The Standard Grand

by Jay Baron Nicorvo

"Nicorvo is a bracingly original writer and a joy to read." ―Dennis Lehane

"It seems possible that Nicorvo has ingested all the darkness of this life and now breathes fire.” ―Nick Flynn, author ofAnother Bullshit Night in Suck City

"Nicorvo’s muscular and energetic prose will stun readers with its poignancy, while providing a punch to the solar plexus." ―Booklist (Starred Review)

"A dash of Coetzee, a dram of Delillo, but mostly just the complicated compassion of Jay Nicorvo. The Standard Grand is a brutally beautiful novel." ―Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted

"A desperate masterpiece of a debut" that tells a huge-hearted American saga—of love, violence, war, conspiracy and the aftermath of them all. (Bonnie Jo Campbell)

When an Army trucker goes AWOL before her third deployment, she ends up sleeping in Central Park. There, she meets a Vietnam vet and widower who inherited a tumbledown Borscht Belt resort. Converted into a halfway house for homeless veterans, the Standard—and its two thousand acres over the Marcellus Shale Formation—is coveted by a Houston-based multinational company. Toward what end, only a corporate executive knows.

With three violent acts at its center—a mauling, a shooting, a mysterious death decades in the past—and set largely in the Catskills, The Standard Grand spans an epic year in the lives of its diverse cast: a female veteran protagonist, a Mesoamerican lesbian landman, a mercenary security contractor keeping secrets and seeking answers, a conspiratorial gang of combat vets fighting to get peaceably by, and a cougar—along with appearances by Sammy Davis, Jr. and Senator Al Franken. All of the characters—soldiers, civilians—struggle to discover that what matters most is not that they’ve caused no harm, but how they make amends for the harm they’ve caused.

The Standard Grand confronts a glaring cultural omission: the absence of women in our war stories. Like the best of its characters—who aspire more to goodness than greatness—this American novel hopes to darn a hole or two in the frayed national fabric.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Literary Fiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 2017

About the author

JAY BARON NICORVO’s forthcoming memoir, BEST COPY AVAILABLE, won the AWP Award judged by Geoff Dyer. His novel, THE STANDARD GRAND, landed at #8 on the Indie Next List, and his poetry collection, DEADBEAT, debuted on the Poetry Foundation bestseller list. Find Jay at www.nicorvo.net

Reviews

[Louise Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Army trucker goes AWOL before her third deployment and ends up sleeping in Central Park. She meets a Vietnam Vet and widower who has inherited a tumbledown Borscht Belt resort that's been converted into a halfway house for homeless veterans.

The strong characters in this book deal with war, love and loss. The difficulty returning soldiers have to go through. The book does have a slow start that might put some readers off. Not usually my type of book but I did quite enjoy it.

I would like to thank NetGalley, St Martins Press and the author Jay Baron Nicorvo for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jay Nicorvo · Rating 5 out of 5]

No Love in the Writer, No Love in the Reader

My former sister-in-law deployed to Iraq in 2008 as part of the surge. Her MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was 88M, motor transport operator. She drove trucks, one of the most dangerous jobs in the Army. About halfway through her difficult deployment, my brother got word she was having an affair with another soldier.

