The Naked and the Dead
Earth moving.. - This could have gone on for another 700 pages and i would ve been fine.A great book by a great writer.Brutal, realistic story-telling.
War for real - The Naked and the Dead remains the most realistic war novel I have read. It is neither a romance of heroic deeds nor the grinding, dehumanised tragedy that WWI novels tend to be. Showing war as a contrasted field of acts of courage, calculation, treachery and occasionally weakness and cowardice, but mostly as drudgery and sheer blind chance, it feels honest and true to experience.Norman Mailer, indeed, wrote his account of WWII in the Pacific fresh from returning from the front. His book focuses on one island and tracks the destiny of a platoon, whose 15 or so members, each with their own private life back home, their fears and ambitions, become intimate acquaintances of the reader. The Naked and the Dead encompasses a complete campaign, beginning with the sea landing, building up to a major battle, and including the fighting itself. It then swerves into a wildcat mission to circumvent the Japanese line, turning into a classic nail-biting tale of jungle guerrilla, of ambushes and night-fights and forced marches, where the differences between GIs and NCOs erupt to create as much havoc as the fight with the Japanese. In parallel, the novel follows the general s intrigues among the officer corps, providing a bird s eye view of the campaign, its strategy, and its tactics, as well as their impact on the foot-soldiers.Mailer s tome combines psychology and character analysis with the excitement of action and the realistic depiction of everyday scenes (the construction of the camp, the long struggle to move an anti-aircraft gun by foot, the night watches). It makes the reader feel present, as close as can be to standing on the actual scene. Of course, this was WWII, and every war is probably unique. Still, this is the closest thing, and it is for sure better than having to fight in one.
Very impressive - There s nothing much to say really: together with James Jones The thin red line this is the best account of WW II combat that I know of. An extremely powerful, shocking & violent book, I had to read this as a university assignment years ago and (exceptionally so) I am still grateful to that particular teacher. The battle scenes are impressive, but the power of the book derives at least as much from the moving descriptions of the pre-war lives of the soldiers involved: all of them ordinary men, suddenly finding themselves caught up in a nightmare.
Much more than just a War Novel - The mental tussle between Hearn and Cummings provided some great moments of tension, you are never sure how the General will react to Hearns challenges.Mailer does a great job of impressing upon the reader the extent of physical toil and pain the men are put through, the litter detail in particular. I could literally feel my arms and legs ache as I read it.He also was not afraid to confront a wide spread resentment of the Jews amongst the men, at a time when, post Holocaust, many would have liked to conviniently forget their previous prejudices.
The Naked and the Dead - I picked up this book at random and have been hooked on Mailer ever since.Quite simply the best WWII book I have ever read.By getting into the minds of his characters and switching between them, Mailer creates a tension and unease that is sustained from cover to cover. With this comes a real insight into war being about individuals rather than a homogenous group with a common cause or aim.