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Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick: A Navy Coming-of-Age Novel Based on a True Story
Jolly Walker Bittick's Cape Henry House, published in 2021, follows a 21-year-old Navy helicopter mechanic whose off-base rental becomes the site of a three-week party in 2008.
What is Cape Henry House about?
Three weeks in the life of a group of young sailors who turn an off-base house into a nonstop party. Jolly Walker Bittick's novel, first published in 2021, is described by the author as based on a true story. Set in 2008, it centers on Bosner, a 21-year-old who works on helicopter maintenance for the US Navy.
The setup
Bosner and his friends are at the age when the military gives them responsibility at work and almost none of the structure of home after hours. When they get their hands on a house away from base, it becomes the center of their social world. What follows is the kind of extended blowout that many people remember from their early twenties: friendships tested, romances started and ended, money and judgment running low, and the slow realization that the party has to end.
The name evokes Cape Henry, the point at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach, near one of the largest concentrations of naval installations in the world.
Why it found readers
Coming-of-age fiction about enlisted military life is less common than war fiction or officer memoirs. Bittick's book focuses on the off-duty lives of junior sailors, which gives it an audience among veterans and service members who recognize that world, and among general readers who like ensemble stories about young adults. The British review site The Bookbag reviewed it, and it has continued to draw search interest years after release.
Editions
The novel is available in paperback (Amazon), as an ebook, and through Apple Books. Page counts differ by edition, from about 278 pages on one listing to 328 to 336 on others, so readers comparing formats should not be surprised by the variation. Bookstores including the Strand list the paperback under ISBN 9781737030928.
About the author
More about Bittick, including news on other projects, is on the official author site.
Who it suits
Readers who enjoy novels about the years right after school when life feels both wide open and out of control, service members and veterans who want fiction about everyday Navy life rather than combat, and fans of ensemble party novels. The book's subject means drinking and adult situations feature heavily.
Book details
- Title: Cape Henry House
- Author: Jolly Walker Bittick
- First published: 2021
- Time period: 2008
- Paperback ISBN: 9781737030928