Calumet Editions

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Mothers Hurling Bricks

A Novel

Author:

After his first novel, Crude, Bill Nemmers turns to a different absurdity: the US Army’s Cold War occupation of West Germany. In Heidelberg, an expatriate Czech rock band—the Mothers Hurling Bricks—memorializes the Prague women who flung paving stones at Soviet tanks during the 1968 invasion. Narrated by a US soldier who knew the musicians, the novel becomes a darkly comic, humane tribute to mothers—including his own—driven to defy mechanized war.

a fascinating story of military intrigue and humanitarian daring

—Marge on Amazon

Description

Bill Nemmers’ first novel, Crude, examined the political and financial absurdities of North Dakota’s recent oil drilling frenzy. This book, Mothers Hurling Bricks, examines a very different absurdity-the U.S. Army’s Cold War occupation of West Germany. The Heidelberg-based expatriate Czech rock band, the Mothers Hurling Bricks, honors the Prague women who, in a frustrated act of violence, hurled loosened paving bricks back at Soviet tanks which were rumbling through Prague’s streets on August 10, 1968. The author, a US soldier in Heidelberg, knew the band members, and knew the band’s name honored all mothers-his own certainly included-who at times must need to hurl things at machines to protest the absurdity of modern mechanized warfare.

Product Details

PublishedJanuary 23, 2023
ImprintCalumet Editions
LanguageEnglish
Print length294
ISBN-139781960250377
Dimensions6 x 0.66 x 9 inches

Mothers Hurling Bricks is a terrific read, especially if you are of an age to remember the days between the Cuban Missile crisis and the end of the Vietnam war. Told in a breezy, straight-forward voice, the author’s description of his days just before getting drafted are spot-on perfect. Mothers Hurling Bricks is reminiscent of Tim O’Brien’s fine memoirs of the Vietnam war years. This is a fascinating, fast-moving book, filled with sharp insights and great nostalgia.

—Mike Trial on Amazon

Mothers Hurling Bricks tells a most unusual story of an American soldier, Wall Kneuble, originally from Iowa, living in Germany in the late ’60s. The book is a fascinating story of military intrigue and humanitarian daring. It also sheds an interesting historical light on how young people viewed the politics of the world and their country at this time; we get Wall and his buddies’ perspective on the Soviet invasion of Prague and the death of Martin Luther King.

—Marge on Amazon