After fifteen months, her tour ended, and she returned stateside. Stationed a couple thousand miles from my brother, she cut off all communication. None of us could reach her — e-mailing, calling, texting — we had no idea what had become of her. In that absence of information, while my brother went out of his mind with grief and confusion, I did what writers do. I went into my mind. I worked to imagine what could’ve happened, and I did so partly out of a sense of guilt.
​
I did not love my sister-in-law. I didn’t even like her much. I tolerated her because my brother loved her. It’s sad — shameful really — but I’ve found it’s my lot. I fail as a person. I’m awkward, anxious, or angry in my dealings with family, friends, and strangers. In the face of my social shortcomings, which are legion, I try, after the fact, to right them by rewriting them. Sometimes I find my way toward empathy. Occasionally, when I write long and hard enough, running myself through the full wringer of human emotions, I reach something that approximates love.
​
While my brother’s marriage gradually dissolved, I spent the next five years in daily communion with a make-believe woman inspired by my sister-in-law. In the early going, she, the main character of my first novel, The Standard Grand, bore a resemblance, at least on the surface, to my sister-in-law. But the longer I spent with her, the more she asserted herself, becoming an individual. Divorced from me and my preconceptions, and sharing only a few cursory details — a military job, a home state — with the woman who spurred her into being, she assumes selfhood. She takes on a name, Specialist Antebellum Smith, and a roster of nicknames: Bellum, Ant, Bang Bang. She has a dog and a dirty mouth. With every nuance, every telltale detail, she comes more lovingly to life.
​
But what is love to a novelist? In Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of Love, she tells us: “When I set a glass prism on a windowsill and allow the sun to flood through it, a spectrum of colors dances on the floor. What we call ‘white’ is a rainbow of colored rays packed into a small space. The prism sets them free. Love is the white light of emotion.” When we love someone, what we feel for this person is the full range of affect. This, according to Ackerman, is love. Love is not an emotion. Love is all emotion. And there aren’t all that many. The dominant theory holds that there are merely six basics: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
​
When I’m trying to create a major character, I’m attempting to evoke in myself — through the thought, action, and talk of that character — every last one of those six emotions. When I ultimately do — if I do — I come to love her. This is my consolation. Love, the life-giving breath. And if I do love her, dear reader, then maybe you will too.

— excerpted from an essay in
Poets & Writers Jan/Feb 2017

[Oreoandlucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A more complete review is available on my blog:
https://reviewsofbooksonmynightstand....

This book just didn't hit the spot for me. Most of the story dragged. I didn't find it humorous and the mystery wasn't enough to keep my attention. I actually had to leave this book several times and come back to it while reading other books in order to finish it. There were some questions that I had throughout the book but the book ended without ever answering those questions, ruining any chance of any mystery with a climactic ending. The writing is strange and very choppy. I did enjoy Bellum's character and Bellum's story about her childhood and marriage made me understand why she did certain things later. Most of the characters were very interesting but I think I enjoyed their back stories more than I enjoyed the story about The Standard Grande and IRJ's reasons for wanting to buy it. This book did have some information about PTSD but I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it had focused on those aspects. Overall, I just didn't like this book. I think it would be good for someone that enjoys military banter and doesn't mind when a mystery is not solved at the end of a novel. It just wasn't my cup of tea, though.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

[Michael Ferro · Rating 5 out of 5]

"To me, the most beautiful thing about Jay Baron Nicorvo's THE STANDARD GRAND was its unwillingness to cast away the dark skies gathering over America. Instead, Nicorvo gives us a beacon of hope in these increasingly troubled times. With the language of a poet, Nicorvo brings a vivid imagery and relentless beauty to his narrative, creating an entirely lyrical world for the reader.

Much like DeLillo, Nicorvo has also mastered the art of witty, realistic dialogue like few others I've read. His characters speak with compassion and a dynamic resolve that we ourselves feel, breaking our hearts in one sentence and making us laugh our heads off in the next.

Most of all, this is a truly important novel. It is no secret that the soul of our country is wounded; we have an American disease. Nicorvo forces us to face the cold, hard facts of this diagnosis and won't let us turn away, but we soon realize that we don't want to, because as an author, he's done his job so well and given us an astute, entertaining story. THE STANDARD GRAND is the medicine our minds need. This is a must-read book!"

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A loaded gun wants to go off.”

Critics have compared Nicorvo’s brilliant debut novel to the work of Heller, and indeed, it seems destined to become the go-to story of those that have served in the unwinnable morass created by the US government against the people of the Middle East: “a drawdown war forever flaring up”. It’s created a tremendous amount of buzz already. I was lucky enough to read it free and in advance for the purpose of a review, thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press, but today it’s available to the public. You should buy it and read it, maybe more than once.

The story starts with a list of the characters involved, but the way it’s presented provides a tantalizing taste of the author’s voice. The page heading tells us these are “The Concerns”, and the subheadings divide them into practical categories, such as The Smith Family, the Employees of IRJ, Inc., and The Veterans of The Standard Grande (misspelling is mentioned later in the story). Then we proceed to list The Beasts, and The Dead, and The Rest, and right then I know this is going to be good.

