Book 12: The Glorious Cause

The Glorious Cause
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

Book 11: A Rumor of War

A Rumor of War
Philip Caputo

This is a very good book. This is the memoir of Philip Caputo, a lieutenant in the Marines during the Vietnam War. His story is odd, as he managed to be both one of the first Marines in Vietnam and was evacuated by helicopter in Saigon's final days, although by then he was a civilian. The book is interesting because it reflects Caputo's changing opinions of the war in a way that mirror the impressions of the nation during these conflicts (coughIraq). It was written after Caputo had seen combat, but the book was begun only a year after he left. Though the book gets preachy in parts (and here I am thinking of All Quiet on the Western Front, which definitely benefits thematically from its author's removal from the war by a decade), it still maintains a raw honesty.

Caputo is brutally honest, in fact, and the book will likely turn you against Vietnam and war in general. Here is another story about an enthusiastic young band of soldiers turned into weary veterans in the course of just a few months. Caputo does an excellent job of illuminating the theme of lost innocence, and for someone looking for an idea about the actual conditions of Vietnam in the lucid prose of a veteran, this book is it.

Grade: A

Book 10: The Magic Lantern

The Magic Lantern
Timothy Garton Ash

Well, this book is very interesting for several different reasons. It is a semi-hands-on account of the events in several major East European cities right as the revolutions against Communism were taking place. Ash was present in Poland for the monumental elections where Solidarity took control of the country and the Party was forced to cede much of its power. He was in Budapest where Party officials agreed to hold a funeral for a fallen resistance leader, acknowledging the needs of the Hungarian people for more open government. This soon followed. Ash was there when the wall fell and when East Germans streamed into Berlin to...shop. He was also the only foreigner to be present at the Czech Forum meetings in an old theater in Prague, given an insider's view of the organization of the resistance. Given all of this, it is bound to be an interesting, unique book.

That said, though, it is not without its major faults. Ash tends to change tense in his accounts, which read very rapidly, perhaps capturing the mood of the times but leaving the reader stranded. If you miss a paragraph in this book, the next seven won't make any sense. That is, if you were able to make sense of them at all. It is very hard to follow Ash's book if you are not very familiar with the events taking place already. That said, I believe it would be a valuable resource for future scholars studying the citizens' movements that were able to enact change across the region, but as an outsider I felt very lost throughout most of the book.

Ash also has a nasty habit of tooting his own horn a bit too much for my particular liking. He makes an overly extensive note that he was the only foreigner allowed into the Forum meetings in Prague, and while this makes him invaluable to any Western study of the events of 1989, he doesn't have to recognize that so overtly in his writing. We get it, his position is unique. I may revisit his account one day when I know more about the intricate workings of the movements of 1989, but until then the book is a primary source floating on an unknown sea.

Grade: B-

Book 9: Sacred War

Sacred War
William J. Duiker

Here's another quick summary of a book I read for my Vietnam class, again in installments. This book is somewhat different than any I've come across so far, in that it was written primarily to show the war through Vietnamese eyes. I think there's a tendency for us in America to view the Vietnam War as a conflict that had great bearing for our country, which it did. However, I agree with Duiker when he says that we tend to forget about Vietnam. His main goal in writing the book is to show how Hanoi won the war, rather than focusing on how the United States lost it.

This approach works very well. It puts the entire mess into interesting perspective and challenges the reader to realize that the Americans in Vietnam were invaders. It also gives the communist leadership in Hanoi credit that it must deserve. After all, they did win. The only major pitfall of the book is that it gets rather academic in some areas, but as an alternative explanation of events in Vietnam I think it is very useful.

Grade: B

Book 8: A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam

A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam
Robert D. Shulzinger

I read this book for my history class on Vietnam this semester, and because of this it was done in several installments. I think, though, that I was able to get a fairly decent picture of the book as a whole. It's basically a summary of United States policy towards Vietnam from the very beginnings of involvement in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations to withdrawal at the Embassy under President Ford. The only thing that really got on my nerves about this book was its propensity to forget to capitalize some acronyms. Any book about Vietnam will be chock-full of acronyms, I can assure you, but though this annoyed me I was able to get over it.

As the title implies, Shulzinger's main thesis is that conceptions of time in relation to Vietnam were all off. Was it to be a quick war, a long war, how long would it take for peace talks to conclude, etc. I suppose these are questions inherent in all wars, but in a war such as the Vietnamese struggle these questions are of increasing importance. Vietnam had no real objectives, unless preventing a communist takeover counts, and I for one think that is a really lame ex-post-facto excuse for killing so many of our young men uselessly.

My personal opinions aside, however, the book is pretty well-written, though it can be a little overwhelmingly information-heavy at times. For someone looking for a good, comprehensive introduction to United States policy regarding Vietnam (but not necessarily events within the war itself), I would recommend taking a look at this book.

