A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Book Description

My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.
“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”
“Because there is a war.”
“You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”
“Yes, all the time.”
“Cool.”
I smile a little.
“You should tell us about it sometime.”
“Yes, sometime.”

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

Customer Reviews:

Enlightening........2007-10-03

I think this is a wonderful book, so moving and beautifully written that you wonder how a person can manage to lead a "normal" life after experiencing what he has been through. The author tells the story matter-of-factly without whining or complaining about the hand he's been dealt. Because of this, it makes the story even more impressive.

Not just a good read, a book that enlightens is a must-read.

Fantastic book. Recommend for all ages!.......2007-10-02

This book is truly amazing. It is almost unbelievable to read about the lives of people like Ishmael, but it's true, and it's happening today. Yes, in some parts it is certainly hard to read, but it's worth it. It is better to be shocked and scarred by this book than ignorant to it. Ishmael is a wonderfully optimistic person, and I think we can all learn a lot from his courage. In his own words, Ishmael is not an expert on the history of Sierra Lione, but by putting a face and name to this story, you will still learn a lot from him! I recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

Easy to read, hard to digest.......2007-10-02

I read this book on my flight to D.C. a couple of months ago. It was probably the fastest I have ever read a book. It was very easy to understand and painted an incredibly vivid picture in my mind. The content is important and the way Beah wrote his story makes it accessible to all.

Painful but Poignant.......2007-09-27

This book is not for the fainthearted who wants a feel good story; this is tough book to read, however, it is an important book to read as well. So often us here in the west are isolated from the fact that there are tough places to live on this planet, places where people are forced to do unspeakable acts and are exposed to unimaginable acts of violence.
This book takes on the voyage of a young man named Ishmael, who lived in the war torn country of Sierra Leone. His life is completely turned upside down by the civil war in that country. Ishmaels story is first a story of losing his family, than of losing his innocence as he is forced to fight for the Countries Army that's fighting the "rebels". After that the story focuses on his rehabilitation in a place called Freetown and eventually his new life in the United States (although I would like to know more about how he is today).
The most amazing part of this story as an American who simply didn't understand the truth, is that this Ishmael was 12 years old and was killing people, not because he was an animal, but because he was drugged and forced to become one merely to survive. This is a concept that as westerners we look on and go oh that's too bad, but do we really take the time to understand that this happens all the time in the same world we live in? Do we take the time to understand that there is big world out there and for the most part it isn't that safe little havens we take for granted? I challenge anyone who reads this book to be able to look at the world the same again.

A must read.......2007-09-26

This book is very graphic in its detail of events. It will put you right there on the front line and in the eyes of danger. I felt as though I was there experiencing all that he had. Then again I could never imagine experiencing all that he did. Its a touching story that will bring back to reality on the issues that have been going on for ages.

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Mistitled
Typically effective Shaara novel of war
Awesome
on the folly of preemptive attacks
Great Book

Gone For Soldiers
Jeff Shaara
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The Glorious Cause
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Rise to Rebellion: A Novel of the American Revolution
The Last Full Measure
Gods and Generals

ASIN: 0345427521
Release Date: 2003-11-04

Book Description

With his acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara expanded upon his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War classic, The Killer Angels--ushering the reader through the poignant drama of this most bloody chapter in our history. Now, in Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara carries us back fifteen years before that momentous conflict, when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.

In March 1847, the U.S. Navy delivers eight thousand soldiers on the beaches of Vera Cruz. They are led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott, a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short tempered, vain, and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty-year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.

Scott leads his troops against the imperious Mexican dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana. Obsessed with glory and his place in history, Santa Ana arrogantly underestimates the will and the heart of Scott and his army. As the Americans fight their way inland, both sides understand that the inevitable final conflict will come at the gates and fortified walls of the ancient capital, Mexico City.

Cut off from communication and their only supply line, the Americans learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. While Scott must weigh his own place in history, fighting what many consider a bully's war, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.

In vivid, brilliant prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers and their commanders trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the haunted personalities and magnificent backdrop, the familiar characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war. Gone for Soldiers is an extraordinary achievement that will remain with you long after the final page is turned.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Mistitled.......2007-01-05

I can't say that this book was aptly named, as it was principly about two or three military officers; Winfield Scott, Robert E Lee, and Santa Anna. "Scott and Lee in the Mexican War" would have been a more descriptive title. "Gone for Soldiers" seems to have no connection to the contents. While it seems to contain mostly conjectural thoughts of the principals, the narrative about the progress of the war is a good, if sketchy description of that conflict, tho it takes 424 pages to do so. Two things it points out are that great leaders also can make great mistakes, and war is great excitement until you are killed or horribly maimed. But probably the best themes are how government partisan politics can readily screw things up, from the sensible to the absurd, even back before 1850, and the similarities between the politics of that day and the present, which are clearly evident.