Antebellum Smith is our protagonist, and she’s AWOL, half out of her mind due to PTSD, anxiety, and grief. She’s sleeping in a tree in New York City’s Central Park when Wright finds her there and invites her to join his encampment at The Standard Grand. Here the walking wounded function as best they can in what was once an upscale resort. One of the most immediately noticeable aspects of the story is the way extreme luxury and miserable, wretched poverty slam up against one another. Although the veterans are grateful for The Standard Grand, the fact is that without central heat, with caved in ceilings, rot, and dangerous disrepair, the place resembles a Third World nation much more than it resembles the wealthiest nation on the planet.

On the other hand, it’s also perched, unbeknownst to most of its denizens, on top of a valuable vein of fossil fuel, and the IRJ, Incorporated is sending Evangelina Cavek, their landsman, out in a well-appointed private jet to try to close the deal with Wright. She is ordered off the property, and from there things go straight to hell.

Secondary and side characters are introduced at warp speed, and at first I highlight and number them in my reader, afraid I’ll lose track of who’s who. Although I do refer several times to that wonderful list, which is happily located right at the beginning where there’s no need for a bookmark, I am also amazed at how well each character is made known to me. Nicorvo is talented at rendering characters in tight, snapshot-like sketches that trace for us, with a few phrases and deeds, an immediate picture that is resonant and lasting. Well drawn settings and quirky characters remind me at first of author James Lee Burke; on the other hand, the frequently surreal events, sometimes fall-down-funny, sometimes dark and pulse-pounding, make me think of Michael Chabon and Kurt Vonnegut. But nothing here is derivative. The descriptions of the main setting, The Standard Grand, are meted out with discipline, and it pays off.

As for Smith, she still has nightmares, still wakes up to “the voices of all the boys and girls of the wars—Afghan, Iraqi, American—like a choir lost in a dust storm.”

There’s so much more here, and you’re going to have to go get it for yourself. It’s gritty, profane, and requires a reasonably strong vocabulary level; I’m tempted to say it isn’t for the squeamish, yet I think the squeamish may need it most.

Strongly recommended for those that love excellent fiction.

[Mindy Gough · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wanted to be so macho. The phrasing, the descriptions, the plot were all male-centered and jarring. I kept reading, thinking it might get better, but it didn't.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this new authors novel. A ragtag group of vets have holes up in the Catskills in a defunk resort. Also chasing their own pts demons. Soon to join them is a female deserter with PTSD after two tours running from a 3rd deployment and an abusive husband. Add in a land manager scouting for a company with a lot of shady dealings great read

[Si Braybrooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Vietnam vet, vets from recent theatres of war, a deserter, civil rights, Alzheimer's, a run down holiday village in the Catskills, big business corruption and intimidation - sounds a lot to cram into one book. But it manages to also squeeze in a big cat mauling and death, a fair amount. This is a hard book to get into, you are literally thrown around from page to page for the first quarter or so, trying to keep track of characters and plots - although it does have a helpful index of the characters in the front. However, once you are past this and starting to click everything together this turns into a real mover, delving deep into how society treats its war veterans and although set in the US there are a lot of common themes which can be identified with a British reader about how we also see vets, and how there isn't enough assistance for them when they return, but also how, unless you've been there, its difficult to understand and realise the anguish and pain that returning soldiers have to work through to reintegrate. These strong characters are interwoven into a story, of war, love, hope and loss. Don't expect a happy ending, but don't expect a sad ending, just see how the book challenges and tests you. A great book, but not a light read, the one downside is quite a few military acronyms are used which really would be helpful to be footnoted at the bottom of the page with their meaning, that and a map of the Grande site would help with visualisation. But apart from that I'm very glad I persevered.

[Geoff Greene · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Note** I received this book as part of a Goodreads promotional giveaway.

