War by Sebastian Junger

 

Reviewed by Ben

 

War by Sebastian Junger is a true story of an American journalist who embeds himself in Battle Company, a US Army infantry division that fought for control of the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Published in 2010, the events described in the book take place during the early years of President Obama's first term. While collecting notes for the book, Junger and cameraman Tim Hetherington captured video footage that would be used to make the documentary "Restrepo." War was written with plain-yet artful-language describing the company's tour in the Afghan mountains. Junger is never pretentious. He levels with the reader regarding what happens during war and how it changes people. The narrative hits the reader with a thud.

 

The overriding themes of the book are how combat forges bonds and--sometimes--sucks people in. Some of the fiercest fighting of the war in Afghanistan took place in the Korengal Valley, a short, narrow strip of land in the mountains. If you search for this location in Google, you will see a lot of sources calling this one of the most dangerous places on Earth during the war and the US occupation. The valley presented a harsh environment that conferred an advantage to local insurgents who were accustomed to climbing the steep, rocky hillsides and less laden with heavy loads of equipment. Battle Company could come under fire anywhere, at any time. The Americans thus depended on each other for protection and became very close to each other. Deaths and casualties hit the group hard.

 

Even though combat presented the dangers of potential death, dismemberment, and psychological trauma, some of the members of Battle Company enjoyed combat. When winter brought a lull in insurgent activity, the men openly wished for firefights. One member of Battle Company who featured the most prominently in the book, O'Byrne, had a hard time conceiving of life back home as his tour drew to a close. He weighed signing a new contract with the Army and returning to the remote Korengal outpost, where mysterious men would resume trying to kill him.

 

War is a book I highly recommend. The narrative of the true events is exciting. The author's reflection on combat and what it does to men is compelling. Hearing the stories of enlisted men who long for gunfights is fascinating. All of this comes in a package that eschews the partisan political takes that we all heard years ago. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

Reviewed by Jeanne

World War I, the “Great War,” is raging.  Desperate for an edge, the Allies have resorted to an unusual form of intelligence gathering:  the dead.  American heiress Ginger Stuyvesant is one of the mediums employed to take down the last reports from those who have died at the front.  It’s a heart-breaking, emotionally draining task, but the information on the German troops is vital.  Ginger’s fiancé, Captain Benjamin Harford, is an intelligence officer with the British army and one of the few who knows about the work of the Spirit Corps.  He’s concerned for Ginger’s safety since the Corps’ secret headquarters is on the Continent, but soon he has another worry: somehow the Germans have learned of this unorthodox method of intelligence gathering and may be targeting the Spirit Corps.  Is there a spy in the camp?

Kowal writes both science fiction and fantasy, and is a Hugo Award-winning author, facts which I was ignorant of before picking up this book.  I like a bit of fantasy, but I’m picky about what I read in that genre and wasn’t sure that this would be a book that would hold my interest, despite many favorable reviews.  It didn’t take long for me to know that this one was a winner; by the end of the second chapter I was definitely hooked.  For one thing, Kowal makes the working of the Spirit Corps very matter-of-fact.  There’s no time spent in convincing the reader that it works or exactly how it works, though part of the latter question is dealt with in bits and pieces later on in the book.  That’s one of my pet peeves with many fantasy or supernatural books:  spending a lot of time convincing the reader that, say, spirit communication is possible.  If I pick up a book which says it’s about a medium who speaks to ghosts, the author shouldn’t spend several chapters trying to convince me it’s possible.  I’ve already bought into the concept by picking up the book based on the jacket copy or (yes, I admit it!) the cover.  

Ginger is a strong heroine, determined and courageous.  She’s also more than a bit headstrong in the grand tradition of American heiresses in the UK.  (Think Cora of “Downton Abbey” or Jenny Churchill.) Characterizations in general are well done, and Kowal touches on some social restrictions of the day with the introduction of a black medium and some Sikh guards.  The bulk of the story is taken up with the search for the spy, who is also a murderer.  Unfortunately, he attacked his victims in such a way that they did not get a good look at his face, so the ghostly reports are of little help.  

Overall, this is a delightful genre-bender of a book that blends mystery, supernatural, romance, and history.  The pace is excellent, moving the story steadily, and for me there were several surprises in store.  I appreciated how the author gave us a fully realized alternate world.  The supernatural felt as real as the trenches. Also, I have no idea whether or not this is the first in a series.  The door is open, but it does well as a standalone novel.  I’d certainly be interested in reading another, but if this is the only one, I’m equally satisfied with it as is.  

I believe this is a book with very broad appeal, and I will be recommending it to a number of people. 

Catastrophe by Max Hastings

Reviewed by William Wade

The year 2014 is at hand.  And all Europe will observe the centennial.  Note that we do not say celebrate. For 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the coming of World War I, an event so catastrophic in the history of Western civilization that it is almost beyond exaggeration.

The story is admirably told in a newly published book, Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War; its author is Max Hastings, an eminent British historian of the first rank.  It is an account that should be read by anyone seriously seeking an understanding of our contemporary history.

Basically it is a story of diplomatic failure, for virtually none of the European nations who rushed to arms that August wanted a continent-wide conflagration.  They rightly feared Europe might be thrown back into another Middle Ages.  “The lamps are going out all over Europe,” warned British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, “and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”  And the consequences of that war were many.  If conflict could have been avoided in 1914 Adolf Hitler would have remained an unknown painter of no reputation.  The word Nazism would never have entered our dictionaries.  Russia would probably would have avoided a Communist  revolution, and almost  certainly that would have forestalled any Communist revolution in China, to say nothing of elsewhere around the world.  The present Arab-Israeli conflict that disturbs peace in the Near East might never have come about, and the development of the atomic bomb and a nuclear arms race might never have occurred. The list of consequences goes on and on and on.

