false 250961 0762851309 9780762851300 77 22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173144539m/250961.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250961.Faith_of_My_Fathers 42851 John McCain 1050 260 Almost out... I think. 0 2009-01-09T17:20:00-08:00 251076 300 2009-01-09T17:20:00-08:00 POW 0 2009-01-05T12:05:04-08:00 234559 248 2009-01-05T12:05:04-08:00 0 2008-12-06T16:51:27-08:00 154774 135 2008-12-06T16:51:27-08:00 The section on the submarines and Japanese depth charges was pretty sweet... 0 2008-11-23T12:21:59-08:00 120891 99 2008-11-23T12:21:59-08:00 I'm a little behind if I want to get this read before the election... So far, the book hasn't really moved... 0 2008-11-19T17:45:16-08:00 112073 79 2008-11-19T17:45:16-08:00 3 3 false Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Aug 06 15:53:49 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 13 18:52:04 -0800 2009
The beginning of the book dealt with a lot of McCain's ancestry. He was trying to portray a sense of fate, but for those sections all I got was a sense of longwindedness. I'm flipping to a random page: "The Youngs, of the Clan Lamont from the Firth Cumbrae Islands, arrived in America earlier than the McCains, having first fled to Ireland during England's "Great Rebellion." In 1646, Mary Young Lamont and her four sons crossed ..." I know the book is marketed as a "family memoir," but this was too much.

He dedicates a large portion of the book to his youthful follies. He definitely seemed to be a hell-raiser, which he attributed to a lot of things, including being small, moving a lot because of his father's military service, and the necessity of proving himself in each new enviornment. His grades suffered, and he was always in trouble. I think youthful folly ("My daredevil clowning had cut off electricity to a great many Spanish homes and created a small international incident) is a prerequisite for running for president - Bush, Obama, Kerry... I can't really picture Gore doing anything outlandish, but I'm sure he did... don't we all?

Once in Vietnam, the book improved. After what he went through, one can understand why McCain was and is so vehemently opposed to torture.
Although McCain agrees the war was mishandled, he never backs down that it should have been fought. I was impressed by the N.Viet. propaganda machine and often wonder about how those machines work today. You'd think they'd be a whole lot more efficient. I can't imagine how hard it would have been to keep faith in your country and compatriots when faced with such adversity. Wow. There was a great (and now well known) story of the POW who was with him who sewed an American flag, was tortured for it and that very night began sewing a new one.

And that's where I'm torn on Patriotism. Love for country and faith in country are great and important. But they have to be tempered with individual principles and morality. I'm not always sure it's really possible to have both at all times, but you can see how McCain really worked toward it (even if he definitely leaned toward completely patriotic.) I worry about blind patriotism and I worry about anti-patriotism.

On the ending pages he writes, "Many men who came home from Vietnam, physically and spiritually damaged, to what appeared to be a country that did not understand or appreciate their sacrifice." This book, at the very least, helped me understand that sacrifice a little more clearly.

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