Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

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Title: Johnny Got His Gun

Author: Dalton Trumbo

Genre: War Fiction

Length: 309 pages

Published: 2007 (version I read)

Publisher: Citadel

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered--not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives...This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome...but so is war.

My Review:

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 

This is a pretty brutal story. It's written from the point of view of an American soldier who was grievously injured during WWI. First is his horrifying discovery that his left arm is missing...and then he keeps discovering the rest of the truth of his condition. Through flashbacks as he lays trapped in his condition, you learn the sort of guy Joe is, and about his family and friends. Eventually he manages to convey to military officials that he wants to travel the world so people can see what war is really like. 

Just reading each time he discovers something new about himself after he was shot was like a punch to the throat. I definitely felt a sense of pity for this man, who was conscious and aware, yet could not make the nurses and doctors aware that he was still mentally there. This is definitely a great anti-war novel and worth the read.

You can purchase Johnny Got His Gun through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Johnny Got His Gun? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

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Title: Slaughterhouse-Five

Author: Kurt Vonnegut

Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Science, & War Fiction

Length: 275 pages

Published: 1976

Publisher: Dell

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you - Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters."

Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy - and humor.

My Review:

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 

This was...strange. It took me 90% of the book to decide if I liked it or not. The writing was easy to read, which is always great to find. The story was disjointed - but not without reason. The disjointedness of the story was exactly what the author intended. You're following Billy Pilgrim through his life. He becomes unstuck in time and travels back and forth between different eras: WWII, meeting the author Kilgore Trout, time spent in the psychiatric hospital, time spent on the alien planet Tralfamadore, etc. 

I'm going to be reading Galapagos by Vonnegut soon, and I hope I enjoy it as much as I ended up enjoying Slaughterhouse-Five. I definitely plan on picking up more Vonnegut books in the future as well.

You can purchase Slaughterhouse-Five through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Slaughterhouse-Five? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

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Title: Schindler's List

Author: Thomas Keneally

Genre: Historical, War Fiction

Length: 400 pages

Published: 1993

Publisher: Touchstone

Brief Synopsis:(Taken from Goodreads) Schindler's List recreates the true story of Oskar Schindler, the Czech-born southern German industrialist who risked his life to save over 1,100 of his Jewish factory workers from the death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland. Thomas Keneally's "documentary novel," based on the recollections of the Schindlerjuden (Schindler's Jews), Schindler himself, and other witnesses, is told in a series of snapshot stories. It recounts the lives of the flamboyant profiteer and womanizer Schindler; Schindler's long-suffering wife, Emilie; the brutal SS (Nazi secret service) commandant Amon Goeth; Schindler's quietly courageous factory manager, Itzhak Stern; and dozens of other Jews who underwent the horrors of the Nazi machinery. At the center of the story, though, are the actions and ambitions of Schindler, who comes to Kraków, Poland, seeking his fortune and ends up outwitting the SS to protect his Jewish employees. It is the story of Schindler's unlikely heroism and of one man's attempt to do good in the midst of outrageous evil. The book explores the complex nature of virtue, the importance of individual human life, the role of witnesses to the Holocaust and the attention to rules and details that sustained the Nazi system of terror.

My Review:

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 

This book was just as good as I'd  heard it was. I can't believe it took me this long to get around to finally reading it. Mr. Keneally draws on the real life of Oskar Schindler and his quest to save his Jewish employees and adds some fictional elements, such as dialogue. It was really hard to believe I was actually reading a fiction novel instead of a biography. 

The ending made me cry. I don't think much can be said about why it made me cry. I wept not only for those that did not survive the horrors of the Holocaust, but also for those that survived.

You can purchase Schindler's List through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Schindler's List? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

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Title: The Naked and the Dead

Author: Norman Mailer

Genre: War Fiction

Length: 721 pages

Published: (version I read) 2000

Publisher: Picador

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War,The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially for the occasion by Norman Mailer.

Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.

My Review:

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 

I wasn't sure that I was going to care for this book. While I often read fantasy novels that usually include epic battles, this was a little different for me since it included more modern warfare (well modern to the World War II era that is). I found myself having to look up what "wound tablets" were and found it pretty interesting (Everything you want to know about wound tablets and use of sulfa in WWII for wound treatment can be found here.) In school, history classes always focused more on what happened in Europe during World War II and not much was said about the battles in the Pacific beyond "the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, eventually the U.S. dropped the bomb on Japan". So I really enjoyed that the war campaign happened in the Pacific instead of in Europe. 

As I don't know much about the military, it took some getting used to the terminology used, and even the ranks, because I can never remember the hierarchy with Lieutenants, Sergeants, Corporals, and Majors correctly. However, the author did a phenomenal job in explaining some of the tactics used, and some of the other terminology.

The book centers around the members of an intelligence and reconnaissance division. You get little tidbits of each major character's life before the war randomly throughout the story in what Mailer calls the "Time Machine". It's definitely nice to learn a little more about the soldiers as the story progresses, so you can learn why they are in the Army, and why they have become the men they are.

Eventually the I&R platoon gets sent on a recon mission to find a back way into the Japanese front. This comprises the final half of the book, as you watch them struggle through the jungle, deal with the losses of some members of the platoon, and deal with a tyrannical sergeant who does some rather shady things.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It was long, but the characters were decent, and the ever-present threat of a Japanese attack was always right there. If you're looking for a good war novel centering around World War II, I would definitely give this one a shot.

You can purchase The Naked and the Dead through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read The Naked and the Dead? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.