The Fourteenth of September

REVIEWS (Full Reviews on Website: https://www.ritadragonette.com/novel/the-fourteenth-of-september)

Midwest Book Review: Offering a new and unique perspective of the politically divisive Vietnam War here in America, "The Fourteenth of September" is a deftly written and thoroughly absorbing read from beginning to end.

Kirkus Review: ... Judy’s motivations are unclear, even to Judy—which, in turn, may make it difficult for readers to understand her. Still, she makes a sacrifice in a finale that’s well-crafted, surprising, and inevitable. An often fresh take on the collegiate anti-war movement in small-town America.

Foreword Review: The Fourteenth of September is a moving tribute to lives altered by the chance nature of the Vietnam draft. Rita Dragonette’s illuminating historical novel The Fourteenth of September captures the Vietnam War through the heartaches of the women on the home front.

Chicago Writers Association – Windy City Reviews: This story is beautifully written with compassionate and thoughtful narrative and engaging characters who play out all the angst of the era set on a Midwestern college campus when America was at its most vulnerable. Dragonette show us what we can be, both in our best and our worst.

Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Two if By Sea: Rita Dragonette has written a strong-hearted and authentic novel about a naive young girl and her struggle to reconcile the dissonance between the world she sees and the world she was raised to believe in. Judy is truly a quiet hero; you won’t forget her.

Historical Novel Society: Dragonette has written a moving book on this time in history from a rarely heard point of view. The details are just right: the clothes, campus life, when time with friends is more important than classes: those years when choices may be wrong, but they are yours to make. Dragonette is also unsparing of the personalities in the anti-war movement, capturing the charismatic blowhard, the one who quietly despairs, and the women who love them. I don’t think this is intended to be a series, but I would love to see what Judy does next.

VVA Veteran, David Willson: This complex novel is, in essence, an inquiry into the domestic politics of protest when the world seems to stop making any sense. Few books have taken the time—and space—to examine so thoroughly the collegiate antiwar movement in small-town America. This novel opened my eyes to issues that my thick skin and my age had protected me from. We are admonished to read this book and weep, and I actually did shed a tear or two of sympathy. If you’re like me, after you read this well-written novel, it will be difficult to put it out of your mind.