Joe Cawley

Hallowed Gesture: a Novel of Rebirth and Regret Joe Cawley

A war torn country abroad. A civil war raging. An American presence that is continually drawing fire, if not from insurgents ambushing ill-equipped and ill-defended armored vehicles than from political pundits and, increasingly, the general public back home. Iraq? Vietnam? The similarities are striking; the themes universal. This new novel, Hallowed Gesture, harkens back to the Vietnam War with a universal message that is as timely today as it was four decades ago. Joe McDonnell, flush with the proceeds of a successful lawsuit, returns to his Pennsylvania home to unearth his brother's remains and accompany them for reburial in Arlington National Cemetery only to discover that the body buried in Jim McDonnell's grave is not his. As marines, both Jim and Joe saw bloody action in Vietnam, but only Joe came home to live quietly with his psychological scars and the determination to fulfill his brother's childhood dream of a hero's burial. How that journey is thwarted and turned into an unexpected triumph is the gripping story of this novel, Hallowed Gesture.