Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2014
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Patrick Norris has seen the worst that Afghanistan has to offer – excruciating heat, bitter cold, and death waiting behind every rock as comrades are blown to pieces by bombs and snipers. He returns home exhilarated by his new freedom and eager to realize his dream of a sport fishing business. But he is shocked to learn that the avocado ranch his family has owned for generations in the foothills of San Diego has been destroyed by a massive wildfire and the parents he loves are facing ruin.
Ted Norris worships his brother and yearns for his approval. Gentle by nature, but tormented by strange fixations with a dark undercurrent, Ted is drawn into a circle of violent, criminal misfits. His urgent quest to prove himself threatens to put those he loves in peril.
Patrick puts his own plans on hold to save the family's home and falls in love with Iris, a beautiful and unusual woman, when disaster strikes. When Ted's plan for redemption goes terribly wrong, he tries to disappear. Desperate to find his brother and salvage what remains of his family, Patrick must make an agonizing choice.
Three-time Edgar Award-winner T. Jefferson Parker is known for his many bestselling crime novels, from Laguna Heat to The Famous and the Dead. Full Measure marks a departure; it is a literary novel that explores many subjects, among them the bonds of loyalty between brothers.
"Starred Review. Parker (Laguna Heat), a three-time Edgar Award winner, delivers an exceptional, insightful, and contemporary stand-alone literary novel." - Library Journal
"The novel is endlessly preachy, with cardboard villains. Still, the portrait of Patrick, who knows too much about war yet is ill-equipped for life at home, is finely nuanced, and the social criticism is hard-hitting. FullMeasure doesn't quite work as a novel, but it's a powerful exposé." - Booklist
"Unfortunately, this novel feels simultaneously underdramatized and overdetermined. Although the characters are well developed, there is a pat quality to the writing that undermines the emotional investment in Patrick's return to civilian life." - Publishers Weekly
"A tense and compelling drama of the wars without and the wars within - and of the flame of violence that burns through the American psyche." - T.C. Boyle, New York Times bestselling author of The Women
"Stunning... [Parker is] a brave and daring writer." - Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy
"A great American family novel... Parker is playing in the same league as John Steinbeck." - Stephen Harrigan, author of The Gates of the Alamo and Remember Ben Clayton
This information about Full Measure was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Marion Ettlinger
T. Jefferson Parker was born in Los Angeles and has lived all his life in Southern California. He was educated in public schools in Orange County, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Irvine, in 1976.
His writing career began in 1978, with a job as a cub reporter on the weekly newspaper, The Newport Ensign. After covering police, city hall and cultural stories for the Ensign, Parker moved on to the Daily Pilot newspaper, where he won three Orange County Press Club awards for his articles. All the while he was tucking away stories and information that he would use in his first book.
Parker's first novel, Laguna Heat, was written on evenings and weekends while he worked as a reporter, and was published to rave reviews and made into an HBO movie ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to T. Jefferson Parker's Website
This Is Salvaged
by Vauhini Vara
Stories of uncanny originality from Vauhini Vara, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
Digging Stars
by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Blending drama and satire, Digging Stars probes the emotional universes of love, friendship, family, and nationhood.
25 Copies to Give Away!
A daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin. But can Langley trust the Russian at its center?
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