So if you ask why did European diplomacy fail so badly in 1914, you must read this book, for it is a complete and absorbing recital of the events.  It’s a long account  - 600 pages – but you should read it all for the devil is in the details.  They called it the “Great War” back in 1914, for they were unaware that its outcome would spawn a second and even more horrendous conflict two decades later.  All in all you cannot understand our contemporary world situation without giving your regards to the impact of World War I.  May we all resolve to be wiser in this centennial year!

War Nevermore: War is a Force, Cavaliers and Roundheads, and Sarah's Key

"Ain't gonna study war no more" isn't a phrase used at Nevermore, because war is a frequent book topic both in non-fiction and fiction.  Here are some of the books about war which were discussed recently:

Foreign correspondent Chris Hedges has covered conflicts all over the world, from the Sudan to the Balkans to the Americas.  He’s studied accounts of historical warfare (including Shakespeare’s portrayals) to compare with contemporary wars, looking the ways they differed and were similar.   The resulting book, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, is a fascinating look at “the virus of war,” a disorder to which human beings seem all too susceptible.  War brings a complete breakdown in morality, and makes for a black and white world in which soldiers on our side are not only good, they’re all heroes; those fighting for the other side are all evil. Battles are glorified; dissenters, even artists or musicians, are silenced. This seems to be true through both time and place. Jud Barry, our director, felt this was definitely a book for reading and reflection.

 

Speaking of conflicts, there was a lot going on during the English Civil War, none of it good.  Christopher Hibbert’s book Cavaliers and Roundheads does an excellent job of presenting the war on a more personal and intimate level. Communities and families were divided; collateral damage was enormous.  Hibbert highlights the personalities involved, including some of the minor players whose names aren’t as well known as Charles I or Oliver Cromwell.  The religious component was enormous, but it was more nuanced that a simple matter of Protestant against Catholic. This well-written, revealing and well-researched account is highly recommended.

World War II is the catalyst for the novel Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. In 2002, journalist Julia Jarmond is writing a 60th anniversary piece on the round up of Jews in Paris, which were done with the complicity and sometimes active participation of the French authorities.  As Julia does her research, she discovers that the apartment where she lives once belonged to the family of a young girl named Sarah who was taken along with most of her family by the Nazis. Left behind is Sarah’s younger brother, who is hidden in a locked cupboard. The novel alternates between past and present, as Julia learns more about the fate of Sarah’s family and of a very dark period of French history.  Jud found the book to be a well-written, plot driven book with good pacing which drew him in quickly and kept the pages turning.

In the Graveyard of Empires Clarifies the Gordian Knot of Afghanistan

Reviewed by Doris

A few weeks ago a group of online friends and I were discussing the situation in Afghanistan and what should be done there. I realized I knew almost nothing about the history of Afghanistan. I went looking for a book that would help me with the country’s history and information about what is arguably the longest war America has ever fought. On our new book shelf was In the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan by Seth G. Jones (958.1047 JON Main). Though I am still quite conflicted as to what the best move is for the United States regarding Afghanistan, I understand so much more about the complexity of the country and our current situation there after reading this excellent book.

Afghanistan rightly deserves the title of “the graveyard of empires.” In 330 B. C. Alexander the Great had defeated the great Persian Empire and headed into Afghanistan on his way to India. Having encountered little resistance throughout Eurasia, Alexander was unprepared for the fierce Afghan tribesmen. His legions, which may have numbered more than 100,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, suffered their heaviest losses at the hands of the phantom attackers who slaughtered his troops from their mountain hideaways. Under continuous attack, Alexander ordered his generals out of the region with all possible speed.

Over the next two thousand years the region continued to be a problem for major empires from both the East and West including Genghis Khan, Tamberlane, Babur, the British, and of course the USSR. In 1842 in the First Anglo-Afghan War the departing British forces were reduced from 16,000 to one lone Army surgeon who survived. It is about this war that Rudyard Kipling wrote of the young soldiers lying wounded on the battlefield waiting for the Afghan women to come with their sharp knives. England would fight two more Afghan-Anglo wars with similar results. Most recently, the ten year war the USSR fought against the Muhadjin is partially credited for the downfall of the Soviet state with billions spent and causalities totaling more than eleven thousand elite Spetsnaz GRU Soviet Special Forces.

Jones has done a tremendous amount of research and combined it with his own perceptions. He carefully documents America’s invasion of the country after 9/11. From that point forward he fully explains the development of the insurgency that evolves as America misses opportunity after opportunity to shut down the Taliban, warlords, and the drug cartels that thrive in the unstable atmosphere. As each military decision seems to create more problems for a fragile Afghan government and our own forces, Jones shows how the insurgency is rapidly growing in strength, arms, and area. It is obvious we have lost the tiny window of opportunity we had as Afghanistan and Pakistan become more and more unreliable allies and unstable politically. Unsurprisingly this has been confirmed this week with the release of additional intelligence information about our initial move into Afghanistan after 9/11.

Jones’ research is thorough and well-documented. He weaves history and his own knowledge into the mix along with information from his sources within the Afghan military and government. The issues are highly complex, but I found his style of writing and the knowledge he was sharing relatively easy to follow. He does not take a political stand at all: he provides the facts and shows where we missed each opportunity and where failure after failure has led us to today. While I have always thought I followed the news closely and I understood what the issues are, I was wrong. The country of Afghanistan is still a Stone Age country in many, many ways. It has been at war almost its entire existence. There is no simple answer to any of its problems or to our involvement. In the Graveyard of Empires is an outstanding analysis of the place, the war, and America’s dilemma.