From Library Journal
War fiction isn't only storytelling with a degree of literary merit. It also offers important insights into the cultural, political, psychological, and socioeconomic conditions and nuances of the time and characters. This anthology of war fiction at its best features 40 short stories and novel excerpts by such noted writers as Ernest Hemingway, Heinrich Boll, Elizabeth Bowen, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, A.D. Gristwood, Tim O'Brien, and many more. Against the background of major conflicts of the 20th century, readers are taken on a journey to such places as the trenches of World War I, the jungles of Southeast Asia, the European theater during World War II, and the Arabian Desert while the Persian Gulf conflict was raging (the Korean War, "the forgotten war," merits only one excerpt). Editors Faulks (Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War) and Hensgen appropriately note that many of the writers they included in this anthology used the novel format as no more than a device for what are in reality documentary accounts of what happened to them personally. Indeed, these war stories of soldiers, pilots, sailors, combatants, and civilians of all ages and walks of life are often fictionalized autobiographies, conveying the immediate horrors of war, the emotional damage it causes, and the best and worst in humanity. As no other work is similar to this one in terms of scope or style, it is highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ. Lib, Ithaca, NYCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Coeditor Hensgen did most of the work for this anthology of excerpts from war novels. That's good, because coeditor Faulks reveals his ignorance of the subject in his facile introduction. Hensgen's choices include the best-known writers from WWI, the Spanish civil war, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. One is quickly reminded of how skilled Hemingway, Mailer, and Remarque were, and Tim O'Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story" reaffirms the greatness of
The Things They Carried. The excerpt from James Jones'
Thin Red Line, about a soldier trying to take a "crap" in privacy and being attacked by a starving Japanese, steals the show for authenticity and gritty humor and underscores how Jones has been relentlessly underrated. There is much to like about this anthology; there's variety here and a degree of unpredictability, but there is also a number of weak entries, including those from Bruce Chatwin and Kay Boyle. Altogether, the result is a good anthology but not a great one.
John MortCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
