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Author Timberg, Robert, author.

Title Blue-eyed boy : a memoir / Robert Timberg.

Publication Info. New York : The Penguin Press, 2014.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Bloomfield, Prosser Library - Adult Department  BIOG. TIMBERG, R.    Storage
 Farmington, Main Library - Adult Department  B TIMBERG, ROBERT    Check Shelf
 Middletown, Russell Library - Adult Nonfiction  070.92 TIM    Check Shelf
 Simsbury Public Library - Biographies  BIOG TIMBERG, ROBERT    Check Shelf
 South Windsor Public Library - New Materials  B TIMBERG    Lost and Paid
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Biographies  B TIMBERG ROBERT T    Check Shelf
Description 304 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Summary "From journalist Robert Timberg, a memoir of the struggle to reclaim his life after being severely burned as a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam. In January 1967, Robert Timberg was a short-timer, counting down the days until his combat tour ended. He had thirteen days to go when his vehicle struck a Viet Cong land mine, resulting in third-degree burns of his face and much of his body. He survived, barely, then began the arduous battle back, determined to build a new life and make it matter. Remarkable as was his return to health--he endured no less than thirty-five operations--perhaps more remarkable was his decision to reinvent himself as a journalist, one of the most public of professions. Blue-Eyed Boy is a gripping, occasionally comic account of what it took for an ambitious man, aware of his frightful appearance but hungry for meaning and accomplishment, to master a new craft amid the pitying stares and shocked reactions of many he encountered on a daily basis. Timberg was at the top of his game as White House correspondent for The Baltimore Sun when suddenly his work brought his life full circle: the Iran-Contra scandal broke. At its heart were three fellow Naval Academy graduates and Vietnam-era veterans. Timberg's coverage of that story resulted in his first book, The Nightingale's Song, a powerful work of narrative nonfiction that follows the three academy graduates most deeply involved in Iran-Contra--Oliver North among them--as well as two other well-known Navy men, John McCain and James Webb, from the academy through Vietnam and into the Reagan years. In Blue-Eyed Boy, Timberg relates how he came to know these five men and how their stories helped him understand the ways the Vietnam War and the furor that swirled around it continue to haunt the nation, even now, nearly four decades after its dismal conclusion. Timberg is no saint, and he has traveled a hard and often bitter road. In facing his own remarkable life with the same tools of wisdom, human empathy, and storytelling grit he brought to his journalism, he has produced one of the most moving and important memoirs of our time"-- Provided by publisher.
Note Includes index.
Contents Prologue: Mirror, mirror on the wall -- Short-timer -- War stories -- Sleepless days, sleepless nights -- Janie -- Where's the burn? -- Wasting away in Yokohamaville -- Lynn -- The skin game -- Nut-cutting time (1) -- The Wichita lineman -- Sylvia Samurai -- Nut-cutting time (2) -- Cub reporter -- Grilling the preacher -- Like a marine to mud -- The knight errant -- A fish story -- Scarsdale Galahad -- Kansas City here I come -- Red Chief -- Walking the ground -- Punch-drunk -- The great escape -- The pink bathrobe year -- Anybody's kid -- Breaking the plane -- The Nieman effect -- Ollie, Bud, and John -- The banality of evil -- The private war of Ollie and Jim -- Five characters in search of an author -- The nightingale's song -- Identity crisis -- Talking the talk -- The crown prince -- Hoosiers -- Stalking the Admiral -- Bud -- Call Ollie -- Friends in high places -- The kick-ass troubadour -- Lost -- Full circle -- Highs and lows -- Epilogue: The footlocker.
Subject Timberg, Robert.
Journalists -- United States -- Biography.
Marines -- United States -- Biography.
Burns and scalds -- Patients -- United States -- Biography.
Burns and scalds -- Patients -- Rehabilitation.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Veterans -- United States -- Biography.
United States Naval Academy -- Alumni and alumnae -- Biography.
Iran-Contra Affair, 1985-1990 -- Biography.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Social aspects -- United States.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- United States -- Psychological aspects.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs.
Universities and colleges -- Alumni and alumnae.
Veterans.
ISBN 9781594205668 (hardback)
1594205663 (hardback)
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