War and Remembrance

My Review of War and Remembrance (written while still dazed from the last hundred pages, barely awake, and definitely ready to crash after something that really drains the reader emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally)

rating	*****
bookshelves	read edit shelves
status	Read from July 20, 2011 to January 07, 2012
format	Paperback (edit)
review	Powerful and moving, but dense and difficult at times, this is by no stretch an easily completed novel. I began it over the summer, got less than one hundred pages in, and put it down until finishing Judith Rossner's Looking for Mr. Goodbar just after Christmas. The final page reveals that Wouk began the novel in the early sixties and completed it in 1978; therefore, I don't feel disreputable by revealing that I found many of the passages slippery towards full comprehension due to the deliberate...morePowerful and moving, but dense and difficult at times, this is by no stretch an easily completed novel. I began it over the summer, got less than one hundred pages in, and put it down until finishing Judith Rossner's Looking for Mr. Goodbar just after Christmas. The final page reveals that Wouk began the novel in the early sixties and completed it in 1978; therefore, I don't feel disreputable by revealing that I found many of the passages slippery towards full comprehension due to the deliberately detailed delivery of military fact. That being admitted, the unfolding story of the Henrys and the Jastrows (aside from some of the lengthy battle descriptions) is easily engulfed, the "meat" of the book; however, an endeavor such as this would be incomplete and irrelevant if it had one without the other. Instead of focusing on any one aspect of WWII, as many other novels have, Wouk literally tackles every possible spectrum from the war in the Pacific to the post conflict suppositions that developed in the Middle East and the horrors of the Nazi regime in Europe. The saga of the Henry family mirrors many of the events as they actually transpired, and Wouk gives very clear evidence to the idea that, with war, there are really no winners. Although I was most drawn to the plight of the Jastrow branch of the family (Aaron, Natalie, Berel, and Louis) as they fought hard ship, bad timing, and incredibly bad luck throughout Europe, I found both Pamela Tudsbury and Leslie Slote to be two other characters I kept willing the story to return to. I cared much more for Warren and Janice (and really wish that Janice was more than just a mentioned name in the second half) than I did for Madeline or Byron (mostly because Madeline's role was somewhat slim [although the scene in which Byron shows his protective, brotherly side to his little sister is one of the books better, albeit few and funnier, moments] and Byron's unfolded in many of the battle scenes I had more difficulty following). Of the many members of the family, the one I cared for least was not due to a lack of her development as a character but because of her embodiment of everything that I dislike in a person. Unquestionably accurate in her descriptions, dialogue, motivations, and decisions, I liked Rhoda Henry almost as much as I did some of the camp guards and members of the SS. Although Victor is the clear hero of the novel (as is Aaron, but from a totally different point-of-view), I often found him to be so emotionally flat that I literally grunted out loud and rolled my eyes at some of his ideologies and (lack of forward) movements although I have no doubt that Pug is an exceedingly accurate characterization of any military man at the time. The lengthy epitaph in which Wouk clearly differentiates between which characters and events were real and which were merely inspired by fact really gave a final and justifiable credence and respect to the work. Had he not pointed out some of the side characters as being based on others, I would never have been able to distinguish...I believe that this makes the novel stand out as an engaging history lesson, a factual account imbued with the sweet breath of life. On an interesting side note, many of the ideas that the characters debate as possible outcomes for the Allied forces, if triumphant, are actually occurring in the twenty-first century (and to think, this book was completed more than thirty years ago and describes characters living forty years before that). Many assertions made in conversations that involved Aaron Jastrow and Werner Beck almost made my hair stand on end when I considered how accurate their fictional prescience was to modern fact. My only complaint is of the many lengthy passages of tactical military maneuvers and statistical information, which I could have done without; however, the figures are obviously meticulously researched, and I appreciated the fact that Admiral Von Roon's account reveals the German perception of many of the war's major events, even those that entrenched the US and the Japanese in the Pacific. This book has inspired me to look into other novels of historical fiction (especially those that give a richer detail of Jewish history). I've secured a copy of the Leon Uris work, Exodus, as one of the next books I'd like to complete (it was assigned reading in my sophomore year in high school and I only read the first four hundred pages the night before the due date; however, I remember it offered readers a stronger account of the Jewish experience). As Wouk's magnum opus ends, one is left wondering what is to become of the Jews and the plight to secure a place in Palestine. I still have a stack (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Swarm, Weaveworld, etc.) of other works I've yet to complete from the past several months, but I believe that this particular genre is the one towards which I am most drawn at present as I am also interested in investigating more about my own faith and the dynamics of the various religious denominations of the world. Peter J. Gomes's The Good Book as well as my dusty and barely opened copy of the NIV study bible are likely to accompany the requisite leisure reading I devour (if works by such scholars as Herman Wouk, Leon Uris, and others are to be considered leisure reading, that is). Wouk asserts that his novel was published more for those who were not there to experience the events, and I am grateful for his efforts. May every generation to come remain cognizant of the history that has led each of us to today, and may we be fully aware of the less noble aspects so that we will be equipped to prevent repetition. The human race must never forget what horrors it is capable of enacting on its fellows.