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    And West Is West
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    And West Is West
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    And West Is West
    Ebook408 pages5 hours

    And West Is West

    By Ron Childress

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    This PEN/Bellwether Prize–winning novel of drone strikes and corruption is “a calculated nail-biter that shines a dark light on life in the 21st century” (The Washington Post).

    When Jessica, a young Air Force drone pilot in Nevada, is tasked with launching a missile against a suspected terrorist halfway across the world, she realizes that though women and children are in the crosshairs of her screen, she has no choice but to follow orders. Ethan, a young Wall Street quant, is involved in a more bloodless connection to war when he develops an algorithm that enables his company’s clients to profit from the financial fluctuations caused by exactly this kind of antiterrorist strike.

    Jessica and Ethan may only be minor players, but their actions have global implications that tear lives apart—including their own. In his politically and socially charged debut novel, Ron Childress has crafted a terrifyingly real scenario.

    “Impressive and keenly relevant to our time. And West Is West moves seamlessly between drone strikes and high-speed trading on Wall Street. I devoured it in forty-eight hours, and during the hours I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. I still am.” —Barbara Kingsolver
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 13, 2015
    ISBN9781616205393

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    Reviews for And West Is West

    4/5

    15 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      And West is West is an interesting, serious, well-written, thought-provoking novel. 2 main characters facing separate troubling situations in their lives are followed in their respective searches for meaning and redemption.

      Jessica, the more sympathetic character of the 2, was a 'drone pilot' who was involved in a strike that didn't turn out perfectly, ends up getting separated from the service, and walks out of a medical facility where she's being evaluated to lose herself and the rest of the world. Ethan is a financial 'quant' whiz who loses his job due to what he thinks was sabotage by his boss, at the same time his complicated romantic life becomes much sadder and more complicated.

      Although it sometimes feels like you're reading 2 individual novels, intertwined, the characters do intersect (you get some hints along the way). I thought the writing was excellent, the stories were well crafted, the characters were developed nicely (although 2/3 of them I didn't really care for....), the dialogue was fine and the conclusion was satisfactory.

      All told, it's a fine novel about how people respond to big changes in their lives. Nicely done, not upbeat by any means but definitely worthwhile reading.
    • 4/5
      Two parallel narratives don't come together until the very end, but both follow interesting characters facing the biggest challenges of their lives. Ethan is a financial whiz kid on Wall Street who has no qualms about the computer code he wrote that allows his employer to pile up more and more money at the expense of the less fortunate, until he loses his job and his girl and becomes one of the less fortunate himself. Across the country in Nevada, Jessica is a military drone pilot who takes the fall for a commanding officer's mistake. Being forcibly separated from the service she loves sends her into her own emotional tailspin.What the two have in a common, besides the somewhat contrived aspect revealed toward the end of the book, is that both gave their all to an entity that did not appreciate or nurture their humanity, and each has to find their own way back to being at peace with themselves.