You also know when the men are gone. No more boots stomping above, no more football games turned up too high, and best of all, no more front doors slamming before dawn as they trudge out for their early formation, sneakers on metal stairs, cars starting, shouts to the windows above to thrown down their gloves on cold desert mornings. Babies still cry, telephones ring, Saturday morning cartoons screech, but without the men, there is a sense of muted silence, a sense of muted life.
And so begins, You Know When the Men are Gone, eight stories in which Fallon takes us into the world of Fort Hood during wartime: a place where families struggle, wives miss their husbands and children rebel. For most of us, the sacrifice of war is left to others, but in this collection we’re allowed to peek in the windows of the people who give up the most: a wife who hacks her husband’s email overseas searching for clues of infidelity, a wounded soldier returning home, a runaway teenager. Each story is emotionally acute, beautifully written and will leave you haunted and in awe of this world that feels foreign, but is not so far away.