Typically effective Shaara novel of war.......2006-12-27

In this work, Jeff Shaara explores the development of America's officer cadre in the Mexican War. Many Civil War generals got their first major wartime experience in this event. Indeed, Jefferson Davis, future President of the Confederate States of America, gained some renown for his use of a particular formation in battle.

The two major protagonists in this story are "Old Fuss and Feathers," General Winfield Scott, and a trusted engineering officer, the redoubtable Captain Robert E. Lee. Over and over, Lee's excellent scouting allowed Scott to befuddle the Mexican leader, General Santa Anna.

Other figures whom we meet who will play a role in the Civil War: Ulysses Grant, James Longstreet. Thomas (later "Stonewall") Jackson, George Pickett, and so on). We also learn of superannuated warriors such as General Wool.

All in all, the format developed by his father, in "The Killer Angels," taking a handful of key characters and using them to serve as "informants" in the development of the plotline and events, works well.

All in all, another good read and worthy of its place in the Shaara stable of war novels.

Awesome.......2006-11-10

The legacy of the Shaara name never ceases to amaze me. This book was great. The first Shaara books I read were Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause since the American Revolution is my favorite part of United States historyand after those i had to read more. I am always floored by these books. Its the best of both worlds...History and reading all rolled into one. Now onto The Rising Tide

on the folly of preemptive attacks.......2006-04-16

Prequel to the civil war trilogy, this book follows the Mexican War thru two major characters, Robert E Lee, a young captain of engineers, and the aging veteran of the War of 1812, Winfield Scott. While well worth reading on its own, it was enhanced by reading it in the week following Bush's attack on Iraq -- Shaara presciently describes an amazingly close historical precedent [the book was published in 2000] -- an American president seeks to avoid difficulties with domestic politics by making a preemptive attack on a vastly inferior nation. Whether 'Manifest Destiny' or a new world order and a war on terror, the result is an invasion of a sovereign country. The initial invasion goes well, but is soon bogged down when the mismatched enemy forces refuse to come out in open field battle. Political decisions have as much to do with strategy as military ones. While the president talks of supporting the troops, there is inadequate supports in both guns and manpower, and no preparation for the aftermath. Initial forecasts of enthusiastic welcome as liberators turns to guerilla war as the army moves inland and Scott is forced to deplete his already small forces with numerous garrisons to contain and control his supply lines. Scott must keep casualties to a minimum knowing that public support for this war is thin, and relies on a risky campaign of maneuver against a numerically superior but technologically inferior enemy.

Great Book.......2005-03-07

This one was fantastic to read. All of his books are, and the same with his father. Highly recommended.

Gone for Soldiers: A Novel of the Mexican War

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Before they were enemies
Once upon a time..........
The Mexican-American War
excellent tale of the Mexican War
Shaara and the Mexican - American War

Gone for Soldiers: A Novel of the Mexican War
Jeff Shaara
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War
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ASIN: 0345427513
Release Date: 2001-07-03

Amazon.com

Having chronicled the Civil War in Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara casts his eye on the earlier proving ground of the Mexican War in his third novel, Gone for Soldiers. Although it secured the Southwest for a nation emboldened by Manifest Destiny, this two-year conflict has nearly faded into oblivion, eclipsed by the subsequent domestic dispute a dozen years later. Shaara's hallmarks--the deliberations of leaders and the brutal facts of battle--illuminate his engaging diversion into an oft-overlooked struggle in which men who would come to oppose one another fought under a single flag.

The veteran major-general Winfield Scott and an upstart Robert E. Lee anchor Gone for Soldiers. Headstrong, brilliant, and generally distrustful of his less able subordinates, Scott leads the U.S. troops slowly and inevitably toward Mexico City, imparting martial lessons along the way. "The worst consequence of fighting a war is not if you lose, Mr. Lee," he sighs. "The worst thing you can do is win badly." Lee distinguishes himself throughout the campaign, his meticulous scouting and shrewd inferences winning both Scott's admiration and the jealousy of officers whose ambition surpasses their experience. Lee, too, frequently assesses his place in the hierarchy, but he--like Scott--remains more bemused than seduced by the glitter of fame.

This sympathy between the two men grows as Lee observes Scott embroiled in the distracting politics of war: officers salivating for promotion, enemies more preoccupied with saving face than lives, distant legislators issuing directives. If Gone for Soldiers occasionally bogs down during its many lengthy battle scenes, unexpected and delightful small touches arise nearly as often--the "capture" of Mexican leader Santa Anna's wooden leg or the chance encounter between Lee and a young Ulysses S. Grant. Duty-bound and humble, Lee cultivates a perpetual stoicism. "Now we're out here in some place God may not want us to be. It's hard to believe He is happy watching us fight a war," he muses, a sobering coda to the grim calculations of victory. --Ben Guterson

Book Description

In this stunning, unforgettable novel, Jeff Shaara carries us back thirteen years before the Civil War, when that momentous conflict's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.

