Jeff Shaara
Well, I meant to do this review right after I finished, but I was too tired. Then I decided to do it yesterday, a plan which would have worked well until my Dad cut the phone line. Oh, well, here it is. Maybe I'll get better as time gets on and post these right when I finish the book. Anyways, onwards!
I love Jeff Shaara. I've now taken it into my head to be sure that I read everything he's ever written, and that he has a definite presence in my will-be library one day. While I definitely enjoyed this book, I couldn't help but compare it to the other book of his I've read (To the Last Man), with the two covering dynamically different wars. For one thing, this book is written through the eyes of commanders, which makes more sense given the kind of warfare that emerged in World War I (being so different than anything prior). This is excellent for getting an idea of who Washington, Cornwallis, and other men truly were, but it also makes the novel somewhat formal and precocious, with no real regard for how it felt for the soldiers, always a concern of mine.
I understand that speech was very formal among the elites during the American Revolution, but the speech used in the book is quite formal, with Washington speaking the exact same way as Cornwallis. I'm not sure this would have happened in reality. However, this served to illuminate the difference with Daniel Morgan and Mad Anthony Wayne, who spoke differently, so I'm kind of split on how I feel about it. What Shaara has done well is painted a good picture of the main arenas of the Revolution, and how it might have felt for the commanders as they fought a strange new kind of war.
Shaara is best at painting realistic portraits of battle, and I can say that, having read this novel, I have a much better idea of the military happenings of the American Revolution. Actually, I kind of want to read more about it now, to see if William Howe was really as bad as Shaara paints him, and to see more clearly how exactly Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown. All told, Shaara does a great job of illuminating a war so distant and yet so important to our national memory, personalizing George Washington and doing much to explain just why he deserves the title "father of our country."
Grade: A
I love Jeff Shaara. I've now taken it into my head to be sure that I read everything he's ever written, and that he has a definite presence in my will-be library one day. While I definitely enjoyed this book, I couldn't help but compare it to the other book of his I've read (To the Last Man), with the two covering dynamically different wars. For one thing, this book is written through the eyes of commanders, which makes more sense given the kind of warfare that emerged in World War I (being so different than anything prior). This is excellent for getting an idea of who Washington, Cornwallis, and other men truly were, but it also makes the novel somewhat formal and precocious, with no real regard for how it felt for the soldiers, always a concern of mine.
I understand that speech was very formal among the elites during the American Revolution, but the speech used in the book is quite formal, with Washington speaking the exact same way as Cornwallis. I'm not sure this would have happened in reality. However, this served to illuminate the difference with Daniel Morgan and Mad Anthony Wayne, who spoke differently, so I'm kind of split on how I feel about it. What Shaara has done well is painted a good picture of the main arenas of the Revolution, and how it might have felt for the commanders as they fought a strange new kind of war.
Shaara is best at painting realistic portraits of battle, and I can say that, having read this novel, I have a much better idea of the military happenings of the American Revolution. Actually, I kind of want to read more about it now, to see if William Howe was really as bad as Shaara paints him, and to see more clearly how exactly Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown. All told, Shaara does a great job of illuminating a war so distant and yet so important to our national memory, personalizing George Washington and doing much to explain just why he deserves the title "father of our country."
Grade: A
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