Terkel, Studs. “The Good War”: an Oral History of World War Two. New York: Partheon Books, 1984
Reason read: I am taking a full two months to the “The Good War.” Victory Day is May 9th and D-Day is June 6th.
The best way to read “The Good War” is to sit down with a cup of coffee and envision a WWII vet sitting across from you. He has a faraway look in his eyes and a slight tremor in his hands as he remembers best a single event that most likely changed his life forever. But, don’t stop there. Now sitting across from you could be a businessman, a nurse, a dress maker, a dancer, a man who was just a child during the war and thought the battlefield was place of adventure. you might imagine someone who survived a prison camp, or a conscientious objector, or a young boy who thought enlisting would be a chance to prove himself…Terkel interviewed people from all walks of life. Each story is unique and yet, yet hauntingly similar. You hear of young men losing their sense of humanity in the face of unimaginable cruelty: a man remembers watching his comrade in arms throw pebbles into the open skull of a dead Japanese soldier; the smell of cooking cats. Other young men speak of hiding their sexual orientation while trying to appear manly enough for battle (Ted Allenby’s story reminded me of Ryan O’Callaghan a great deal). But, you also hear from the women: wives and girlfriends left behind, Red Cross nurses on the front lines, even singers sent to entertain the troops. It is easy to see why this stunning nonfiction won a Pulitzer.
Quotes to quote, “No matter what the official edict, for millions of American women home would never be again a Doll’s House” (p 10), and “I got on the stick and wrote the President again” (p 21), and “Must a society experience horror in order to understand horror?” (p 14).
Author fact: Studs’s real name was Louis.
Book trivia: “The Good War” won a Pulitzer for nonfiction in 1985.
Nancy said: Pearl said you could never do better than Terkel’s “The Good War” for an oral history. Agreed.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War Two Nonfiction” (p 254).
~*LunaSea*~ 