"BRILLIANT DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE SHAARA GIFT."
--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

SHAARA RELIES "ON THE HISTORY BEHIND THE MEN AND THEIR CAMPAIGNS TO TELL THE TALE. . . . Most poignant of all is the appearance of so many characters who will fight under opposing flags 13 years later. Stonewall Jackson shows up as a humorless young lieutenant with a spiritual reverence for his artillery, and Ulysses S. Grant awkwardly meets [Robert E.] Lee. . . . The salvaging of such episodes from history is ultimately a patriotic task, deserving of gratitude."
--The Washington Post Book World

"COMPELLING . . . THRILLING . . . Shaara briskly drives the U.S. forces to Mexico City, building suspense at each battle, all towards the climactic storming of the gates of the capital. . . . [He] has humanized the mythos of Lee as no one ever has and, in doing, makes an enduring contribution to literature."
--Civil War Book Review

"SHAARA, AS USUAL, IS AT HIS BEST IN ACTION AND CONFRONTATION AND IN EVOKING HOW IT FELT TO BE THERE."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

Download Description

In "Gone for Soldiers", Jeff shaara carries us back thirteen years before the momentous conflict he has so brilliantly chronicled, to a time when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.

In March 1847, eight thousand soldiers land on the beaches of Vera Cruz, led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott -- a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short-tempered, vain and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty-year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.

Scott leads his troops agaainst the imperious Mexican dictator General Atonio Lopez de Santa Ana, who arroganatly underestimates Scott and his army. The Americans soon learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. And while Scott weighs his own place in history, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.

In vivid prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the legendary characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war.

Customer Reviews:

Before they were enemies.......2007-09-09

Gone for Soldiers is a historical novel of a war most Americans know little or nothing about. Thirteen years before America's tragic Civil War, men who would soon be enemies fought side by side as brothers in arms. Gone for Soldiers follows the exploits of General Winfield Scott and his right hand man and engineer, Robert E. Lee. As in all of his historical novels, weaves historically accurate information along with deeply personal characterizations to create a page turning novel. It never ceases to amaze me how Jeff Shaara picked up the mantle of his father.

Once upon a time.................2007-08-04

.....we were all on the same side. This fine book looks at the Mexican War thru the eyes of, primarily, Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee. Of course, we meet the same characters, again, 15 years later. [By then, Scott was too old for much of an active part, though the strategy he developed was quite valuable to the Union]. In some chapters, we get glimpses of others who would be heard from later, and, of course, the character was already evident; the intellegence, decency, and fundamental goodness of Joe Johnston; the brilliance [and lack of reticence] of PGT Beauregard; the tenacity and courage of Grant and Longstreet; the single-minded devotion of Jackson. One does get the hint that Stonewall, for all his greatness as a fighting officer, may not have been playing with a full deck....Gideon Pillow was a political General, though he did better here than he was to in Kentucky...Pickett was Pickett, a better soldier than the public gives him credit for.

Parallels have been drawn to our current situation, and there are some. BUT, we have to be careful. The current war in Iraq is about our own national survival; giving aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists is equivalent to state sponsored terrorism, and state sponsored terrorism is an act of war. The Mexican War was fought for lebensraum, but that doesn't make it wrong. If you would understand why we won, and why Mexico is still a third world country, look at the choice of leaders....Winfield Scott had his faults; he was gruff, vain, difficult...he was also brilliant, brave, fundamentally decent, and absolutely devoted to his country. Santa Anna was intelligent and brave; he was also an egocentric madman, totally devoted to himself. Winfield Scott saw himself as a servant of his nation; Santa Anna saw himself AS his nation...one can not read of him without thinking of the late, unlamented, leader of Iraq.

Particularly disturbing is the episode of the San Patricios...these were Irish Catholic American soldiers who deserted, and fought for the other side. Eventually, they were caught; Scott had the ringleaders shot, without hestiation. The rest were mostly hung, though Scott did spare some who repented. Those allowed to live were branded on the face with a large "D", and sent home, to what fate we can imagine. The motive of the San Patricios remains unknown...Irish Catholics have been some of America's greatest soldiers. There were brave Irish regiments on both sides of the Civil War, fighting under nearly identical flags. Confederate Chaplain Emmeran Bliemel was the first Priest ever killed in an American war. Conversly, Muslims fought with great honor in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. But...The presence of Muslim Chaplains in our Armed Forces, especially at Gitmo, in an invitation to problems. Indeed, there have been some. [Madison and, to a lesser extent, Jefferson, felt that the presence of any commissioned Chaplain violated the Constitution...but, no, that's off the track...].

