They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark


Publisher: Silver Star (September 21, 2021
Category: Historical Romance, WW2, Family Saga, Based on a True Story
Tour dates: April 25-June 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-0578855288
Available in Print and ebook, 320 pages

Description They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark

They were just kids, barely not teenagers, madly in love and wanting to be a family, but WW2 and a B29 got in their way.

Three hundred ten days before Pearl Harbor, buck private Dean Sherman innocently went to church with a new friend in Salt Lake City. From that moment, the unsuspecting soldier travelled a remarkable, heroic path, falling in love, graduating from demanding training to become a B29 pilot, conceiving a son and entering the China, Burma and India theater of the WW2.

He chronicled his story with letters home to his bride Connie that he met on that fateful Sunday, blind to the fact that fifteen hundred seventy five days after their meeting, a Japanese swordsman would end his life.

His crew, a gaggle of Corporals that dubbed themselves the Corporealizes, four officers and a tech Sargent, adventured their way across the globe. Flying the “Aluminum Trail” also called the Hump through the Himalayas, site of the most dangerous flying in the world. Landing in China to refuel and then fly on to places like Manchuria, Rangoon or even the most southern parts of Japan to drop 500 pounders.

Each mission had its challenges, minus fifty degree weather in Mukden, or Japanese fighters firing away at them, a close encounter of the wrong kind, nearly missing a collision with another B29 while flying in clouds, seeing friends downed and lost because of “mechanicals,” the constant threat of running out of fuel and their greatest fear, engine fire.

Transferred to the Mariana Islands, he and his crew were shot down over Nagoya, Japan as part of Mission 174, captured and declared war criminals.

Connie’s letters reveal life for a brand new mother whose husband is declared MIA. The agony for both of them, he in a Japanese prison, declared a war criminal, and she just not knowing why his letters stopped coming.

My Thoughts They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark

When Dean and Connie met on a blind date, they fell instantly in love. However, there were complications.  1. Connie was a Mormon 2. Dean training to become a B29 pilot 3. The U.S. was just about to be brought into WWII.

Dean converts to Mormonism and Connie’s parents then agree to their marriage and they get married.  Connie travels with Dean during his training and military placements around the U.S. Soon Connie becomes pregnant. However, when Dean has to go abroad to fight in WWII, Connie goes back to her parents and lives with them.

‘They Called Him Marvin’ is based on a true story about Dean and Connie.  Connie saved their correspondence and their real letters are printed in this book, with their sons, Marvin’s permission.  He told Roger Stark the story of his parents and agreed with Roger that it should be told.

Besides the real letter, Stark uses history and fiction to recreate what Dean and Connie when through during the war.  He also used the character of a little boy in Japan to show what life was like for civilians there. The letters themselves not only show the couples deep love for each other but what it was like for a solder and his family during the war.

I bet you are wondering or even guessing what happened to Dean, Connie, and Marvin. I wish I could tell you but it may spoil it. So, you will have to read the book to find out.

The way Stark tells the story with the use of the letters, real history and fiction to fill in the story is magical.  I felt like I was there, with both Dean, at battle and Connie, waiting for his letters and of course, having their son. This book is near impossible to put down!

I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars!

I received the ebook for my honest opinion.

About Roger Stark

Roger Stark, by his own admission, is a reluctant writer. But there are stories that demand to be told. When we hear them, we must pick up our pen, lest we forget and the stories be lost. Six years ago, in a quiet conversation with his friend, Marvin, he learned the tragic story of his father, a WW2 B-29 Airplane Commander, shot down over Nagoya, Japan, just months before the end of the war.

The telling of the story that evening by this half orphan was so moving and full of emotion, it compelled Roger to ask if he could write the story. The result being “They Called Him Marvin.”

Roger Stark’s life has been profoundly touched in so many ways by being part of documenting this sacred story. He prays that we never forget, as a people, the depth of sacrifice that was made by ordinary people like Marvin and his father and mother on our behalf.

Website: https://theycalledhimmarvin.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TCHMarvin

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Giveaway They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark

This giveaway is for 3 print copies, one for each of 3 winners. This giveaway is open to  the U.S. only and ends on June 24, 2022 midnight, pacific time.  Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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