Grade: B

Book 7: The Pianist

The Pianist
Wladyslaw Szpilman

I am surprised that I've never read this before, seeing as it's both a well-known Holocaust memoir and a popular film. It differs in most Holocaust memoirs in that it was written in 1945, right after Mr. Szpilman was liberated in Warsaw by the Soviet Army. It is also unusual in that the author was never in a camp, but managed to escape from the Warsaw ghetto in its final throes, just before its famous uprising, which he witnessed. Today when we were discussing the book in history, several of my classmates said they found a sense of rage in the book. I have to disagree. I think that the author knows he is lucky to be alive and is giving more of a play-by-play description. Of course he is angry, but he does not seek to kill all Germans, something I would expect a feeling of rage to provoke.

Regardless, the memoir is very moving and covers a somewhat unfamiliar aspect of the Holocaust. Szpilman was priveliged and lived in the better part of the ghetto (but of course, all is relative), always able to eat and always with a job. His luck is unbelievable. He isn't instinctively geared to survival and only gains this ability after being forced to. Strangely, too, he is unusually concerned with his hands, and apparently likes to attempt suicide. I think, though, that this illustrates an interesting point about the Holocaust: sometimes, those who survived were almost the least-equipped, while many able-bodied and resourceful souls were doomed to tragedy as soon as they left the train in Treblinka. This book is an interesting perspective on the Holocaust, a survival story different from any I've read.

Grade: A

Book 6: All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque

Yes, I chose to follow up a book on the Great War with a book on, well, the Great War. Actually, this one was for class, and I didn't realize until after I had finished Shaara's excellent book that the Great War was our topic for next week's history class. Well, I've read this book many times (most recently last semester) and I'm very familiar with it, but since it's a really quick read I decided to go ahead and plunge in for a couple of hours on a Monday night, having nothing better to do.

There is a reason that this book is the defining book of the Great War, particularly of its Western Front. The book is able to capture the absolute horror of the whole experience, outlining its effects on its veterans (surviving and dead alike) through the reflections of a German volunteer. The book spends more time in a philosophical quandry than actually advancing a plot, but I think that is the point. In this war, every battle is the same, and a jarring trip home functions not so much a plot device as a way to illustrate the great changes that war exacts on those who live through it.

The book was written by a German veteran himself, lending credibility to its depiction of the actual fighting, but the mindset itself seems to be grounded in the context of its writing, that is to say a downward spiralling Weimar Republic circa 1924-1925. The book is more a reflection of war than anything else, and I've found that I've been able to apply it to the mindset of soldiers in the Vietnamese Conflict as well. That said, the book can be a bit overreaching and somewhat unbelievable in parts, if only because most soldiers probably did not have the time nor energy to do as much existential self-reflection and questioning that Paul, the narrator, does.

All told, however, this is a moving memoir of a fictional soldier who, deliberately I think, embodies all the men who served in the trenches of the Western Front on both sides, and the book does an excellent job of personalizing the mental effects war has on its participants. It is a moving account of destruction of all kind, and a glimpse inside the men of a lost generation.

Grade: A

Book 5: To the Last Man

To the Last Man

Jeff Shaara

I loved this book. Callie recommended it to me a while ago, and one time when I was up at the house her sister Kimberly gave it to me and told me to read it. I finally had a chance to devote sufficient time to it over Spring Break, and it was my great accomplishment of the period.

The book is primarily fiction, but like Shaara's other novels (and his father's), they are rooted in fact. The main characters (there are four in this particular novel) were all real people who were involved in the conflict, and though it is a novel, the book does a good job of creating realistic situations, dialogue, and reactions in its narrative. I could not put it better than one of its blurbs: it is a novel that reads like history and history that reads like a novel. I think that is really what this book is all about. It's brilliant and finally, something historical I've encountered is well-written. I couldn't be happier.

The only places where I kind of got lost were certain sections about General Pershing. I think, though, that the fault is mine. I'm not one who deals with general strategy (though I assure you, I know the Von Schlieffen Plan damn well, thank you) very much, rather life in the trenches, but if someone is interested in this kind of thing I think the interaction between the three Entente generals can be really intriguing. Judging by the construction of the rest of the novel, I'll assume it's very well done.

Even the parts I found a little boring had their merits and the plot never stands still. The book manages to give a survey of the war experience through just a few eyes, using Pershing's story to complement the more narratively-inclined plotlines regarding the actual fighting of the war. The opening chapter is a stunning glimpse of life in the trenches for a new recruit and makes its point (the most popular point regarding this war...but I'll let you figure it out) very clearly by the time the last sentence hammers you over the head (and quite effectively at that; I've still got bruises).