Robert E. Lee should need no introduction to anyone reading this...General Scott proclaimed him the greatest soldier he ever saw. The next generation was to find out how right Scott was. Of course, others have written massively of General Lee [especially Dr. Freeman], but the essential greatness of the man is evident right here. [Indeed, the later war was to provide material for at least one full biography of many of these characters].

One could wish we had gotten to meet other characters from the Mexican War who were were heard from again...Jefferson Davis, Edmund Kirby Smith, Braxton Bragg...but this is a novel, and you can't include everything. All in all, a superb book about a little known war.

The Mexican-American War.......2007-08-02

Jeff Sharra's "Gone for Soldiers" concerns the Mexican-American War, and could be seen as a prequel for the Civil War trilogy that he and his father wrote, as it deals with some of the Civil War generals earlier in their career (Generals Longstreet, Grant, Jackson, ect.). But this story belongs to Major-General Winfield Scott and his favorite subordinate, engineering captain Robert E. Lee. Scott takes Lee under his wing and teaches Lee all the positive points of inspiring and leading an army, all the lessons that Lee will take with him into the next conflict thirteen years in the future. But for now the Army is in Mexico, and it is expressing America's Manifest Destiny, a series of laws and policies that allowed the U.S. to expand west, often just outright conquering Mexican territories. Scott is dubious at the policy, but carries it out as best as he can, he is after all a great soldier. He is constantly fighting not only the charismatic tyrant Santa Ana (here portrayed as paranoid) but also with his power mad and politically ambitious senior officers. This is a good fictional account (thought I think as close as real as possible) of the little known incident in American history. "Gone For Soldiers" has many rousing action scenes like the Siege of Veracruz, the battle at Cerro Gordo, and the Battle of Chapultepec, and the conquiring of Mexico City. (Some of Zachary Taylor's skermishes are discussed, but this was Scott's show). A thrilling adventure story that should entertain anyone and provide insight to the future Civil War leaders not often seen.

excellent tale of the Mexican War .......2007-04-14

Jeff Shaara combines history and story telling to bring a remarkable tale of the 1847 Mexican War. Gen Winfield Scott leads an assault at Vera Cruz to crush Santa Anna's uprising and finally put an end to his power in Mexico. The battle scenes are vidily written and explode across the page. What is so fascinating are the combining of Civil War generals Lee, Johnston, Grant and Jackson into this pre-civil war epic. Gen WInfield Scott, of course, was the leader of the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. A mere shell of the great general in this book.

Shaara and the Mexican - American War.......2007-02-13

In this novel, Jeff Shaara takes us back a dozen or more years to the period when US forces invaded Mexico. Many of the main military leaders in the Civil War underwent their individual and collective baptism of fire in the Mexican-American war. Lee and Grant first show the promise that they would later legitimately claim, on a much more bloody battlefield, in this largely forgotten war. Shaara continues to tell a good story well and doesn't seem to have become "bored" (as happens with many writers) with the niche that he seems to have developed so nicely.

Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection

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Important Book if you want to know more about Child Soldiers
Crucial Book on Child Soldiers

Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection
Michael Wessells
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go To War
Children at War

ASIN: 0674023595

Book Description

Compelling and humane, this book reveals the lives of the 300,000 child soldiers around the world, challenging stereotypes of them as predators or a lost generation. Kidnapped or lured by the promise of food, protection, revenge, or a better life, children serve not only as combatants but as porters, spies, human land mine detectors, and sexual slaves. Nearly one-third are girls, and Michael Wessells movingly reveals the particular dangers they face from pregnancy, childbirth complications, and the rejection they and their babies encounter in their local contexts.

Based mainly on participatory research and interviews with hundreds of former child soldiers worldwide, Wessells allows these ex-soldiers to speak for themselves and reveal the enormous complexity of their experiences and situations. The author argues that despite the social, moral, and psychological wounds of war, a surprising number of former child soldiers enter civilian life, and he describes the healing, livelihood, education, reconciliation, family integration, protection, and cultural supports that make it possible. A passionate call for action, Child Soldiers pushes readers to go beyond the horror stories to develop local and global strategies to stop this theft of childhood.

Customer Reviews:

Important Book if you want to know more about Child Soldiers.......2007-04-05

The topic of child soldiers has now received the attention it deserves. Beah's moving book of his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone has now opened the eyes of many. For those who want to know more, Wessells' book takes us into the lives of children worldwide -- Sri Lanka, Angola, Columbia, East Timior, Afghanistan and more. Child soldiering is complex, and the author takes us into the many ways children are recruited, the roles they play, and the facets of their day-to-day lives. Especially compelling are the voices of children, woven in throughout the book. In the end, practical guidance is given -- there is hope for concerned citizens who want to bring an end to the exploitation of children who are forced to serve in the wars of adults.

