The Seventh Flag by Sid Balman Jr. Book Review! @SIDBALMAN

The Book

The US and Europe have unraveled since World War II and radicalism has metastasized into every community, tearing away the decency, optimism, and security that shaped those robust democracies for more than eight decades. No place is immune, including the small West Texas town of Dell City, where four generations of an iconic American family and a Syrian Muslim family carve a farming empire out of the unforgiving high desert. 

These families' partnership is as unlikely as the idea of a United States, and their powerful friendship can be traced back to a bloody knife fight in a Juarez cantina just after World War II. The bond forged that night between Jack Laws, an Irish American who staked his claim in West Texas after the war, and Ali Zarkan, whose great-grandfather sailed from the Middle East to Texas in the mid-1800s as part of President Franklin Pierce's attempt to create the US Army Camel Corps, shapes each generation of the families as they come of age and adapt to shifting paradigms of gender, commerce, patriotism, loyalty, religion, and sexuality.

From the beaches of the Western Pacific to the battlefields of the Middle East and from the lawless streets of Juarez to the darkest corners of the Internet, the two families fight real and perceived enemies--journeying, as they do, through the football fields of Texas and West Point, the hippie playgrounds of Asia, the music halls of Austin, the terrorist cells of Europe and the political backrooms where fortunes are gained or lost over the rights to Western water. 
Underlying their experiences is the basic question of what constitutes identity and citizenship in America, or in Texas, land over which six flags have flown. The seventh flag, ultimately, is not one of a state or a nation, but of a mosaic of cultures, religions, and people from every corner of the world--all struggling to define what it means to be unified under an ambiguous banner.
The Author

Sid Balman Jr., a Pulitzer-nominated national security correspondent, has covered wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and has traveled extensively with two American presidents and four secretaries of state on overseas diplomatic missions.
He moved into the business side of communications, where for over two decades he helped found a news syndicate focused on the interests of women and girls, served as communications chief for the largest consortium of U.S. international development organizations, led two successful progressive campaigning companies, and launched a new division at a large international development firm centered on violent radicalism and other security issues on behalf of governments and nonprofits. 
A fourth-generation Texan, as well as a climber, surfer, paddler, and benefactor to Smith College, Balman lives in Washington DC with his wife, three kids, and two dogs. Keep up with Balman at www.sidbalman.com.
The Review
The Seventh Flag by Sid Balman Jr is one of those books about family dynamics that catches you right from the beginning. It took me a little longer to read than normal, not because it was boring, but because I really wanted to digest the story instead of skimming over the words.

What is the seventh flag?

"The seventh flag, ultimately, is not one of a state or a nation, but of a mosaic of cultures, religions, and people from every corner of the world--all struggling to define what it means to be unified under an ambiguous banner." 

This book is a work of fiction but seems like a biographical take on two families the Laws and the Zarkans, one Texan American and the other a Texan Muslim family that would seem like an unlikely friendship but it was. It started after WWII to the present. A huge cast of characters on both sides of the family that takes the reader into the taboos of one culture and the proudness of another. 

A lot of topics are covered, the Texas Water Wars, the U.S.Army Camel Corps, the evolution of division and radicalization with one family member becoming a leader in ISIS. 

What the reader should come away with is the diversity that makes America and that we don't have to fight, we can get along if we chose to. It starts with each and every one of us. I think that everyone should read this book. At times a love story, but also a learning experience. I learned a lot about Texas and ISIS and recruitment and the people that are targeted for entry into this terrorist organization. An epic family novel! Reminds me of books that I read back in the '80s/90s, the huge books that were all about families. This one is not huge and it doesn't need to be to be a great story 

A great story and I highly recommend it!

I received a copy of this book for review purposes.