While I don't lend a lot of credence to the summaries on the back of dust jackets, the one that appears on "The Standard Grand" did a poor job of gearing me for the story I was about to read. From the description, I thought I was going to read something similar to Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard with larger than life characters and hijinks. That is not the case and the book offers an interesting story if you ignore the perspective the plot summary sets up for you.

The writing is well done but perhaps a bit bogged down at times. Perhaps this is the authors intention, to get across the Vets sense of being stuck. If it is than well done since I moved very slowly through this book, only reading 10 or so pages a night for a week before becoming interested enough to read 20. The author is very fluent in military jargon and uses it well but that does cause a civvy brain to parse the page slower.

While the characters that are introduced are interesting, there are quite a few that I was left wondering why the author even bothered. That continues to the setting, the titular Standard Grand which seems like an afterthought to most of the characters in the book, not something they need to hold on to or defend. I did enjoy Bellum and Ray, their relationship, their perspectives were interesting and engrossing to read.

That the book tackles the topic of veterans and their difficulty returning home or returning to the front (or lack thereof) is great and is sorely needed now. To truly understand and explore the issues soldiers face is crucial.

[Cathy Geha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Standard Grand by Jay Baron Nicorvo

This is not my usual reading fare. When I was finished I was ready for something lighter with a happily ever after ending. In one novel everything but the kitchen sink seemed to end up being discussed: big business, war(s), PTSD, atrocities, abuse, love, marriage, divorce, AWOL, war veterans, murder, religion, do-gooders, abortion, adoption, the right to die, infidelity, intercultural relationships, anger, spying, homelessness, evil…goodness…the list goes on. It all fits in but does make for a long convoluted plot that left me “wondering”. Wondering about what? A lot of things…mostly the things brought up in the book.

Who would I recommend this book to? Tough question. Readers who are interested in war veterans, big business, intrigue and are willing to think about the bigger picture while reading snippets of the lives of the bit players. It will require the reader to stick with the book through the slow background building that is crucial in all of its parts when woven together. And it is no doubt best for people not looking for simple easy to read books that always have a HEA or HFN ending.

I am still pondering as I sit here. In some ways I wish the book had a different ending BUT perhaps the ending I wanted would not have left me pondering and thinking as this story’s end did.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

I really, really wanted to like this book. It promised a female veteran and a Mesoamerican lesbian as characters, along with an intriguing plot.

But the prose was just so, SO plodding. I usually give a book at least 50 pages before I drop it, but I stopped at page 36. I just couldn't get past the writing style.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave it a try because I thought the book sounded interesting and I look forward to reading about topics I don’t know much about. With that said - I just couldn’t get into the dialogue and found myself dreading picking up the book. So I’m out. Letting this book go.

[Marina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dragged on. Couldn't finish. Did not interest me much at all. It just was not captivating. I'll try again another day...

[Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley, Jay Baron Nicorvo, and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I read as a means to gain empathy, and when I saw the description of this book, I knew that I needed to read it.

The book is real -- unflinchingly real. I didn't connect with the first few pages because it was so unsparing and I realized I needed to be in the right headspace to really dive in. Once I did though, I didn't stop until I finished.

I saw my friends in this book -- where they could have gone once they returned from the military -- and I gave thanks that none of them went down the path described. I have a lot of friends who are veterans and lobby for veterans issues, and by reading this book I feel like I have a better idea of why they fight those legislative battles.

I hope places as described in the final chapter really do exist.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Rating System:
5 Stars = great book, would enthusiastically recommend
4 Stars = good book, would recommend
3 Stars = so-so rating, might recommend
2 Stars = finished, but would not recommend
1 Stars = bailed

[Stephanie Pieck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Standard Grand follows characters with competing motives as they navigate the aftermath of returning home from combat. The title refers to a shelter for homeless vets housed in a defunct resort in the Catskills. The director is dying of cancer and deeply in debt, but he takes in one more person, Antebellum Smith, an Army trucker gone AWOL, seeing in her a potential successor to run the shelter.
But a corporation wants the land that the resort is on, and they send another woman to ferret out information and make an offer the director can’t refuse.
Nothing goes as planned, though, and as we follow the characters through staccato bursts of narrative and split-second shifts in perspective, we understand that the real goal for these people isn’t to find a place where they can escape the harm they’ve done or experienced in their pasts. Instead, they’re searching for ways to undo harm in the future, a transformed version of “paying it forward” that matches the often messy lives the characters are living.
This is a high-octane story, capturing marginalized characters and bringing their narratives to readers who might not otherwise encounter them.

