War – What is it good for? Absolutely nothing in the real
world, but on page it can make for compelling reading. The fighting may be in
the foreground of the plot or may serve primarily as backdrop to the story. Central
characters may be soldiers, or veterans, or civilians going about the process
of living while others kill and are killed around them. Perhaps a truce has
already been called that ends the fighting, but not the impact on shattered
lives.
The following books are examples of such compelling reading material
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – Set in
Europe during World War II, the narrative features
a German orphan boy who is handy at mechanical fidgeting, including the
self-taught ability to fix radios and finding which transmissions can reach
him. One is picked up from France, sent by the great uncle of a blind girl that
it is his destiny to one day meet.
Much takes place between Werner
hearing the broadcasts of Marie-Laure's great uncle and finally crossing paths
with her. Due to his talent, rather than being sent to work in the mines Werner
lands in an academy that trains German boys to become soldiers. Marie-Laure ends
up alone when her father is taken prisoner. Left behind by him is an invaluable
gift - a rare gem removed from the museum to be kept safe from treasure seeking
Nazis. Along with its monetary worth are rumored magical properties that can
heal disease. Marie-Laure is unaware that it is in her possession until
figuring out clues sent by her father. While we read on to see when and how fate
will lead Werner to Marie-Laure, the war that Hitler thrust the world into
rages on.
~~~~~
The Amazing Adventures
of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon –A novel
about the immigrant experience, particularly that of Jewish people who came to
American shores from Europe to escape Nazi persecution. Being set in wartime
means that violence and survival instinct are on display during the frozen
battlefield portion of the narrative. It also is about magic and illusion and
escapism and the earliest days of the comic book industry.
Last but not least, we are
presented with a love story. Two actually - one straight and one gay. Given the
time period, the latter is clandestine, forbidden, and ultimately
heartbreaking. If you are drawn to sprawling stories that take place over many
years in which spectacular events take place, pick this book up.
~~~~~
Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr. - History buffs interested in a post-Civil War setting will be
enthralled. Those who take interest in this nation's troublesome history of
race relations will be drawn in and will shake their head at the realization
that centuries old truths stubbornly remain valid to this day. Those searching
for bittersweet love stories will find them here, and most importantly, readers
will empathize with the well-developed characters.
Sam, a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army, is determined
to find his wife even though this means leaving the safety of Philadelphia
behind to return to the war-torn south. Tilda is being forced at gunpoint to
walk until finding a place that the man who enslaves her believes his rights as
a slave owner will still be honored, despite the result of the war. The third
primary character is Prudence, a white woman who goes from Boston to
Mississippi to start a school. While the events of this story take place after bloodshed
on the battlefield has officially ended, long lasting effects dominate the
lives of those in search of a new meaning for freedom.
~~~~~
Home by Toni Morrison – Frank Money is a veteran of the Korean War, haunted by blood-soaked memories
of his time there. Now back in America, returned to its unique brand of racism
against black people, he finds himself with a peacetime rescue mission. His
sister is in bad shape, and so he must return to the hometown in Georgia that
he loathes, taking a journey from one trauma inducing location to another. It
is the last thing he wants to do, and the only challenge capable of shaking him
from a crippling sense of apathy and PTSD.
Much has changed over the course
of the years since Frank last set foot in the town where they were raised.
Plenty remains basically the same. Home is there to provide familiar comforts,
even though our return to it is inevitably in the form of a different version
of ourselves. Even when it is a place that was run away from, home is what one
hopes remains when the war and the running is done.
~~~~~
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian – This book
jumps back and forth between the years 1943 and
1955. The earlier setting takes place in an Italian countryside during World
War II. Mussolini's Italy became an ally to Hitler's Germany during the war,
but initially German soldiers treated Italy like an occupied nation rather than
viewing its citizens as brothers in arms. During this period of uneasy
alliance, the wealthy Rosati’s host parties for the Germans, the two adult sons
serve in the military, and their sister falls in love with a German soldier
whom she believes to be more humane than most of his comrades. Their cozy
relationship with Germans is a recipe for resentment from their less prosperous
neighbors who are distrustful of the Nazis and anyone who chooses to associate
with them.
In the 1950's, the second plot
revolves around a serial killer who for unknown reasons is targeting members of
the Rosati family. Two detectives try to hunt down the killer. This fast-paced
novel races along on a dual track. We learn the identity and motivation of the
killer in its final pages. If you enjoy whodunnits, or war novels, or
historical fiction with a dash of romance, or art history – you will be rewarded
with each of these elements.
~~~~~
The Nightingale by
Kristin Hannah –This novel is about
German occupation of France during the WW II that centers on the heroism of
French women- two in particular, sisters Isabelle and Vianne. Isabelle is the
more rebellious of the two, not content to sit at home and wait to be saved
when she can go out and do some saving of her own. She joins a group of
rebels that help the cause of defeating Germany any way they can, such as
escorting to safety various pilots who survive their planes being brought down
by the German military. Vianne has a young daughter in her care, so she is not
able to be as reckless as her sister.