The second part of the book concentrates mostly on the air war, seen through the eyes of Baron Manfred von Richthofen (yes, that baron) and Raol Lufbery, both aviators. I think this approach is very effective because trench warfare has been looked at a lot (I'm assuming most people who would read Shaara's book are well acquainted with All Quiet on the Western Front) in other books and there does not seem to be that much popular literature about the air war. Additionally, Shaara's focus on personalized, moving plots does not lend itself well to trench drudgery, where life expectancy was shockingly low and life consisted of the same pointless movements day after prolonged, agonizing day.

By the time we get to ground warfare, after the pilots' stories are fleshed out and Pershing's has shown how the Americans ended up in the quagmire, the trench lines are moving and the war has changed shape. We see the war now through the eyes of a young American soldier who witnesses his share of horror but is making actual quantifiable progress, ensuring that Shaara's battle-based view of warfare does not grow stale as it likely would in the trenches. Shaara sticks to what he's good at here and leaves the philosophy to writers like Remarque, though any novel about World War I is likely to make the basic argument regarding the effectiveness of the Great War. Shaara's book is good for gaining additional useful perspectives on a vague conflict often ignored in the shadow of World War II and Adolf Hitler.

Go read this book. It is most excellent.

Grade: A

Book 4: The Last Juror

The Last Juror

John Grisham

This book is not exceptionally well-written, but it also lacks the plot and continuity to get it off the ground. Put simply, it fails on all counts. The big shake-up surprise at the end is predictable, and even if I hadn't blatantly seen it coming to smack me in the face (luckily, I was able to duck and sustained no damage), it is not of a magnitude to shock or even merely stun anyone. The effect is, "Oh, wow, right, duh." My other major gripe is that Grisham tries much too hard to make the novel relevant and insightful regarding racism in the 70s. The racial tensions revealed by the plot are meaningless and underdeveloped. The effect of this is to make Grisham seem to be a meaning-mongerer eager only to fill pages rather than paint a finely attuned portrait of the day and age in which his characters are operating. In this case, he has no excuse, as the issue is school integration in the 70s.

Did I mention that this has nothing to do with the plot except to make it forgettable? Though this forgetfulness comes into play when Grisham tries again to overextend his limited writing capabilities in attacking a flawed legal system, it is still ineffective and does not even function as a plot device. Grisham cannot make up his mind regarding the genre of his work. Is it a fictional coming-of-age memoir? Is it a murder mystery (albeit one where all the answers are given out on a silver platter, requiring no thought whatsoever of the reader)? Is it a legal thriller? Is it an expose about racial tensions in 1970s Mississippi? Is it a scathing revelation of corruption in the judicial system? Can it decide? No. Grisham would do much better to stick to one or maybe two genres instead of trying to make his book a catchall.

Oh, and the end is sad to, for no reason. Grisham gives in to the pressures of modernization and his character sells out to The Man after avowing earlier not to. This change of heart is not explained. After reading this novel, Grisham would have you believe that the South can turn anyone conservative, that rich entrenched whites own the system, and that blacks and whites live happily (that is, the blacks are quite satisfied with their lower position) and best when separated by the enigmatic "tracks."

Grade: C-

Book 3: Hard Times

Hard Times
Charles Dickens

Well, Dickens it is, and what a letdown it was. Though it was better than Great Expectations which did not exceed my expectations for it which were, indeed, great, it came nowhere near the level of narrative brilliance that was A Tale of Two Cities, which incidentally remains one of my favorite books. This is another book I read for class, and one thing I like about college is that the textbooks are actual books in many cases. This book isn't bad, it just doesn't really shine the way I expected it to. I suppose I should be grateful because I had the chance to use this book to call Charles Dickens a bourgeois capitalist in my midterm's thesis. Ah, Marx, forever my friend.

The best part about the book was the very beginning, where the narrator is talking about Fact (capital F). I caught on immediately and thought that the critique of modern industrial society was spot-on, and it is in this critique that the novel really shines. Sissy Jupe is a pleasant break from the "Gradgrind" (doesn't that sound so drab?) world of Fact, Fact, Fact. For a cynic like me, it was great to read an established writer being skeptical about the modern industrial state, which is increasingly depriving us of our humanity and ability to communicate, and needless to say our individuality and distinct worth.

It's when Dickens gets into the narrative here that he strikes out, which is unfortunate but seems to be a recurring theme through the work of his I've been exposed to (and here stands the shining exception of perennial favorite "A Christmas Carol"). Oh, and about the bourgeois capitalist bit. While Dickens does allude to the dehumanization of factory hands in his novel, everyone is content with their position (at least to a certain extent) and there is no widespread social realization or call for revolution, making Dickens an inherent supporter of the existing oppressive system. Please, can that view have merit. I'll let you know come Tuesday.

Grade: B