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With the Old Breed (1981/2007) is the finest combat memoir by an enlisted man that I have ever read, and this is merely a brief note on it after I finished reading it today. The “Old Breed,” of course, is the First Marine Division (1st MarDiv), first activated in WWII to fight at Guadalcanal, the first US ground offensive against the Empire of Japan. This book was one of the main primary sources used for the great HBO miniseries The Pacific (2010), which is quite true to the book.
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The 1st MarDiv went on to fight at Cape Gloucester on New Britain, Peleliu (the ferocious but “forgotten” battle), and finally on Okinawa at war’s end. E.B. Sledge joined the division in time to see action on both Peleliu and Okinawa; my father joined them in time to see action on Okinawa (see the photo on p.77 of a 75mm “pack” howitzer like one my father crewed); and I joined the Old Breed in 1969 in Da Nang to see action in Quang Nam Province, RVN.
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Sledge was a fine writer and a sensitive soul whose horrific personal experiences in the meat-grinder battles of Peleliu and Okinawa are given to us honestly, starkly and humanely. He does not glorify war. Rather, he gives the reader the actual realities: the terror, stink, brutality, inhumanity, soul-killing fatigue and madness of it. The American and Japanese casualty statistics he gives are sobering; but the experiences, sights, sounds, smells and emotions he personally relates are horrifying.
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-Zenwind.
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23 April 2011
Book Review: The Earthsea sagas, by Ursula K. Le Guin
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This is a wonderful cycle of five fantasy novels (plus a short story or two) which Le Guin wrote over a period of three decades. She is a very fine writer, and I seek out anything else that she wrote. At this time, my review will only be a short note on the Earthsea novels, because I feel that I really cannot do justice to them by reviewing them yet. I need to come back to them much later to re-read and re-absorb them. Hopefully, I will update this someday into a full review.
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Earthsea is a fantasy world of islands with rich cultures, and various types of religion, non-religion and magic are practiced there. There are dragons, too. Some of the beloved key characters – such as Ged and Tenar – are traced through the series of novels from their youth to older age. The novels should be read in their proper order to best understand the sweep of the tales. The novels and major stories, in order, are:
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* A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
* The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
* The Farthest Shore (1972)
* Tehanu (1990)
* “Dragonfly” (1997) short story from collection, Tales From Earthsea (2001)
* The Other Wind (2001).
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-Zenwind.
.
This is a wonderful cycle of five fantasy novels (plus a short story or two) which Le Guin wrote over a period of three decades. She is a very fine writer, and I seek out anything else that she wrote. At this time, my review will only be a short note on the Earthsea novels, because I feel that I really cannot do justice to them by reviewing them yet. I need to come back to them much later to re-read and re-absorb them. Hopefully, I will update this someday into a full review.
.
Earthsea is a fantasy world of islands with rich cultures, and various types of religion, non-religion and magic are practiced there. There are dragons, too. Some of the beloved key characters – such as Ged and Tenar – are traced through the series of novels from their youth to older age. The novels should be read in their proper order to best understand the sweep of the tales. The novels and major stories, in order, are:
.
* A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
* The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
* The Farthest Shore (1972)
* Tehanu (1990)
* “Dragonfly” (1997) short story from collection, Tales From Earthsea (2001)
* The Other Wind (2001).
.
-Zenwind.
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