Cover for Me
Two musicians form an immeasurable bond that sees them through wartime preparations in the atmospheric historical novel Cover for Me.
Steven Schindler’s nostalgia-piquing historical novel Cover for Me is about an unusual plot to foil the Nazis.
Georgie is an Italian American who hopes to marry his childhood sweetheart, Katie. He’s gifted in art and music, and people in his hometown believe he could become the next Frank Sinatra. In the meantime, he, his brother, and their friend Johnny, a Black saxophonist, work at a New Jersey rubber plant.
Developed best in terms of their musical talent, Johnny and Georgie have a mentor-mentee relationship that helps Georgie hone his abilities as they traverse clubs and instrument-filled rooms. The prose waxes rhapsodic about some of Johnny and Georgie’s favorite arrangements, and a pet bird, Satchmo, also comes into play. Johnny also warns Georgie to be discerning when it comes to other people’s intentions, and Georgie defends Johnny against racism. Katie’s appearances are fleeting in contrast, and her development is light to the extent that her earnest and fearful ruminations about Georgie have a contrived sensibility.
Because of their artistic talents and past experiences, an army intelligence agency recruits Georgie and Johnny. They’re sent to a base with other expert craftsmen to make decoy replicas of army equipment. They’re sworn to secrecy on the project as anticipation gathers around the invasion of Europe.
The novel trades between the early thrills of Harlem’s jazz and bebop sessions at which Georgie and Johnny thrive, Georgie’s and Katie’s youthful romance, the men’s deployment, and Katie’s interspersed view as she awaits their return. The busy back-and-forth between the storylines results in unevenness, though, and the plot’s momentum is hindered by too much meandering before it shifts focus to the war. Further, the circumstances prompted by the men facing the war are rushed through, leading to hasty decisions and a forced sense of nostalgia. And facts about the war, and even in some cases about niche musical details, are relayed in an informative, journalistic tone that jars with the novel’s general orientation toward fleshing out the men’s perspectives.
A key character’s abrupt murder under circumstances that prompt accusations of wrongdoing comes midway through the novel, undermining the care with which the character had been developed. Further, this event causes the focus to turn toward the survivors, with a rapid pivot to their lives twenty-five years in the future. Here, an improbable investigation into the past strains credulity. Amid the eventful rush toward a vindicating conclusion, the novel reaches for warmth and to focus on the men’s heroism.
In the evocative historical novel Cover for Me, music-loving American soldiers experience tragedy and camaraderie during World War II.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
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