Loving Women

It is 1953. The Korean War is ending. The Eisenhower era is beginning. Patti Page and Frankie Laine sit at the top of the charts. And aspiring cartoonist Michael Devlin, Brooklyn born and bred, is heading south to become a man. Pete Hamill's prose has always been praised for its energy and muscularity. But rarely, if ever, has he achieved the tough-and-tender lyricism and imagistic power of his sensual new novel, Loving Women.

When Michael arrives at the U.S. Navy supply base in Pensacola, ...