Crucial Book on Child Soldiers.......2007-03-17

This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in the complex situation of child soldiers. The book is engaging and compelling, bringing forth the voices and experiences of hundreads of child soldiers from around the world, including Angola, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Uganda, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. It goes beyond the usual stereotypes of such children as "victims" or "perpetrators", carefully detailing the many and varied roles that children participate in -- from human land mine detectors to caregivers of the babies born into armed groups. The plight of girl soldiers and their unique experiences as mothers at a tender young age -- the result of rape by their abductors who are also their "husbands" -- is eye opening and heart rendering.

The book carefully documents the numerous ways children come to be in armed groups (including abduction, fleeing abusive families, volunteering because of ideology, and having no other options because of grinding poverty). Michael Wessells is a psychologist, and writes compellingly of the social and emotional toll that is exacted on these chidlren. He also writes of the children's resilience, and how, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, many children actively cope with their situation.

In spite of the horrors that these children experience, the book offers hope. It provides moving examples of children re-entering their communities and once again becoming part of the fabric of community life -- as students, as citizens, as peacemakers, and as agents of social change. A far cry from categorizing these children as a "lost generation", the book contends that we have the tools and knowledge to stop the wanton exploitation of children as soldiers, and provides the reader with hopeful strategies and initiatives that have worked.

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So good, they can't make a movie of it
If you loved Gone With the Wind
Outworn worldview shows its age
You will read it, if not be thankful for this book
Entertaining and enjoyable, but light.

Gone to Soldiers
Marge Piercy
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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City of Darkness, City of Light
Sleeping with Cats: A Memoir
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He, She and It
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ASIN: 0449215571
Release Date: 1988-04-12

Book Description

In a stunning tour-de-force, Marge Piercy has woven a tapestry of World War II, of six women and four men, who fought and died, worked and worried, and moved through the dizzying days of the war. A compelling chronicle of humans in conflict with inhuman events, GONE TO SOLIDERS is an unforgettable reading experience and a stirring tribute to the remarkable survival of the human spirit.
"Panoramic...This is a sweeping epic in the best sense."
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Customer Reviews:

So good, they can't make a movie of it.......2007-07-16

This book has to be read more than once to catch all the nuances....great stories, interesting perspective on "regular" folks of the period (hot socialist divorcee authors? Bisexuality? Cloak and Dagger? Jews -vs-Poles in Detroit)...just great writing. I've found this to be the only one of her books I could read, but it's wonderful.

If you loved Gone With the Wind.......2005-11-20

I rarely read sagas, but since several friends recommended this, I gave it a try. Now I remember why I'm usually careful about which ones I read. It doesn't help when many of the characters are just plain not likeable. Oscar and Abra? Eeeeuwww!!!! Daniel and Gloria? Eeeeuwww!!!! Zach and Bernice? Gross!!!! I guess if you think World War II was about desperate people having sex this book is for you. Plus the coincidence of characters crossing was beyond belief. In the context of this being a "serious historical novel" I find that inexcusable.

Some of the historical parts were interesting - Murray (with his nine lives) in the Pacific, Danielle's activities with the French Resistance, the bombings of London.

Years ago I read Herman Wouk's "War and Remembrance" and I remembered that it kept me spellbound. A great, popular WWII saga. For insight into the American experience both and home and abroad try Studs Terkel's "The Good War: An Oral History of World War II"

Outworn worldview shows its age.......2005-09-17

Written in the heyday of the "feminist" novel, Marge Piercy's "Gone to Soldiers" presents a snapshot of American history - only it's not the history we're led by the jacket blurbs to expect. Instead, it's a framework of late 20th century feminist dogma about life and people projected backward in time and super-imposed over the events of WWII.

All the obligatory sterotypes are here: the intelligent, creative woman denied her rightful self-actualization and fulfillment by imprisoning family obligations (no less than three versions of this type); the artistic bisexual male; the repressed spinster who uncovers her lesbian identity; the semi-androgynous girl heroine who is smarter, stronger and more capable than the men around her...and on and on. Abortion, divorce, aggressive female sex and broken families are an unqualified good. Conversely, every hetero white male is either a sexual brute, a timorous mouse or an adulterous slob. The American government/military is simultaneously hopelessly inept and pregnant with unspoken menace. Intact family life is, at best, a pitiable exercise, or at worst, a repressive prison. You get the picture.

