"Praying with the Enemy" (Steven T. Collis)

TITLE: Praying with the Enemy
AUTHOR: Steven T. Collis
PUBLISHER: Salt Lake City, UT: Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2022, (384 pages).
 

Flying over North Korea with Napalm explosives. Near-death encounters with Chinese snipers and North Korean soldiers. Staying alive in terrible pits as a Prisoner of War. Missing in Action. Escaping. Challenge of faith in the midst of the horrors of war. Conflicting philosophies. Deceit. Military strategies, and more. Three countries involved in a devastating war that has divided families across the Korean Peninsula. Three different men from each country. These and many more form a pulsating action-packed novel filled with multiple twists and turns. The three protagonists in this novel are Captain Ward Millar (aka Ward), Kim Jae Pil (aka Jae Pil), and to a lesser extent, Lieutenant Kang. All of them are able to speak and communicate in English! The chapters begin by alternating their stories, beginning with Ward as a pilot flying over North Korea during the Korean War in 1951. When his plane crashed landed on enemy territory, though he managed to survive, he broke his ankles making it difficult to even escape. 

Jae Pil's story begins with him being drafted to serve in the Communist Army. His family were Christians. The communist party's ideals were constantly at odds with what he and his family believed. His family mission was to build a church and to enable people to worship properly without fear. Unfortunately, living in a land with a godless ideology makes their mission difficult. These constant struggles present Jae Pil with a dilemma to choose between his country or his faith; the Communist Party or God. Eventually, at great risks to his own life, he decides to do what he could to escape from the communists. That begins a gripping journey from a place he felt enslaved to his desired place of freedom. Alas! Even the land of South Korea is not kind to a defector from North Korea. 

Lieutenant Kang's character plays the role of the officer in charge of the prisoners of war, in particular, trying to extract sensitive information from Ward. He also uses various forms of torture and threats to get what he wants from the prisoners. The author manages to compress many acts and behaviors of the Chinese soldiers into this one character. His hatred for the American system took root when he was young.  He deems the Americans as people who imposed their wills on the Korean people, and he needs to do his part to liberate Korea from such American influences. 

Initially, the stories seem to be separated with no association between these two men. Gradually, their paths converged and they worked together in a dangerous escape. The later part of the book becomes an exciting adventure of miraculous events enabling them to escape. 

The title of the book gives readers a clue about where the book is headed. Rightly so. Ward and Jae Pil both believe in God, more so for the latter in terms of his own personal and family sacrifices. At least Ward has a family to return to in America. For Jae Pil, it is a painful separation from the family he loves. Collis does a good job in showing us the different perceptions in terms of ideology, faith, and liberation. All are driven by their own sense of good. This reminds me that war in itself is evil, and evil will beget evil. In any war, there is no innocent people. Everyone will have to take a side, and it is often a challenge to choose the lesser of two evils. The Communist have their ideals. The American system of democracy and freedom has their flaws. The Chinese perspective continues to toggle between Communist socialism and modern capitalistic concerns. The truth is that all of these people are human. They are all under God, regardless of whether they acknowledge God or not. In spite of the miracles that Ward and Jae Pil have seen, wars bring about their fair share of horrors and injustice. True freedom only comes when we see our God in heaven. 

Based on a true story, Collis tries to stay as faithful as possible to recollections from the families and records of the key characters. As a fiction, this novel is an exciting read. Yet, this novel is inspired from real events, which reminds me once again that sometimes, books of fiction speak more about reality. Collis has given us much food for thought about war, the price of peace, the freedom we cherish, faith, persecution, and sadly, how adversity can bring out the best and worst of humanity. 

Steven T. Collis is a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, founding director of the school's religious freedom clinic, and founding faculty director of Texas's Bech-Laughlin First Amendment Center. He received an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. He is the author of the nonfiction titles Deep Conviction: True Stories of Ordinary Americans Fighting for the Freedom to Live Their Beliefs and The Immortals: The World War II Story of Five Fearless Heroes, the Sinking of the Dorchester, and an Awe-Inspiring Rescue. He and his wife are parents to four children.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Shadow Mountain Publishing and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.