military.
During his years at the academy and several SOF tours of duty, Jason has kept in touch through a series of letters and emails, a correspondence that reveals his heart and motivation, his fears and his feelings about bravery, what it means in today’s world to be a warrior for a cause. In one note to his mother, he quotes General Douglas MacArthur, “The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for they must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
For a first-time novelist, Carpenter has the narrative sense, pace and timing of a great storyteller, someone who can talk about big ideas and raise important issues without being ponderous. For me, “Eleven Days” gets five stars for just being a rip of a read.
In a word: Gut-wrenching
Although not long at under 300 pages, “Eleven Days” is a heavy book, powerful with bold ideas about war and its warriors, a novel that has the narrative drive to keep you reading and to make you think about heroes and heroics of waging war, but also the loss and futility of it all.
The media vans and crowds of onlookers are encamped outside Sara’s farmhouse in suburban Pennsylvania. They’re waiting for news of her son Jason, a member of the elite Special Operations Forces, who has been missing since the Sunday night the world learned of the Bin Laden raid, nine days ago. The story follows Sara for the two anguished days she endures until she learns what’s happened to her only son.
While Sara waits, the story weaves in and out of the past. We learn about Jason’s father, ostensibly a writer but someone politically connected who often seems to be operating in shadows somewhere in the world, and about Jason’s decision on 9/11 to abandon plans to attend Harvard to attend the Naval Academy and join the military.
During his years at the academy and several SOF tours of duty, Jason has kept in touch through a series of letters and emails, a correspondence that reveals his heart and motivation, his fears and his feelings about bravery, what it means in today’s world to be a warrior for a cause. In one note to his mother, he quotes General Douglas MacArthur, “The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for they must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
For a first-time novelist, Carpenter has the narrative sense, pace and timing of a great storyteller, someone who can talk about big ideas and raise important issues without being ponderous. For me, “Eleven Days” gets five stars for just being a rip of a read.
In a word: Gut-wrenching
November 3, 2016
Pretty good story about a mother's anxiety of learning that her Navy SEAL son has gone MIA and the journey they both made up to that point. The book takes place over the first 11 days of May 2011 when her son goes missing, and periodically flashes back to his rise to join the Teams. I thought this was a good story, but, it felt like a hybrid of the "Lone Survivor" story and an oddly familiar alternative, though not explicitly,version the bin Laden raid from "No Easy Day"...
The protagonist, Sara, is likeable, but ultimately unbelievable and the author, it seems, wrote this book directed at people with no prior exposure to Navy SEAL lore and legend. Sara is a former CIA analyst and has a brief affair with another CIA "employee" which produced a son, Jason. For supposedly being a CIA analyst she seems totally naïve or stupid regarding the nature of her son's profession as a SEAL. She just knows that she doesn't know where he is or what he's doing, but acts like she doesn't realize he's kicking ass and taking names on a regular basis. So on that point I was turned off by her supposed smarts and concurrent cluelessness.
The story builds tension towards a somewhat predictable conclusion, but overall this was pretty decent read, but left me...unfulfilled.
The protagonist, Sara, is likeable, but ultimately unbelievable and the author, it seems, wrote this book directed at people with no prior exposure to Navy SEAL lore and legend. Sara is a former CIA analyst and has a brief affair with another CIA "employee" which produced a son, Jason. For supposedly being a CIA analyst she seems totally naïve or stupid regarding the nature of her son's profession as a SEAL. She just knows that she doesn't know where he is or what he's doing, but acts like she doesn't realize he's kicking ass and taking names on a regular basis. So on that point I was turned off by her supposed smarts and concurrent cluelessness.
The story builds tension towards a somewhat predictable conclusion, but overall this was pretty decent read, but left me...unfulfilled.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2014
I finished this book a few days ago, but set aside logging it in order to think awhile. The four star rating could have been three... but, no, the book deserves to be recognised for the good work it is.
It is a powerful portrayal of a woman's love for her son and, I think, her faith in him, countered by the fact that his father let them both down about as badly as he could have.
It is about her son's love for her, his training and service as a highly skilled and principled member of the United States Navy SEALs.
It tells a lot about what it takes to do what he does, about how the Force operates, and the politics that drives it. His father's role becomes apparent. It is a very topical book in terms of U.S. anti-terrorist operations.
For some reason - I can't work out why - the important characters didn't come as alive as I would have liked. This seems strange, since the emphasis is on their thoughts and emotions. The writing style is elegant and unique, and the story cleverly constructed.
It is a powerful portrayal of a woman's love for her son and, I think, her faith in him, countered by the fact that his father let them both down about as badly as he could have.
It is about her son's love for her, his training and service as a highly skilled and principled member of the United States Navy SEALs.
It tells a lot about what it takes to do what he does, about how the Force operates, and the politics that drives it. His father's role becomes apparent. It is a very topical book in terms of U.S. anti-terrorist operations.
For some reason - I can't work out why - the important characters didn't come as alive as I would have liked. This seems strange, since the emphasis is on their thoughts and emotions. The writing style is elegant and unique, and the story cleverly constructed.
June 17, 2017
This title was one of the first available to download from our library when I quickly needed to come up with a book while having to spend several hours in Macomb, IL on a cold snowy Sunday waiting for Nik who attended a soccer camp there. Although it deals with war, it is not a typical war book as far as war action and violence is concerned. Instead it centers more on a mother son relationship and the ways to become a US military warrior. The title "Eleven Days" refers to the time that Jason, the son and Special Naval Teams member, is missing in action after a very secret mission. The book goes back and forth between the son's and mother's perspective as well as past and present, so by the time the eleven days are up, the reader understands the strong bond between mother and son and his motivation to give his all to his country.
March 18, 2014
I'll admit that I struggled through most of this book due to the military jargon and the multiple pages of unbroken thought(I need some dialog now and again) but what saved it for me was the last 75 pages or so. High on emotion, I feel like we finally got out of the clinical feeling of the writing and into the emotion and that made all the difference. Finally, I could feel these characters and get a sense of who they were and what they were going through.
October 24, 2014
A poignant and haunting exploration of the bond between mother and son and what happens when that son goes missing while fighting for his country. An intense exploration of what it means to be a young soldier in modern times and what it does to those who love him.
September 3, 2014
It had really good parts...but just too many odd parts. Disjointed? Not quite, but it's like she edited out portions without checking the flow. I cried - raising the level to a 4 rating.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews