Walter's story begins with his death during World War II, in swampy jungles when a Japanese sniper kills him. But Walter has unfinished business. Almost 40 years later, Walter's spirit contacts Michael Steeb, a young man living in a shack and growing marijuana, and harasses him until Michael agrees to find Andrew Whittakers, Walter's best friend and army buddy, and tell him the truth about how Walter received the Purple Heart. When Michael finds Andrew, he also finds Mary Ann, Walter's fiancee. It seems when Walter died, Andrew came home and stepped in for Walter and married Mary Ann. Through the help of Michael, Mary Ann relives her love affair with Walter, Andrew puts to rest the demons he has been carrying for 40 years, and Walter can finally reveal the truth about his Purple Heart and make peace with the life that
was cut short by war. Hyde's previous novels contain an element of the extraordinary, and this one is no different. With humor and thoughtfulness, Hyde crafts a plot unconventional yet comfortably familiar.

--Carolyn
Kubisz, Booklist

Journey of the heart has its rewards
By GAIL COOKE
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Last Updated: April 27, 2002
Walter's Purple Heart. By Catherine Ryan Hyde. Simon & Schuster. 315 pages. $23.

With "Pay It Forward," Catherine Ryan Hyde displayed her talent for portraying human emotions. She underscores that gift with "Walter's Purple Heart" in which she not only tugs at heartstrings but also deftly plays them while building to a poignant crescendo.

Related in alternate narrative voices, this is the story of a love unfulfilled and a life unfinished. We meet Michael Steeb, a young California pot farmer, an unambitious fellow who plays the sax and lives in an almost-built farmhouse.

When unexplainable events occur, Michael turns to a Ouija board for answers. Instead of answers he meets Walter, the spirit of a young soldier killed some 40 years earlier.

But in this case, death isn't the end.

As Walter explains, "Did you think I was gone? No chance of that. If death was the end of me, this story would be over."

It takes time and persistence for Walter to convince Michael that they are one and the same, that Michael is the reincarnation of Walter. Michael is conflicted enough without two personalities jousting within him, and Walter is unable to move on until some tough questions from his short life are answered.

Therefore, Michael reluctantly sets out for New Mexico to find Andrew, Walter's best high school friend and army buddy, and Mary Ann, the fiancee who promised to wait.

Walter has promised Michael that he will know what to say when he finds Andrew. Not so. Not only is Michael dumbstruck but he finds that Mary Ann and Andrew have been married for 38 years.

"I can't believe you did it, Andrew," Michael snaps, "You married my girl."

Andrew thinks Michael is either crazy or a con man. Perhaps both.

Mary Ann recognizes Walter in Michael almost immediately and the love affair that was ended by a sniper's bullet many years before begins again despite the vast difference in their ages.

Obstinate and obdurate Andrew cannot bring himself to believe that any part of Walter exists in Michael until, finally, during one harrowing night he becomes convinced.

Throughout the narrative Walter reveals insights into the lives of his friends and family, noting, "It's not even in what we say about ourselves, so much. It's in what we leave out."

From an implacable, remote father, Walter has learned that the "most important moments of our lives are supposed to go without saying."

With this, her fourth novel, Hyde reminds us of the significance of forgiveness and the waste of war.

At times, Walter's memories may be reminiscent of the classic film "It's A Wonderful Life" in which scenes from a life are replayed to emphasize the significance of everyday events. And some may question the physical attraction between a 21-year-old Michael and a 60-plus Mary Ann.

Yet the story soars above these reservations.

It takes a perceptive and gentle-hearted writer to create a Walter who says, " . . . there's nothing so remarkable about me. Except that I'm Walter. And I'm Walter in a way that nobody else ever has been before or ever will be again. And I honestly believe that Walter-ness counts for something."

Indeed, it does.

Gail Cooke, who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, reviews books for a number of newspapers.

After-death concept keeps focus
By Kelly Milner-Halls
Special to The Denver Post

Sunday, April 07, 2002 - In times of turmoil, like those our nation has witnessed since Sept. 11, literature can take on new weight and importance. It can represent the bleakest of human qualities, or it can shine a healing light.

In her latest remarkable novel, "Walter's Purple Heart," Catherine Ryan Hyde ("Pay It Forward," "Electric God") serves up 315 distinctive pages of reconciliation and hope.

Walter is a deceased World War II veteran. Trapped in limbo between life and the afterlife, he has rediscovered clarity.

"When you're alive, you don't know squat," Hyde writes in Walter's voice. "It's like being lost in the woods. You don't see the woods. And you don't really know where you are. It's like you just see the trees right around you and you have no idea what part of the forest it is, or how it fits in with the rest of the forest. If you're walking around, trying to get found, you probably don't even know if you've seen these particular trees before. No perspective, you know? No overview."

Issues left unresolved before his violent combat death haunt Walter on the other side. So he enlists the aid of a surprising ally - Michael, the modern day pot-growing reincarnation of himself - to try and set things right.

Through dreams, Walter reveals a series of distant memories to the lonely, directionless young man he has become. With the help of a Ouija board and more nocturnal communiques, he all but badgers "himself" into submission.

Michael's first task: To find and speak with Mary Ann, Walter's wartime fiancee, and Andrew, his best friend and the man who actually married her.

Once he tracks them down in Arizona, Michael finds his relationship to Walter hard to describe. "He can't explain what he doesn't understand himself. He feels cheated by Walter, whoever Walter is, this spirit, this movement on a Ouija board. Because Walter promised that when he found Andrew, he would know what to do. And it's not true."

Hyde makes engaging use of these two alternating points of view to keep Walter "alive" (in first person) while moving her tender tale rhythmically forward (third-person).

That unique effort keeps a complicated concept crisp and focused. As he better understands Walter's goals, Michael begins to take comfort in the sense of previous life family connection he never knew in his contemporary past.

"Walter's Purple Heart," has been called "sentimental," as if that negates its literary and human value, when the opposite is actually true. Hyde subtly captures the most powerful elements of sentiment - qualities we all recognize and understand - and adds a dash of metaphysical hope. She suggests that when it comes to love, nothing is ever truly lost, but rather redirected.

In the hands of a lesser author, the effort might have fallen flat. But thanks to Catherine Ryan Hyde's unwavering brilliance, "Walter's Purple Heart" is a clear-cut gem - just what the doctor ordered for a nation with wounds on the mend.

Library Journal April 1, 2002

Hyde, Catherine Ryan Walter's Purple Heart
S.&S. April 2002, C320p. ISBN: 0-68486723-0

When half of Walter Crowley's head is blown off in Guadalcanal in 1942, with best friend Andrew at his side and his fiancée, Mary Ann, waiting at home, that should be the end of things. But Walter's spirit is stuck on grudges, so 40 years later he seeks reconciliation through reincarnation in the person of Michael, a 21-year- old pot farmer. Haunted by dreams of Walter's wartime experiences and aided by a Ouija board, Michael finds Andrew--and with him Mary Ann, Andrew's wife of 38 years. Precognitive Mary Ann accepts Michael as Walter, and they form a tender relationship, but Andrew--the beloved buddy Walter must forgive and ask forgiveness of-- battles against disbelief, thinking Michael a con man until it's almost too late. In less-skilled hands, this might be no more than a sentimental novel stretching credulity. But Hyde is a remarkable, insightful storyteller, creating full-bodied characters whose dialogue rings true, with not a word to spare. This is likely to gain the same attention, and probable film treatment as her Pay It Forward: it's compelling enough that readers may find themselves finishing it at a single sitting. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, E.L. 12/01] Michael Leber, Fairfax, CRV. P.L. VA