MAC & IRENE

Margot McMahon reconstructs her father’s ordeal as a prisoner of war during World War II in this biography.

In 1943, Franklin “Mac” McMahon enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, eager to join the conflict roiling Europe. He became a navigator aboard B-17 bombers, and on his 16th mission, his plane was shot down over German territory. He parachuted out of his burning aircraft, got captured by German soldiers, and was eventually sent to the Stalag Luft III camp in Germany, where he endured hunger and other threats to his life. In order to avoid advancing Allied troops, his captors forced him to march to the Wehrmacht VIIA camp, not far from the Dachau concentration camp—a miserable trek. Franklin, who would go on to become an award-winning artist, found solace in drawing pictures while imprisoned, often of his captors, which “helped him hold onto his humanity.” This stirring memoir by Franklin’s daughter chronicles both his experience as a soldier and POW, and his budding romance with Irene, his future wife. Franklin kept a telegram from Irene hidden in his inner sleeve that read, “I’ll see you in my dreams,” and he proposed to her in a letter he sent while in captivity. Like a scrapbook, the work is festooned with personal photographs of people, significant documents, and even handwritten letters, all of which afford readers an even more intimate connection to the story. The best are reproductions of Franklin’s arresting drawings and paintings. The account of Franklin’s experience is a triumphant one—he’s liberated in 1945 by American forces and subsequently reunited with Irene—but also poignantly sad at times: “Mac learned to shrug, to put the war out of his mind. He drew and painted to escape again.” This first installment in a trilogy is the author’s loving homage to her fascinating father, and an enthralling tale.

An affecting love story combined with an engaging story of survival.