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Flower of Iowa Kindle Edition

by Lance Ringel (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
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Gold Winner -- Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award (War & Military Fiction) and IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award (Fiction: Romance)Silver Winner -- IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award (LGBTQ)Bronze Medal -- Independent Publisher Book Award (Military/Wartime Fiction)Finalist -- Lambda Literary Award (Gay Romance)
Lance Ringel's Flower of Iowa is a sprawling tale of battle and romance during the First World War, the four years that tore Europe in half and hastened the end of an era. In the tradition of stirring historical novels, this grand epic showcases courage, the resilience of the human spirit, and the transformative power of love. Flower of Iowa recalls Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, if that celebrated tale of love during wartime had featured two men at the bruised heart of the story.
The novel is set against the turbulent backdrop of France during the final months of World War I. Naïve, idealistic American soldier Tommy Flowers, a small-town boy from the Midwest, struggles to become a good soldier in the trenches. He draws the attention of Nicole Lacroix, a free-spirited French barmaid, but soon finds himself in a rivalry for her affections with his brash Australian lieutenant, Jamie Colbeck. At the same time, however, Tommy becomes best pals with savvy young British soldier David Pearson. The friendship soon develops an unexpected intimacy. Baffled by their feelings, but committed to exploring them further, Tommy and David do everything to spend time together, even after David is wounded and sent home to England to convalesce.
Flower of Iowa is meticulously researched, documenting the pivotal battles of 1918, life at the front lines, and the everyday challenges and tragedies facing the soldiers of the Great War. Author Ringel has created an instant classic, deeply compelling and authentic, recalling a fraught time when love between two men was territory as perilous and uncharted as No Man's Land.
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  1. Print length
    660 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    May 27, 2021
  5. File size
    4656 KB
  6. Page Flip
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  7. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ringel packs a remarkable amount of flavor and detail into this debut work. In addition to providing a compelling love story, he serves up gripping depictions of the war's horrible, often absurd battles and the male camaraderie and army bureaucracy that accompanied them. ... Accomplished, touching historical fiction."

  • Kirkus Reviews

"Reading a truly wonderful WW1 novel. A gay romance, but not soppy or silly. So truthful and touching."

  • Stephen Fry, actor and author

"Set in France during four months of the last year of WWI and written with gorgeous, evocative prose, Lance Ringel's story of war and the love of two young soldiers is a book that will ring in your heart long after the last pages have been read."

  • Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude and Camille: A Novel of Monet

About the Author

Lance Ringel's Flower of Iowa, a World War I novel about an American soldier and a British soldier who fall in love in 1918 France, received accolades across multiple genres. It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award (Gay Romance); a Gold Winner of the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award (War and Military Fiction); the winner of two IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards (Gold for Romance, and Silver for LGBTQ); and a Bronze Medalist in the IPBA "IPPY" Awards (Military/Wartime Fiction). A staged excerpt from Flower of Iowa also became a Finalist in the New York New Works Theatre Festival.

His Floridian Nights, a novel set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic in 1988 that centers around a youthful gay widower who both finds and resists new love with a much younger man, also has been named a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award (Gay Romance) and for the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award (Romance).

His play In Love with the Arrow Collar Man, about famed illustrator J.C. Leyendecker and his model, muse and lover Charles Beach, was a Semi-Finalist in the New York New Works Theatre Festival, and went on to successful runs at Theatre 80 St. Marks in New York, and at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in conjunction with The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Flash/Frozen, a drama based on true events about two champion male skaters whose lives fatefully intersect around the tragic 1961 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. Figure Skating World Team, recently concluded a successful premiere run at Theatre Row in New York.

Ringel has written collaboratively for the stage with his spouse of 45 years, Chuck Muckle, on the musical Animal Story; with director John Caird on At Home in the World, a joint musical production of Vassar College and Japan's Ashinaga Foundation; and on Vassar Voices, highlighting 150 years of the college's history, which premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center, starring Meryl Streep, Lisa Kudrow and Frances Sternhagen.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0962P36G7
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Distant Mirror Press (May 27, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 27, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4656 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 660 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

About the author

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Lance Ringel

Lance Ringel

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Lance Ringel’s debut novel Flower of Iowa, an epic romance between two soldiers in the First World War, won the Gold Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award (War & Military Fiction); two Benjamin Franklin Awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association (Gold for Fiction: Romance and Silver for LGBTQ); and a Bronze Medal from the Independent Book Awards, or IPPYs (Military/Wartime Fiction). It was also a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award (Gay Romance).

His second novel, Floridian Nights, about a young gay widower still paralyzed by grief who tries to navigate a generation-gap romance against the backdrop of NYC and Florida in the late 1980s, also has been named a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award (Gay Romance), as well as a Finalist for the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award (Romance).

A playwright as well as a novelist, Ringel has written works for the stage that have been performed to acclaim in New York City. In Love with the Arrow Collar Man, based on the true story of illustrator J.C. Leyendecker and his muse and lover Charles Beach, premiered at Theatre 80 St. Marks, while Flash/Frozen, focusing on two young men whose fates were intertwined by the tragic plane crash that killed the entire US Figure Skating Team in 1961, premiered at Theatre Row.

Ringel was principal writer for Vassar Voices, a staged reading that premiered at Lincoln Center with Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow. He also wrote the narrative for At Home in the World, which played in Japan, the U.S. and Uganda under the direction of John Caird.

