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War Literature

wajobu

wajobu

Boing Boom Tschak
I have read a great deal of war literature--mostly works of The Great War (WWI); stunning and tragic stuff.

On my walk this morning in FRIGID New England, I was listening to NPR's Selected Shorts (readings of stories, fiction and non-fiction). Today's program contained readings from this book:

Operation Homecoming
http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Hom..._bbs_sr_1/105-1871222-7810062?ie=UTF8&s=books

It is a NON-POLITICAL compilation from soldiers that have served (and are serving) in Iraq and Afghanistan, written in their own words; accounts, e-mails, poems, etc. I just heard about an hour of various pieces on the radio. All I can say is BRILLIANT. The real War, told by real soldiers (rather than journalists), much like the real literature of The Great War written by Henry Williamson, Siegfried Sasoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy, Edward Thomas (and the hundreds of others that lost their lives on the battlefields of Flanders, France, Germany, etc.), not to mention the many fine works from WWII, The Korean War and Vietnam. Many of the same issues expressed in the earlier works are contained in Operation Homecoming.

I think that I will need to get myself a copy of this book. Have any AK members read it yet?
 
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No, but anyone who namechecks Sassoon and Graves in a post here immediately gets increased attention from me.
 
"Goodbye To All That" and "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer", perhaps Mr. 'toze? Though a bit on the political side; then there's Victor Yeates' "Winged Victory", and "Her Privates We" by Frederic Manning originally published anonymously and unexpurgated as "The Middle Parts of Fortune". Excellent works.

Some of the pieces that I heard from "Operation Homecoming" are just plain brilliant. Very well written, witty, tragic and vivid.
 
The first 2, certainly. Not familiar with the others. Graves was monstrously talented, one of my two or three favorite authors ever.

(Didn't mean to derail the thread)
 
Not at all...I think that it's all related--the realities of War portrayed by those who are actually at the front, middle and back lines. I also have a cousin who is an active duty commander for the Navy--he flew runs from one of the carriers in the Gulf pre-"Misson Accomplished". He has some great stories of his own and interesting observations on his crew and "maintainers"--mostly 18 to 21 year old "kids" (young men and women), who are wide-eyed, put their lives on the line, and work their tails off keeping the "machine" well-oiled.

There are the sad stories too of single parents separated from their families who are losing everything back home as their finances are going to hell in a hand-basket. Just tragic and heroic all-at-once.
 
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