An Enemy Like Me by Teri M. Brown: Book Review
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After reading Teri M. Brown’s debut novel, Sunflowers Beneath the Snow, I was eager to see what she would do next. That book had surprised me in the best possible way, so I went into An Enemy Like Me hoping for another historical novel that would make me think as much as it entertained me.
It did.
This time, Brown takes us into the lives of a German-American family before and during World War II, exploring what happens when patriotism, heritage, family, and war all collide.
My Take: An Enemy Like Me became a much more personal reading experience for me than I expected. The multigenerational story, German-American family history, and WWII setting made me think not only about the characters, but about my own parents and grandparents and what those years may have been like for them. My Verdict? Read. This is emotional historical fiction about war, heritage, family, and the ordinary people whose lives are forever changed by events far beyond their control.
Synopsis Of An Enemy Like Me
Jacob Miller is a first-generation American growing up in a German immigrant community in Ohio. As he builds a life, marries, and starts a family, the country around him changes through the Great Depression and eventually World War II.
When America enters the war, Jacob faces complicated questions about what it means to be American while carrying a German heritage at a time when Germany has become the enemy.
The story also follows Jacob’s son, William, both as a child watching his father prepare to go to war and decades later as an adult looking back on the family history that shaped him.
Across generations, An Enemy Like Me explores war not simply through soldiers and governments, but through the families who live with its consequences.
An Enemy Like Me – What I Liked
The Generational Story
The first thing I liked was the way the book moves among generations and different periods of time.
We first meet William as a young child in 1944, watching the tension in his family as his father prepares to go off to war. Later, we see William as an older man, and then the story takes us further back into the life of his father, Jacob.
I love multigenerational stories because they allow us to see how events ripple through a family long after they happen. In An Enemy Like Me, we get to know three generations, and that gave the wartime story much more emotional weight for me.
The German-American Experience
Jacob is a first-generation American raised in a German immigrant town in Ohio, and I especially appreciated seeing WWII from that perspective.
So many WWII novels I read are set in Europe. I enjoy those enormously, but this book gave me a different view of what the war years meant for people living in the United States — particularly families whose heritage connected them to a country America was fighting.
It raised complicated questions about identity, patriotism, and belonging that I hadn’t thought about quite this way before.
The Personal Connection
Something about this book became very personal for me.
While I was reading An Enemy Like Me in December 2022, I lost my 102-year-old mother, Lorraine. She was born in Chicago in 1920 to a Polish-American family and grew up in a strongly Polish neighborhood.
As I read about Jacob, William, and their family, I kept thinking about my own parents and grandparents and what those years must have been like for them.
I asked my mother many things during her life, but like so many of us probably do, I still wish I’d asked more. I would love to know more about what the Depression and war years felt like to her as a young woman, and what those years meant to her Polish-American family and immigrant grandparents.
An Enemy Like Me made me picture my mother very clearly as the young woman she once was.
And perhaps that’s one of the greatest things historical fiction can do. It doesn’t just teach us about people in the past. Sometimes it makes us think differently about the people in our own past.
What the Book Says About War
Finally, the novel reminded me that wars may be directed by governments, but they are lived by ordinary people.
The soldiers who fight them are someone’s husband, wife, parent, child, brother, or sister. And the people left behind also live with fear, uncertainty, separation, and loss.
That idea stayed with me long after I finished the book.
An Enemy Like Me – What I Didn’t Like
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Honestly, there wasn’t anything I disliked about An Enemy Like Me.
If I had one complaint, it’s that I would happily have spent more time with these characters. I wanted a longer book – which isn’t much of a criticism at all.
An Enemy Like Me – Read, ReRead, or Reconsider?
And now, for my 3 Rs of book reviews.
Should you read, reread, or reconsider reading An Enemy Like Me?
This Is A Definite Read!
I enjoyed the multigenerational story and the historical setting, but what made this book stand out was how personally it made me think about family history, heritage, and the lives our own parents and grandparents lived before we knew them.
That’s something I don’t forget easily after closing a book.
Frequently Asked Questions About An Enemy Like Me
Is An Enemy Like Me historical fiction?
Yes. An Enemy Like Me is historical fiction centered on a German-American family before and during World War II, with portions of the story extending into later generations.
Is An Enemy Like Me part of a series?
No. An Enemy Like Me is a standalone novel, so you don’t need to read Sunflowers Beneath the Snow first.
Is An Enemy Like Me based on a true story?
The novel is fiction, but it explores real historical circumstances surrounding German-American families, wartime suspicion, military service, and life in the United States during the World War II era.
Is An Enemy Like Me Worth Reading?
Yes – especially if you enjoy historical fiction that focuses on ordinary families living through extraordinary events.
An Enemy Like Me isn’t simply a war story. It’s about identity, heritage, family, sacrifice, and the emotional cost of war for both the people who leave and the people who remain behind.
For me, it became something even more personal. It made me think about my own family history and about questions I wish I’d asked while I still had the chance.
Any novel that can pull me into its characters’ lives while also making me look differently at my own past has done something worthwhile.
What To Read Next
- Sunflowers Beneath the Snow by Teri M. Brown – Start here if you’d like to read Brown’s debut novel, another multigenerational historical story that surprised me with how much it made me think.
- The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani – Another emotional multigenerational novel about family, heritage, history, and the long effects of wartime events.
- The Italian Ballerina by Kristy Cambron – Try this next for another WWII novel that introduced me to a piece of history I hadn’t encountered before.
- The Rose Code by Kate Quinn – A good choice if you enjoy WWII historical fiction that combines personal stories with real historical events.
- Explore Historical Fiction – Browse more historical fiction reviews and recommendations on Looks Like Books.
