GOODBYE, MICKEY MOUSE by Len Deighton

 Finished We 12/21/22

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had apparently not read. The flyleaf says that I bought it for 25 cents at the library on Sa 1/28/95.

I really enjoyed this novel and it concerns a group of American fighter pilots stationed in England a few months before the Normandy Invasion. These guys were charged with protecting the bomber groups that were flying missions to Germany. 

This is not the kind of book that I would normally read, but I really loved this one! The battle sequences 'in the air' were especially compelling and the 'war/love' stories were very believable. 

Michael Morse had a nickname of 'Mickey Mouse'. 

Vera- one of the English women who is married to an English officer stationed in Burma. She just wants to have a good time with the Americans and doesn't want to get a divorce. When he comes back, she tells hubby that she's having an affair with Vince. But, actually she's having sex with 'Mickey Mouse/ Morse'.

Victoria is a young English girl who falls in love with Jamie Farebrother. His father is a general who gave Jamie up in the divorce from his mother. Jamie is killed. and Victoria with 'Mickey Mouse/ Morse'. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"In Goodbye Mickey Mouse Len Deighton has written his best novel yet: a brilliant, multi-dimensional picture of what it is to be at war… and what it was to be in love in the England of 1944.

Goodbye Mickey Mouse is Deighton’s fourteenth novel and a vivid evocation of wartime England, the story of a group of American fighter pilots flying escort missions over Germany in the winter of 1943-4.

At the centre of the novel are two young men: the deeply reserved Captain Jamie Farebrother, estranged son of a deskbound colonel, and the cocky Lieutenant Mickey Morse, well on his way to becoming America’s Number One Flying Ace. Alike only in their courage, they forge a bond of friendship in battle with far-reaching consequences for themselves, and for the future of those they love."