[Maureen Tumenas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for the preview copy of this book.

First- this is a 4.5* book. It's hard to believe that this is a debut novel. The basic storyline is of the AWOL homeless female vet and the ragtag group of veterans who come to live together up in the Catskills to try to relearn how to live with the rest of the world. The cast of characters comes to life slowly and kind of like a patchwork quilt- a glimpse here, then another glimpse there. For me this was not just another "home from the war" story, mostly because of Bellum- the female vet. We don't hear much about these women in real life- how they come home and try to pick up the pieces.

The other strands of the plot- with the energy corporations trying to get the land that the home for vets- The Standard Ground- occupies and all the shenanigans that stem from this corporate greed grab weaves in and out of the lives of Bellum, Ray, Milt and the vets. Is it the underlying story? Is the tragedy of war the story? Is it a tale of redemption for the survivors? Yes- all of these and more.

This isn't just a Mid-East war version of all the other war stories you may have read. It is so much more. Worth your time!

[Laura Newsholme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an intricate novel about trying to recover from war, veterans, cougars, motorbikes, big company conspiracies and Sammy Davis Jr. It follows Antebellum Smith as she tries to deal with life after war after going AWOL from both the army and her life with her husband. For me, it was so interesting to focus on female war veterans and their own personal challenges when dealing with their war experiences. The writing is clean and efficient and the characters are just wonderful. The book tackles some difficult subject matter with compassion and clarity and the narrative, while jumping from one character viewpoint to another, is fast paced without seeming rushed in any way. We are given plenty of time to luxuriate in the lives of our characters and it is a really interesting place to be. A great debut novel.

[Bridget]

****Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an honest review****

"
When an Army trucker goes AWOL before her third deployment, she ends up sleeping in Central Park. There, she meets a Vietnam vet and widower who inherited a tumbledown Borscht Belt resort. Converted into a halfway house for homeless veterans, the Standard—and its two thousand acres over the Marcellus Shale Formation—is coveted by a Houston-based multinational company. Toward what end, only a corporate executive knows."

This book was a deviation from My standard reading fare,to be honest I'm only reading Psychological Thrillers or big literary fare at this point in time. But I enjoyed the book, it got me away from my comfort zone and made me aware of why some people close to me suffer/ed from PSTD.

Good read.

[Mystica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spanning just a year in the lives of several people, this book encompasses a whole spectrum of emotions and actions.

The book deals with current issues and those that have still not been resolved. War veterans returning to an empty life, no direction, no care. The book is very heavy and at times it did seem to drag but it is good reading and shows how great the impact of American interference in the Middle East has created. The havoc played on the minds, families and hearts of the American people alone is enough for generations to come.

I cannot say I enjoyed the read, but it was compelling reading.

[Katie O. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this because it offers a very realistic perspective of vets with PTSD in the modern era. It's also quite literary. The intensive, sweeping, and constant changes in POV are engaging. The plot is not predictable, the setting is unique. So, lots of good stuff. But buckle up b/c all this good packaging is filled with tense, harsh, graphic, ugly, heart wrenching, difficult people, places and poignant events.

[Blaine Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicorvo is tough, hitting you whether you're up or down and not pulling any punches. This story isn't as funny as Catch 22, but it's full of the irony and macabre humor that Heller used so successfully for another war. The fact that the central figure - Ant, Antebellum, Bellum, Smith - is female adds grit to the story and certainly places it in the Iraq/Afghanistan era.

[Selena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Stirs your every emotion.

[Rachael R · Rating 2 out of 5]

When picking up this book, I was intrigued by the variety of characters that were part of the story. I knew stepping into this book that it would be a challenging read for me and that proved to be true. Although this book ended up being "meh" for me, I want to encourage reaching for and reading books that are out of your comfort zone - how else are we going to gain new perspectives?

