The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
The Return of the Soldier was Rebecca West‘s (later, Dame Rebecca West) first novel. Though considered slight against her later …
Category Archives: Fiction
The Silent Angel — Heinrich Boll
In his first novel, The Train Was on Time (1949), Heinrich Böll (1917 – 1985), wrote of soldiers going …
Stalingrad, a Novel – Theodore Plievier
War
Fleeing War — Walter Kempowski: All for Nothing
War stories since The Iliad ( 8th century BCE) have been told to fascinate and celebrate physical courage, mental …
An Artist of the Floating World — Kazuo Ishiguro and War Guilt
“The Floating World” (ukiyo) as a Japanese expression has traditionally referred to evening pleasure activities, for men, during a …
The Sea and Poison — Shūsaku Endō, confronting War Crimes
Pride in our ancestors, and countrymen is common in stories we tell each other, of their hard work, sacrifice …
All The Kings Men: Old Templates for New Demagogues
After recent study and due consideration I can say with certainty that to call President Trump the reincarnation of …
Heinrich Boll: German Miniaturist of War
Heinrich Böll (1917 – 1985) is not a name that non-German readers will associate with other 20th century German …
The Crazy Iris — Japanese Writers and the Atom Bomb
Not much is more startling to read than a paragraph beginning “At about noon on the day Hiroshima was bombed …
Herman Melville — Who are the Real Savages?
For those of you who are decades away from reading Herman Melville or find that what you remember of him …
The Kaiser’s Coolies — German Sailors in WWI
Though All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929, made Erich Maria Remarque far and away the …
War Porn – Roy Scranton’s Unremitting Gaze
War Porn (2016) by Roy Scranton is not a book to be easily read. To be read, yes, but …