Vianne’s husband joins the fighting
and is captured. A German soldier is billeted in their home. After he is killed
to protect the hiding Isabelle, a far less decent Nazi takes his place. The
narrative alternates between Isabelle's exploits and Vianne's struggle to
survive Nazi occupation of her town and home. A third thread takes us to 1995.
An elderly woman who recently moved into an assisted living complex has been
invited to an event in France. We understand that this woman must be one of the
sisters but must wait for her identity to be revealed.
~~~~~
Persepolis: The Story
of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi –The
narrator of this graphic novel is a young girl growing up during the Islamic
revolution and the Iran-Iraq war who reveals impactful events to us in
matter-of-fact fashion, such as her one day being a student in a co-ed,
non-religious bilingual school - the next day a student in an all-girls school
with the wearing of veils now obligatory. The contrast between the
stylistically simple black and white illustrations and the brutal inhumanity of
what is taking place is startling - like a pre-school children's book and a
Rated R horror flick merged into one.
Loved ones are introduced on one
page, killed a page or two afterwards. Tragedy just keeps coming. Yet we also
can't help smiling in certain places as this stubborn, resilient girl puts
together a punk rock look, or goes shopping for music by acts some readers will
remember from the 1980's, scoring posters of Iron Maiden and Kim Wilde that her
parents sneak into the country, or when she takes a forbidden puff of a
cigarette in the basement and declares herself to have reached adulthood.
Regime changes are detailed at a dizzying pace. No matter who is in charge
during any given period, repression in one form or another is present, as is
danger. Permanence is a foreign concept to this Middle Eastern world. Her
immediate family is the only constant, but how long can it last when the only
reliable guarantees are sudden change and arbitrary violence?
~~~~~
The Plot Against
America by Philip Roth – This book asks
the hypothetical question - what if FDR had been defeated in his run for a
third term by the charismatic Charles Lindbergh whose main campaign promise was
to keep the US out of World War II while having a darker motive for acquiring
power? It is told in a macro way, as well as going micro and showing the impact
of Lindbergh's fictional presidency through the eyes of a boy in a Jewish
family in Newark, NJ. Instead of being about fighting against tyranny overseas,
it’s about hope of avoiding war being used as lure to spread antisemitism in
America.
Parallels between the 1940's of
Roth's imagination and our current political climate are striking. Simply
switch the idea of a man who ascends to the presidency aided by a foreign
government (Germany) with the idea of a man ascending to the presidency aided
by a foreign government (Russia). Switch a celebrity with no previous political
experience having an improbable, meteoric rise to the White House with a
celebrity who – actually, no theme switch is necessary here. Switch people
being thrown into concentration camps because they're Jewish with people being
thrown into detention centers because they crossed a border in hope for a
better way of life. The American way is something that can be taken for granted
until it is under assault.
~~~~~
The Sympathizer by
Viet Thanh Nguyen – The narrator is the
product of an absent French father and Vietnamese mother. He leaves Vietnam for
America and establishes a new life with other refugees in Los Angeles, secretly
reporting back to communist superiors in his homeland. As a spy he toes the line between identity as
a capitalist and as a communist who will never spiritually leave his native land.
This novel explores the nature of
being two sided. The narrator is both
unfeeling and remorseful, a sensitive soul and a cold-blooded killer, a loyal
friend and a lone wolf, the conqueror and the conquered, Western and Eastern,
Caucasian and Asian. These ideas are explored with beautiful command of
language. The closing section features the most vivid torture scene I can
recall since reading William Goldman's Marathon Man years ago. I suppose I
should provide a trigger warning for those who steer clear of graphic violence
on page. If you can look past that, you will find an astute book of compelling ideas.
~~~~~
The Things They
Carried by Tim O’Brien – This book is
written from the perspective of down-in-the dirt participants of the Vietnam
War. It’s about bonding with your fellow man and then watching him die before
your eyes. It's about surviving to tell a jungle tale, not so much the true
details of what did and didn't happen, but how it felt to know that the next
minute might be your last...or the last for the guy sitting next to you. It's
about being steeped in mud and surrounded by death, some of it brought about by
your own hands, most of it something that you're helpless to stop and so are
forced to grow familiar with. It is about the things soldiers carry, physically
as well as emotionally, to remind themselves that a world at peace awaits those
lucky enough to make it through hell and return to wherever they came from. Not
that home will be what it once was, because war permanently alters everything
that it does not destroy.
Billed as fiction but it feels
like a memoir so split the difference. O’Brien writes beautifully about
awful circumstances and tragic events rendered mundane by repetition. It is a
time capsule filled to the brim with things held on to, and things lost.
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