He resides in both Poughkeepsie, New York, and New York City, with his spouse of 45 years, actor-composer-director Chuck Muckle. www.lanceringel.com

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
25 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Chicago gay romance reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Immersive and Moving
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2021
Verified Purchase
Wow! This book drew me in so much that I felt I was living in the middle of WWI while I was reading it--couldn't stop thinking about the MCs and the war. Great cast of characters; I SO didn't want the ending that I knew was coming! MUCH more than a gay romance though the Lammys have listed it in that category; more historical gay fiction. There is romance (actually a couple) that anchor the book but it is really about the realities and horrors of trench warfare in WWI. The author has clearly done a ton of research and loves this period of history. Strong cast of supporting characters as well--loved Jamie, Sister Jean and Billy Sand!

A few quibbles: yes, it could have been edited down--not sure the bits with the King and Roosevelt really added to the indictment of the war, for ex. There was a long stretch with Tommy sitting under the same tree. The epilogue felt a bit tacked on and ends on an ironic note--which I think clashed with the overall tone of the book. I guess I wanted Jack and Sandy to have some sort of even minor realization about what they were experiencing. I got annoyed by the literal translations of all the French dialogue--we could get alot of it from the context and/or the characters' reactions.

STILL--yes, it's long but it's a page turner with characters you get invested in. Its great strengths are its characters and its plot. As other critics have said, it is romantic without being sappy and the stumbling toward love seemed to fit with 18-year-olds (particularly at that time). I know I will be re-reading this book in the future (and probably end up in tears every time). I hope it gets the wider audience it deserves. And I would LOVE to see the movie.
2 people found this helpful
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Dahlia Japhet
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book about World War One - to read during quarantine - or at any time.
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2020
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You will fall under the spell of the characters as Lance Ringel tells their moving story in this historical World War I novel. The novel weaves together a poignant love story with battlefield scenes and stories of noncombatants. Author Ringel informs readers about destructive battles of the war, many important, some futile, and about the deadly influenza. The protagonists are treated with sympathy and humor. The novel will make you laugh and cry. In poetic language, the author tells the love story of two soldiers. Hypnotic in its detail, this moving novel bears unflinching witness to the lives of those caught up in a conflict, while including a powerful mix of subplots.
2 people found this helpful
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Douglas
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Moving
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2021
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A love story with stunning twists and turns. It’s historically accurate, eminently readable and highly recommended. “In the pink” is terribly deceiving
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scout
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2020
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I learned a lot of history of World War I in a well written story of well developed characters
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Bob Portland
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, compelling, immersive
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2023
This book tied my heart to the characters. I know them, I feel their love, their battle trauma, their fears. This is why I read: to be transported. The words paint graphic pictures and create an engrossing world, sadly the author edited out details of gay love making, big mistake.
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Grady Harp
5.0 out of 5 stars ‘Please tell David I said that I now believe in angels’ – A WW I masterwork!
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2020
New York author Lance Ringel is a journalist with a depth of knowledge of the history of war, particularly World War I, and its effects on both European and American culture and sociology. He is also an accomplished playwright: IN LOVE WITH THE ARROW COLLAR MAN premiered to acclaim in NYC Theater 80 in 2017 and has been performed widely. His other works include VASSAR VOICES, a staged reading at Jazz at Lincoln Center highlighting 150 years of Vassar College’s history, starring Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow. FLOWER OF IOWA is his debut novel.

Reading the author’s back-story of this novel’s creation enhances appreciation for the experience of reading what may be the most articulate and profoundly moving historical fiction about not only World War I, but also about the history of gay soldiers in the military. The book was composed after years of research and surfaced as an eBook in 2014, and that initiated the author’s traveling across the US and Europe giving readings of the book and transforming the story into a performing drama. His contribution to gay history has been widely acclaimed.

From the impressive art of the cover, the excellent maps for the regions of WW I that open the book, and the eloquent prose, every detail of this novel is imposing. Electing to embody his wartime romance between an American and a British soldier allows for a thorough examination of both the drama of WW I and that frightening period of homophobia in the early years of the 20th century. The duality works well indeed, honoring the bravery and sacrifice of WW I military heroes.

The story is set in 1918 against the turbulent backdrop of France during the final months of World War I. 18-year-old naïve, idealistic American soldier Tommy Flowers, a small-town boy from the Midwest, struggles to become a good soldier in the trenches. He draws the attention of Nicole Lacroix, a free-spirited French barmaid, but soon finds himself in a rivalry for her affections with his brash Australian lieutenant, Jamie Colbeck. At the same time, however, Tommy becomes best pals with savvy young British soldier David Pearson. The friendship soon develops an unexpected intimacy. Baffled by their feelings, but committed to exploring them further, Tommy and David do everything to spend time together, even after David is wounded and sent home to England to convalesce.

Writing of this quality quickly establishes the presence of a significant prosateur – a gifted composer of historical events blended with gender studies whose future in literature appears assured. Very highly recommended. Grady Harp, December 20
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
3 people found this helpful
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D. Casto
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2021
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This is a very long story about two shoulders that meet in World War I and quickly fall for each other. While it's not a "page turner" it is a captivating story that keeps you engaged and interested. You can tell the writer did a lot of research for historical accuracy. The ending was satisfying.
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