In today’s video clip I share some thoughts on three books that describe three different wars our country has been involved in from three distinct perspectives. Tom Brokaw’s ‘The Greatest Generation’ is a collective memoir of the Second World War, ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien is an almost undefinable masterpiece about Vietnam, and ‘Jarhead’ by Anthony Swofford is a gritty, individual look back at Operation Desert Storm.
There are, of course, many other books about war. While it would take a separate blog to list a fair amount of them, I’d like to share a few of my favorites here:
The American Civil War:
‘The Red Badge of Courage’ by Stephen Crane’ Set during an unnamed Civil War battle, Crane’s psychological portrait of an AWOL soldier who learns to face his fears was groundbreaking for its time, and while stylistically precious now, still contains a great deal of truth.
‘The March’ by E.L. Doctorow More than one critic has noted that this great novel comes closer to ‘Ragtime’ than any of Doctorow’s other books since. Like ‘Ragtime,’ ‘The March’ is less a traditional story with protagonists than it is a word portrait of Sherman’s “march to the sea” through Atlanta, and how the devastation wrought affects many different characters, areas, and actions.
‘March’ by Geraldine Brooks Many writers invert classic tales (e.g., ‘Wide Sargasso Sea,’ Jean Rhys’s classic novel that tells ‘Jane Eyre’ from the perspective of Mrs. Rochester), but none has ever done so with quite as much insight as Geraldine Brooks does with the Civil War saga of Colonel March, whose wife and daughters wait at home… the cast of Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women.’
World War One:
‘A Soldier of the Great War’ by Mark Helprin Your favorite Mark Helprin novel might be ‘A Winter’s Tale’ or ‘Refiner’s Fire,’ but ‘A Soldier of the Great War’ is his, and for good reason: as an elderly veteran of World War One tells his story to a youth, that conflict illuminates both their lives, their country’s history, and finally Western culture.
‘Good-bye to All That’ by Robert Graves If you’re seeking to understand why the call WWI ‘The Great War,’ start with this British memoir of life in the trenches and why it forever killed “that golden afternoon” of the Edwardian age.
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque Soldiers everywhere play cards, build latrines, and complain about their rations; the fact that the soliders in Remarque’s novel are German might make them less sympathetic to you, but if you remember that he wrote this bleak story while Germany was in the throes of terrible depression might.
World War Two:
‘From Here to Eternity’ by James Jones Here’s a true classic, a book that showed a generation of Americans the truth about combat and battlefields. The defiance of Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt, who refuses to box for his outfit despite brutal hazing, represents the sort of indomitable spirit most U.S. citizens like to believe they have.
‘Code Talker’ by Joseph Bruchac Bruchac’s book about the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II is labeled Young Adult — but don’t let that classification stop you from reading this fictionalized tale of how real-life Native American Marines helped create an uncrackable code.
‘Charlotte Gray’ by Sebastian Faulks In 1942, it seemed Germany might win the war — the delicate balance between free and fallen Europe is delicately represented in the title characters, a young Scotswoman who joins the French Resistance (for — what else? — love).
Vietnam:
‘The Officers’ Wives’ by Thomas Fleming Fleming’s masterpiece grew out of his time teaching at and writing a history of West Point, yet what emerges in this Vietnam-centered epic is a micro-history of the United States in the turbulent 50s, 60s, and 70s.
‘The Yokota Officers’ Club’ by Sarah Bird No one has ever portrayed the painful side of what it’s like to be a military “brat” the way novelist (and military brat herself) Sarah Bird does in this suspenseful tale of the Cold War’s intersection with the Vietnam War.
‘In Country’ by Bobbie Ann Mason A family pilgrimage from Kentucky to the Vietname Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C. becomes the occasion for Sam Hughes to understand the father who died in the war before she was even born.
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