The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War

Rating:
Summary: The tragedy of war.
Review: A very good emotional book about World War II. Steinman's father served in the Tropic Lightning Division of the U.S. Army fighting in northern Luzon (P.I.). Even though her father is not a casualty, he suffers the rest of his life from the effects of the war. He is hard and somewhat bitter. After his passing, Louise finds the souvenir of the war---a personal flag from a Japanese soldier. She examines the brutality of the war from both the American and Japanese perspective (Hiroshima, Nanking, P. I, Bataan). She finds the family of the soldier and returns the flag. She finds that the Japanese soldier has a human face after all.
This is a good emotional read of the effects of war, even if the war was the good war.

Rating:
Summary: The tragedy of war.
Review: A very good emotional book about World War II. Steinman's father served in the Tropic Lightning Division of the U.S. Army fighting in northern Luzon (P.I.). Even though her father is not a casualty, he suffers the rest of his life from the effects of the war. He is hard and somewhat bitter. After his passing, Louise finds the souvenir of the war---a personal flag from a Japanese soldier. She examines the brutality of the war from both the American and Japanese perspective (Hiroshima, Nanking, P. I, Bataan). She finds the family of the soldier and returns the flag. She finds that the Japanese soldier has a human face after all.
This is a good emotional read of the effects of war, even if the war was the good war.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Review: I couldn't put this book down. As a veteran of the Viet Nam era, I don't like stories of war that glorify nationalism. This book artfully humanizes the overly simplistic categorization of "good" and "evil." This book should be required reading for every high school student, especially of history or political science. If you have a son or daughter, you owe it to them to buy this book for their education that isn't taught in school. It is a graduation present that could help them change the world.

Rating:
Summary: The gift of The Souvenir
Review: Powerful, but written with delicacy and grace; a universal theme, revealed through the specifics of one family's life. I was in tears--happily so--three times by the time I got through the first eighteen pages, and jokingly said to myself, "This book should not be sold unless it is accompanied by a trained mental health professional." But the feelings are cleansing, and we are returned over and over to the depth of our humanness, and we can be grateful to the author for being willing to make this journey into her father's heart.

Rating:
Summary: This Souvenir Is A Treasure
Review: The Souvenir, written by Louise Steinman, is a must read for any serious student of World War II. Using the many letters written by her father, Private Norman Steinman, who was a member of the Twenty-fifth Division, Ms. Steinman takes us on her journey to "discover her father's war." Along the way, the author, her father, and the family of a Japanese soldier who may have crossed paths with Private Steinman teach us what the not so obvious and longer lasting costs of the war really were for the men who fought in it, and for their families, and show how for some, the war never really ended. The book is part Flags of Our Fathers and part Goodbye, Darkness and I guarantee that the reader will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: This Souvenir Is A Treasure
Review: The Souvenir, written by Louise Steinman, is a must read for any serious student of World War II. Using the many letters written by her father, Private Norman Steinman, who was a member of the Twenty-fifth Division, Ms. Steinman takes us on her journey to "discover her father's war." Along the way, the author, her father, and the family of a Japanese soldier who may have crossed paths with Private Steinman teach us what the not so obvious and longer lasting costs of the war really were for the men who fought in it, and for their families, and show how for some, the war never really ended. The book is part Flags of Our Fathers and part Goodbye, Darkness and I guarantee that the reader will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Impact of War Reaches Over Generations
Review: Traditionally history book wars begin with a declaration and end with a treaty. In families the effects of war extend through generations. Steinman's treatment of the discovery of her father's "souvenir" from World War Two is a story of how an entire family was shaped by the silence of an experience her father couldn't talk about. It is a fresh and original treatment of the impact of war, one that we as a nation are only recently coming to grips with. It is also extremely relevant to understanding today's climate of global public opinion against America's declaration of preemptive war in Iraq, particularly in Europe where many people believe that war is no longer a viable instrument of "politics by other means."

Rating:
Summary: Impact of War Reaches Over Generations
Review: Traditionally history book wars begin with a declaration and end with a treaty. In families the effects of war extend through generations. Steinman's treatment of the discovery of her father's "souvenir" from World War Two is a story of how an entire family was shaped by the silence of an experience her father couldn't talk about. It is a fresh and original treatment of the impact of war, one that we as a nation are only recently coming to grips with. It is also extremely relevant to understanding today's climate of global public opinion against America's declaration of preemptive war in Iraq, particularly in Europe where many people believe that war is no longer a viable instrument of "politics by other means."

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Weaving
Review: What a great gift Louise has given us. The stories and questions that arise from the souvenirs she encounters are woven as delicately and powerfully as the silk and stationary on which the stories first appear. Permission is granted to take artifacts from one's life and examine them with tenderness, obsessiveness, and curiosity. I feel so much more compassion toward soldiers. Tim O'Brien and Michael Herr surely opened me up to their powerful confusion and passion from their Vietnam War experiences in The Things They Carry and Dispatches. But this was different. This story exposes the longing a soldier has to be with his loved ones, and the harshness of how this loving man is affected for the rest of his life. The Souvenir cuts to the core of what we lose in war from one generation to the next, and what is gained from a close examination of that loss. A beautiful tear jerker and a deep analysis.