Le Renard Argente - TGP Book Review #2

Do you like Chase Utley?

Do you like vignettes about World War Two?

Well, if you said yes to either of those questions, I have the book for you. Le Renard Argente: The Silver Fox at War. Oh yes.

Oh yes.

Amanda Smith’s imagining of Chase Utley as a WW2 OSS operative / Tom Hanks’ Captain John Miller / Damien Lewis’ Major Richard Winters from Band of Brothers / all-around general badass is an illustrated trip through his time in LA and his hypothetical time in mid-1940s France.

She writes in her preface that she was inspired by Utley’s actions during a brawl in a Marlins-Dodgers game. Despite being six inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter, Utley went nose-to-nose with Giancarlo Stanton. Smith noted at the time, “Chase Utley isn’t afraid of pain because he fought in World War II. I still have no idea why that was my first thought, but it was and the idea amused me immensely. Like so many things I do on Twitter, I decided to run the joke into the ground.”

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

And we’re all better off that she did.

Amanda Smith

“I had a perfect game once. Went up against 27 Nazis and didn’t let any of them walk. So I know what it means to a man.”

Amanda Smith

“Pain takes me back. Strasbourg, 1944. The SS captain had six rounds in his gun. When it was over, I had two in my leg and his heart in my hands.

This is not a novel. There’s no one storyline tying it together. But it is a tremendous work of art. Fourteen stars out of ten. Le Renard Argente was self-published and is available on Amazon, currently for $14.00, and perhaps elsewhere. Amanda Smith can be found on Twitter at @AmandaRTubbs, where she is currently offering PDF copies of this book. But if you’re able, I encourage you to buy it.