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Ellen Isaacs | |
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This is the epic (850-page) story of the first years of World War II, from just before the beginning of the war until just after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States reluctantly joined the war. The story is told through the experiences of the Henry family, which includes a naval capitain and his traditional navy wife; their two sons, a young naval fighter pilot and a submarine soldier who gets involved with a woman Jewish scholar; and their daughter, who works for a popular talk television show. The cast of characters extends beyond just the family to include a wide range of interesting characters on both sides of the war. Wouk does a neat job of placing the characters in situations that provide a multi-faceted view of what was going on during the days when Hitler marched through Poland, occupied France, took on the English and then marched east to fight the Soviets. He even manages to situate Captain Victor "Pug" Henry so that he can give a first-hand view of what Roosevelt, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini were up to. Wouk does an excellent job of portraying rich, multi-faceted, interesting characters whom you come to know and care about. Some of them you like, some you don't, but they're all fully drawn and very believable. I especially like that he has several (but not all) strong women characters. Through these characters, he tells the fascinating story of the early days of the war. Since I slept through history class in high school (why don't they teach it through historical fiction, I wonder?), most of the details were new to me, but I suspect even those with a better background would find this book full of interesting information. After reading this book, I discovered from an English friend that English school kids are taught that the English won the war, and I suspect the Soviets teach their kids the same thing. This book clearly has a US point of view and indicates that the Allies looked to the US to win the war. However, Wouk left me with a lot of respect for the English and the Soviets for digging in and resisting for so long with insufficient supplies. (Though I suspect that supplies are always insufficient in wartime.) He also uses several devices to convey how the Germans interpreted the war, which was useful. Overall, I was left with a clearer sense of how difficult it is to interpret events as they are happening and to know how to act, even if history makes it all seem so obvious in hindsight. There were times when I found it difficult to keep track of when things were happening, and I sometimes had trouble following some of the fairly technical military situations, despite wanting to understand. But I did learn a lot about military culture and the war, and very much enjoyed learning it. I've started reading the sequel, the even longer War and Remembrance, so I obviously think it's worth another 1300+ pages. I want to find out what happens to the characters and how the details of the rest of the war played out.
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