The Last Year of the War

"Born again" in a conversion experience while in high school in Massachusetts, Jo Fuller leaves her scoffing family and the intolerable memory of her brother's fresh death in World War II for the Calvary Bible Institute in Chicago. In dormitory, classroom, and dining hall, all assembled are more or less earnestly studying for the pastorate, the music ministry, or missionary work. Jo meets up with Clyde McQuade, a discharged veteran who starts bird-dogging the girl immediately but to whom Jo is hardly attracted; what's of note about Clyde is his zealousness (he irons out discarded tracts) and determinism ("I'm no hotshot, and neither are you. Whether we like it or not, He has given us to each other for this purpose, to be partners in faith")--and his near-psychopathic feeling that his spiritual progress is connected with how well the war goes in Europe. Jo falls in and out of crushes with other boys, but Clyde is always there, like a reproach. Jo's doubt begins to grow: Is her faith simply a need for security? Is God her substitute for her dead brother, whom she deeply offended by her belief before his death? Nelson's best stroke in this first novel (winner of the Harper-Saxton Fellowship) is how well she humanizes the religious experience. The core is doubt, and doubts stick to people. A quiet, authoritative style, a trained eye (when a gravelly-voice teacher starts to speak, many of the students unconsciously clear their own throats), and a deep, probably autobiographical commitment to her subject make something completely convincing out of Nelson's very personal, contemplative, and "unsexy" raw material. - Kirkus Review