This mindset exhibits itself in the characters' thoughts and reactions. A case in point: one of Piercy's women, a writer of popular ladies' fiction, obtains a post with the OSS in Washington. She finds that the men in her department barely listen to her ideas, and that she has little influence on policy. This, she immediately assumes, is the result of Washington's "patriarchal" climate and of sexual discrimination. Oh. It never seems to enter her mind that, perhaps, the men don't listen to her because she doesn't have anything worthwhile to say, that she is underqualified, that her past experience hasn't prepared her to make a serious contribution, that she is in over her head. No, because she's a woman, she must, BY DEFINITION, automatically be a victim of oppression because of her sex, regardless of the objective measure of her talents and skills. It would be a touch of genius if Piercy were objective enough to have conveyed this attitude in her heroine without sharing it herself. One gets the feeling, though, that Piercy is merely using the character to express a deeply entrenched personal conviction.

The novel is a sprawling affair, and Piercy keeps a commendable grasp of her multiple storylines. She also has a good mastery of shifting points of view. These afford some nice crossovers, linking in fresh ways the characters with which she peoples her landscape. The weakness lies in her characterizations. There is a depressing sameness in the personalities that the reader joins behind the eyes of her characters. The men, especially, are poorly drawn. They thoroughly lack a masculine psychology; they're merely congolomerations of feminine thought patterns and reactions with men's names appended and dialogue that's rougher and less refined. Piercy, unfortunately, just does not know how to write believable men.

By no stretch of the imagination is this a historical WWII novel. It's what WWII would have been, if everyone had been preoccupied with concerns that were at least two generations in the future. From a perspective of twenty years after its publication, the novel is an interesting study on an outworn worldview receding just as surely as WWII into the past.

You will read it, if not be thankful for this book.......2005-08-05

Marge Piercy is a writer I admire. As a person I admire her more. She has done a lot for writers, particularly women and minority writers. This book helped because the sales from the book and different rights for movies and TV mini series that were never made helped Marge obtain financial independence for her modest life, so she can devote more of it to writing, her spiritual and social vision, and less of it to teaching classes and doing poetry reading for cash.

This book isn't going to please a hard-core World War II history buff like myself. Nor will it please those like myself who believe the US, Britain and France were equally evil as Germany, Japan, and Italy. Moreover, Marge Piercy was forced to omit a planned segment on the war against the Soviet Union because she could not get funding for research on it.

However, if you like story telling, and you like the social, sexual, and political vision that Marge Piercy's non-sci-fi books express, you will enjoy this book. You will be taken through the times and the war from the point of view of working folks. You will see this world in a pro-Feminist view.

You will hang on and turn pages and feel the release the end of the war must have been, even as Marge is showing how the war was the beginning of things like the CIA marriage with academia.
This is the kind of book that you wish was longer.

Piercy as a novelist is not one of the great prose artists, nor is she one to produce subtle or delicately complex plots. She writes straight, hard and direct. Sometimes, you do feel a little bogged down by what I call her "sociology"--where the Marge is explaining social, political, and economic facts of life for her characters. Of course, most writers don't care about those aspects of life, particularly for the working people that Marge Piercy loves.

What Marge does is gives you a story, real people doing real things that you will care about and will give you a different message than 99 percent of the other offers. If you want fine words, check out Marge's many works of poetry where she is a great artist, intimate with words, judicious in their use, but never fooling around, always with something real to say.

Viva La Piercy!

Entertaining and enjoyable, but light........2005-07-15

If you are looking for a soap opera, you will like this book. The storyline is interesting, but the background of WWII is an interesting canvas. The book is very long (nearly 800 pages) and much of it is fluff. It can become tedious. Fortunately, it is divided into chapters by character, so if you don't connect with one you can skim their chapters and focus on others.

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Gone For Soldiers. A Novel Of The Mexican War

Manufacturer: Ballantine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I20GS6

Gone for a Soldier - The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard

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Gone for a Soldier - The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard
David Herbert Donald
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWJKQY

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Simple through the eyes of a child
Big Buttons Review- the real thingy
Alex's Review
When the Soldiers Were Gone
When The Soldiers Were Gone

When the Soldiers Were Gone
Vera W. Propp
Manufacturer: Putnam Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0698118812

Book Description

Henk was hidden on the farm when he was young and the Nazi soldiers came. But the war is over now, and Henk finds out that the people he lives with, the people he loves, are not his real family. He doesn't remember his real parents, and now a new life in the city lies ahead of him. Will things ever be the same?

Awards:

Booklist Editors' Choice
A Child Study Children's Book Committee Children's Book of the Year

Customer Reviews:

Simple through the eyes of a child.......2007-10-01

Everything about this book is simple. The plot is simple. The writing is simple. The view is simple.

And yet it is that that strikes the reader. Having read this several years ago as a young child, I found it all believable and understandable. I enjoyed it. Upon rereading it several years later, it became clear just HOW simple the book really is.

