Arts & Entertainment

Northbrook Writer Pens Debut Novel

Dennis Byrne will be signing copies of his historical fiction, Madness: The War of 1812, at his home on Friday and at the Book Bin in October.

Dennis Byrne, 70, a Northbrook resident from the Ancient Tree neighborhood, has been a journalist since landing his first job at the Chicago Daily News in 1965. Almost 50 years later, the last six or so spent writing and researching, he has finally finished his first book — Madness: The War of 1812.

According to Byrne, "it’s a story about the war and some people in it." Critics had a bit more to say about the 400 page historical fiction novel that spans most of the three year military conflict, features around 60 characters and addresses topics such war-induced trauma, slavery and women's rights.

"It is one thing to brush history’s dust from the past but quite another to bring the past back in vibrant detail," wrote Rick Kogan, WGN Radio Talk Show Host and Chicago Tribune writer in his review.

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Byrne started working on the book about six years ago and decided on 1812 because the war's bicentennial was coming up. The war officially began on June 18 of that year.

"Never wrote a book, didn’t know the first thing about it," Byrne said. "It’s a different world than writing newspaper columns and newspaper stories."

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Byrne wrote and researched simultaneously, relying on documents and other literature for inspiration. He even visited the Library of Congress to study from their unique collection.

"I did not alter events at all. A historian might say that isn’t exactly right and I’ll take the blame for that," he said. "I’m not a historian, I don’t pretend to be a historian, but every event that I describe in the book actually happened."

The story's protagonist is a fictional, young Junior Officer named Will Quinn who is shipped to Fort Macinack at the war's onset. The story also follows a young woman whose family was killed by Native Americans in Chicago and a slave whose family has been split apart and sold off in Alexandria, Virginia.

Part of Quinn's story, though perhaps unintentionally, was inspired by Byrne's own military service. He was on a Navy destroyer for three years in 1967. Due to a technical malfunction on the ship, he was never shipped to Vietnam, instead toured parts of the Mediterranean and spent some time off the coast of Cuba.

"My experience as a junior officer may be reflected more than I realize, in the book," he said. "I saw some strange things going on or some strange decisions being made that I couldn’t understand."

His character, Quinn, also encounters unusual military decisions in the book, and must make sense of the questionable army leadership that almost cost America the War of 1812.

"One of the things that I found out about the war, how badly it was bungled," said Byrne, who is also the father of . "How would a 20-year-old, young officer, which I was at one time, react to all this?"

Byrne discovered that very few personal letters remain from that war. Unlike the Civil War, which produced historical volumes of letters sent home from soldiers, the lives and stories of many 1812 soldiers is a mystery today. Instead, Byrne relied on contemporary understanding of war and psychology to imagine what it might have felt like for Will Quinn and other soldiers in the conflict.

"The kinds of things that happen to people now, who have been in Vietnam and Iraq and come back with the trauma, how does he handle this?" Byrne said of his character. "There’s a lot of imagination involved. I just hope I captured it."

Byrne's publisher, Tate, will release the book to stores soon. Until then, readers can buy Madness: The War of 1812 directly from the author for $20. 

On Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, Byrne invites anyone to visit his home at 5 Ct. of Bayview in Ancient Tree from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. for a book signing. He also invites people to call him at (847) 708 - 1203 or send an email to dennis@dennisbyrne.net and he will personally deliver an autographed copy of his book.

He plans to have another signing at on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m.

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