[Katie Dayton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only got through about 50 pages before I moved on to something else. I usually try to finish any book I start, but reading this just felt like a chore. This book uses so much military jargon it was hard to understand half of what was going on. If you’re someone like me, very unfamiliar with military life, this book is not for you. The writing style came off as pretentious to me. I found this book at the dollar store, and I think that is an appropriate place for it.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Fast moving, intricate, and explosive plot with fascinating characters. Incredible first work from this author!

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me several chapters to get into this book. It seems to be a fairly realistic account of soldiers stuffing from PTSD. A Vietnam vet is offering shelter and help to a woman AWOL from her third tour in Afghanistan. It’s refreshing to see a woman as part of the story. There is also a story line of corporate greed in the mix. How these solders cope with their past is interesting.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review for this book was published in the 2/1/17 edition of Library Journal:

Four characters converge on an abandoned Catskills resort in this ambitious novel set in 2012. Vietnam veteran Milton Wright, whose wife's family owned the property in its Borscht Belt heyday, has converted it into the Standard Grand, a halfway house for homeless vets. Antebellum Smith, an army specialist sleeping in Central Park rather than face a third deployment (or her husband), becomes Wright's last hope to inherit the organization after his imminent death. Meanwhile, a multinational corporation with its own designs on the land has dispatched both a mercenary to infiltrate the group and a Mesoamerican negotiator to buy Wright out. As these different protagonists (and several others, including a cougar) jockey for position within the narrative, it's often unclear what story is truly being told, though Bellum eventually emerges as the novel's center. In its portrait of a country exhausted by war and drenched in conspiracies, poet Nicorvo's (Deadbeat: Poems) fiction debut is the spiritual heir to Robert Stone's Vietnam-era classic Dog Soldiers. Its depiction of the breathtaking but treacherous New York State mountains is reminiscent of Smith Henderson's similarly vivid Fourth of July Creek. VERDICT Regardless of the parallels found in other authors' earlier works, in capturing the story of one deserter's search for love and redemption in an increasingly corporatized America, Nicorvo carves out something truly original.

Copyright ©2017 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

[Melissa Mendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very different type of book. You start with an Army driver who goes AWOL and comes across a band of other vets living wild off the land at an old run down resort. Legal battles and land disputes ensue and in the process is a unique story about an AWOL Army soldier who finds purpose and strength in her life and a way to pick up the pieces in her life and those of her fellow army vets.

[Julie Failla Earhart · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was excited when I obtained a copy of Nicorvo’s debut novel. Set in 2012, it’s the story of a halfway house for homeless veterans suffering from PTSD and located in an abandoned Catskills (NY) resort.

One of the vets, Antebellum Smith, is actually AWOL from her post in Fort Leonard Wood. She can’t face a third deployment to Iraq and is sick and tired of her deadbeat civilian husband. She makes the trek from the Missouri Ozarks to Manhattan. She’d rather sleep in the park than go back.

She meets Milton Wright, a Vietnam vet and widower. Milt’s late wife’s family once owned the derelict property.

That was as much as I could decipher in this convoluted tale. There is a huge cast of characters, but thankfully, Nicorvo provides a list of who’s who before the story even starts. Most of the book is written in military lingo that was easy to figure out what it was, but for me it slowed the story down.

This work has been getting rave reviews, but it didn’t click with me. Every book had its reader(s), but this one isn’t for me. The Standard Grand gets 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

[RMazin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standard Grand is a title for readers who want their characters in staccato bursts. These characters are seeking to run away from their past and somehow embrace it so they can move on….sounds confusing but it somehow makes sense. Strongest character for me was Antebellum Smith a great name for a vet of the Mid East conflict. Nicorvo’s sentences and descriptions are unique and startling….had to dwell on some of them before moving on. But…somewhere along the way I lost the rhythm of the story. So DNF. Nevertheless, I would encourage other readers to stick it through, the amped up plot will surely appeal to those seeking a unique perspective on the vet experience and how they see the USA now and we see them – told through a wild prism of American issues.

Thanks to Netgalley for an opportunity to review this book.