Everything from the writing style to the way Henk (or Benjamin, the main character) sees the world and understands it is simple and basic. Nazism and racism are reduced to their simplest form - children mocking one another for no reason. The shock and despair that reigned in Europe after the Holocaust is shown as a lack of chocolate. The early signs of anti-semitism before the war against citizens are showed with Henk/Benjamin being told that he can longer go to the park with his friends because he is Jewish.

It is all quite interesting, but unless a young child is reading it, it's all a bit much. While, yes, the story is interesting and haunting and real, if someone can read something even more slightly complex, there are better Holocaust stories out there. For children ages nine and up, I always recommend "The Devil's Arithmetic", an excellent book. "When the Soldiers Were Gone" can really only fit a tiny group of readers - slower children around ages nine or ten who would not deal with the more complex books but ought to know about what happened.

Mostly, this is not a bad book. For an early reader, this is even a good book. However, as there are better books of similar topics out there, I'd recommend heading over to those first.

Big Buttons Review- the real thingy.......2005-12-14

I personally liked this book because I like war realated subjects. the only part about the book that I don't like is that Henk is never told that he is a foster child. If you like war based books you should read this.

Alex's Review.......2005-02-10

. This is a super great book. I say you should read it. The characters are Hank (Benjamin), Mama, Papa, Elsbet, and David. The problem in this story is Hank has a problem with someone in his class, the bully's name is Max. He threw a rock at his head and made a big cut on his for head. My favorite part is when Hank went to his real parents. The setting was in the county and the 1900's. I give this book 5 stars because it is a super book. I would recommend this book to a friend because he likes the books I read and they are like the book I read.

When the Soldiers Were Gone.......2004-12-15

When the Soldiers Were Gone is a great book that tells how life was for an 8-year-old boy when the Nazis came. When you read this book you will find out how and why Henk (Benjamin, his real name) and his parents got separated. Although they were not separated their whole life, he still did not remember his real parents. He finally remembered them when they moved back to their real house and found one of his old toys that he used to play with when he was a baby.
I liked most of the book, except for the part when he was living on the farm and when the "bad" soldiers came. He had to hide in the dirty laundry basket. It was very sad when Benjamin thought some weird people he didn't know were taking him away. I would highly recommend this book to ages 10 and under.

When The Soldiers Were Gone.......2004-09-18

I enjoyed reading, When the Soldiers Were Gone, by Vera Propp. The book focuses on the time period of 1945 when World War II was ending. The author writes about a boy who gets sent to a farm during the war to protect himself and his family. The boy, Henk, is really Jewish but he disguises himself as a Christian so the Nazi's won't come after him. This book is very interesting because it describes what was happening during the war from the eyes of a child that is about my age, 10 years old. Henk has wierd dreams about his past, and in the middle of the book he realizes that the dreams are real and that he has actually has a different family. The ending was a real surprise for me. This historical fiction is well worth reading.

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Revealing analysis of massacre of black troops in Arkansas
Well researched
Distilling the role race relations played in the conflict

All Cut to Pieces and Gone to Hell
Mark Christ
Manufacturer: August House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

Dogwood trees were in full bloom as Union General Frederick Steele led 8,500 soldiers out of comfortable quarters in Little Rock and into the pine and scrub woodlands of southwest Arkansas. Steele's intended target was Shreveport, Louisiana. He planned to join another Union force coming from Fort Smith, bringing his projected complement to 12,500 troops, and then link with another Federal army in Louisiana.

Customer Reviews:

Revealing analysis of massacre of black troops in Arkansas.......2007-10-01

Although I was reluctant to make the purchase, I am now glad I did. "All cut to pieces and gone to Hell" is a very atypical civil war book. First, it is an edited collection of essays rather than a battle monograph or campaign study. Second, it is primarily a study of the circumstances surrounding an infamous atrocity at a small battle in Arkansas. Finally, for such a controversial and potentially explosive topic, the tone is refreshingly measured rather than a shrill condemnation or derisively dismissive defense.

The controversy surrounding Poison Spring arises from the massacre of black wounded and prisoners by rebel soldiers and officers. The accounts presented in the book by both sides reveal that the massacre was not accidental, coincidental, or unsanctioned by the officers. The rebels also killed most of the white troops who fell into their hands. The Confederate Choctaw regiment present also scalped these men. Interestingly, the other US Colored unit present would later retaliate against the Confederate troops by attempting to kill all enemy wounded in their area of the field at Jenkins' Ferry. This was a conscious decision made by the full officer staff of the regiment shortly after Poison Spring.

What editor Mark Christ has done is to compile relevant essays by various authors that outline conditions and events preceding that fateful battle at Poison Spring, Arkansas. In spite of the essay format, this work flows well and is an easy read. At only 147 pages including notes and index, it is a brief work. Each essay has endnotes that also serve as the bibliography. Illustrations and photos are adequate, but the two tiny maps are insufficient.

