Horror and Humanity on the Battlefield

My final book review of 2024.

It’s 1942. Davy is a veteran of World War One, suffering from what we now call PTSD, and an alcoholic. Cabbie is a young woman about to embark for Europe in order to serve in World War Two. They come together at the cabin in the Colorado mountains built many years ago by Jed Carpenter. Fans of John Erwin will be familiar with Jed from Erwin’s previous books. Like me they will be pleased that the wait for another offering from this thoughtful author is finally over.

Davy carves small but beautiful things from Peach pits. Cabbie wears one of these, a tiny figure of a monkey, around her neck. The title comes from Davy’s ability to visualize the monkey before he began carving away ‘everything that wasn’t monkey’ in the original pit. It’s a perfect analogy for the way in which the complex relationship between the two characters is revealed by Erwin’s captivating narrative. They have known each other for the whole of the 25 years that separates them chronologically, sharing the same parents, referred to throughout as Ma and Pa.

They set out from the cabin to trek through the mountains to another of Jed’s secret hideouts near a collection of hot springs. It is there that Davy reveals the nature of his relationship to Cabbie and she helps him leave behind the nightmares that lie behind…