This is an extraordinary story of conflict and reconciliation within the deeply religious Irish Catholic family of Joseph Carroll, FBI agent and protege of J. Edgar Hoover, who was later Air Force General and Pentagon intelligence chief involved in some of the most momentous decisions of the Cold War. Joe Carroll built a storybook life of honor and achievement. He was the father we all coveted: strong, handsome, confident, in complete control of everything around him. Joe Carroll's journey was that of American men propelled by love of country, duty-bound to authorities and traditions that made this country dominant, traditions that would run aground in Southeast Asia.
The fabric of trust that held the Carrolls together was ripped to shreds by the Vietnam War. Even ordinary families were tested by the social upheavals of the 1960s, and the Carrolls were no ordinary family. General Joe Carroll stubbornly refused to acknowledge that he and his generation were wrong about Vietnam. Meanwhile, his cherished institutions-including the Catholic Church-were failing not only his sons but all of American society.
James Carroll, lapsed priest, noted poet and novelist, sets his father's life and values in stark contrast to his own: the soldier and the pacifist; the unquestioning lieutenant of J. Edgar Hoover and the near-reverential follower of Martin Luther King. Add to that James's brothers-Brian, an FBI agent tracking down the very draft resisters and war protesters aided by his activist priest brother; Dennis, a conscientious objector; and Joe, a polio-stricken advocate for the disabled. One can hardly imagine a more complicated set of family relationships during one of the country's most stressful periods.
Carroll's evolving relationship with his family makes An American Requiem a powerful story, one of the most moving, lyrical, genuinely American stories to come from one of our finest writers.
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