After Dr. DeBlack's essay overview of the setting of the Camden expedition, the essays shift to the heart of the work. Carl Moneyhon presents an excellent examination of the Southern population's views toward slaves, free blacks, and black soldiers. The core of this is a fascinating explanation of paternalism, the fear of slave insurrection, coupled with contradictory delusions that slaves would remain loyal. This does much to explain the motives and rationale for events that would follow. The concept of blacks fighting their former masters was considered a betrayal and insurrection for which the only punishment that would restore the former order was death.

From there, Ronnie Nichols reviews the changing roles of blacks in the military before and during the war. He points out that until 1820, blacks had been allowed in the U.S. military and that thousands had served faithfully in the in the Revolution and the War of 1812. The era of the Missouri Compromise changed that. The 1857 Dred Scott decision removed much of the remaining protection that free blacks had gained, and in 1860 Arkansas passed legislation to expel all free Negroes. Although nearly 180,000 blacks would eventually serve in the Union army, initial acceptance of black regiments was slow. The various Confiscation acts began to strip slaveholders of their labor and by late 1862 a few black units had formed.

Frank Arey's essay on the 1st Kansas Colored Troops at Honey Springs explores what might have been a contributing factor to the Poison Spring massacre: the same black unit badly mauled the 29th Texas, forcing them to abandon their colors. The Texans sought vengeance in Arkansas. The author's examination of Honey Springs' accounts from both sides revealed no indications of atrocities by black troops.

Potential readers are reminded that this is not a detailed battle study. Dr. Gregory Urwin wrote the final chapter that recounts the engagement at Poison Spring, the aftermath, and retribution at Jenkins' Ferry. While it is fairly detailed in some particulars, it is not a complete package. The hard to find (out of print) "Steele's Retreat from Camden and the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry" by Edwin C. Bearss covers the Poison Spring battle reasonably well. (Bearss book devotes about 41 pages to the Poison Spring engagement, with a single, fairly detailed tactical map, order of battle, and unit casualty tabulations.) Urwin's tactical map is a very small and greatly simplified diagram based on Bearss' map. Taken together, this book and Bearss' work present the battle well.

The superb examination and summary of Southern race relations make this book a worthwhile read and should open a few eyes. This is also a book that will dispel doubts as to whether or not claims of atrocities versus black troops were valid or vastly overstated.

Well researched.......2007-05-09

This telling of the events of the spring of 1864 is well researched and well told. It moves well without sacrificing to historical accuracy. There is plenty of good history but with the show of humanity found in this little known portion of the American Civil War.

Distilling the role race relations played in the conflict.......2003-11-17

Expertly compiled and painstakingly edited by Civil War expert Mark K. Christ, "All Cut To Pieces And Gone To Hell" carefully examines an April 18, 1864 massacre of black Union soldiers by Confederate troops. Distilling the role race relations played in the conflict, and why the usual rules of engagement were ignored in favor of wholesale bloodshed, "All Cut To Pieces And Gone To Hell" uses a variety of Civil War historical resources to expertly piece together a truly human understanding of a particular aspect of civil war history.

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Away, Gone to Die a Soldier

Away, Gone to Die a Soldier
Benjamin Garrison
Manufacturer: Outskirts Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

He volunteered, not for glory nor for adventure, but simply to escape the woman he loved.

May, 1862, Union General George B. McClellan marches up the Peninsula of Virginia and reaches the outskirts of Richmond. On May 31st, Confederate General Joseph Johnston takes the offensive, devising a plan to force a Federal retreat. Eric Fry, a private in a North Carolina unit marches forth, having received an unexpected letter on the eve of battle. It is from the woman he so desperately wishes to forget: his brother's wife.

Hoping to die in battle, he refuses to open the dispatch. Losing his closest friend during the doomed action, Eric is left with nothing more than his campfire associates and the letter from her. Reluctantly, Eric reads the letter and begins correspondence. Over the next few weeks, Eric finds his feelings for his brother's wife are as fresh as the agonizing day he departed. Only his new-found camp life and his army companions ease his loss. One particular man, John Dunlap, a man who lost his wife prior to volunteering, senses and empathizes with Eric's internal struggles. But even as Eric finds comfort in new friends, General Robert E. Lee's decision to counter McClellan in the Seven Days Battles gives Eric hope that the chance for death will somehow ease the burden of never having the opportunity to express his love to the one woman who captured his heart.

Customer Reviews:

Away, Gone to Die a Soldier.......2007-08-27

An excellent historical novel for the Civil War. Many stories and books are written about the generals. This novel gives an outstanding description of life as an ordinary soldier from the 23rd North Carolina.

Excellent detail and descriptions of life as a private in the Southern Army of the American Civil War.

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