Rating: 
Summary: Son Pay Homage to His Father
Review: Author Jack Sacco has provided us with an easy-to-read and well written account told through the eyes of his father Joe Sacco's experiences in World War II. From the time he was drafted into the army in October of 1942 until his release in 1945 Joe Sacco lived through experiences shared by many soldiers during that time. Intimate portraits of fellow soldiers who became like brothers to him are provided throughout the book. Joe Sacco entered Europe one week after the D-Day invasion of Normandy and experienced combat experiences in The Battle of the Bulge and other places. The liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau, Germany, in April of 1945 is vividly told to illustrate man's inhumanity to man. A speech given to the soldiers by General George Patton is retold in all its humor. Sadness comes with the death of two of Joe's friends in combat in addition to the death of a French girl named Monique at the hand of the Nazi's that Joe had fallen in love with, and had hoped to be reunited with at war's end. Many books have been written regarding soldiers' experiences in World War II, but I found this one to be expecially interesting because the characters are really brought to life in all their down-to-earth humanness, and a format that was easy to read and hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable tale of this Alabama farm boy
Review: First-time author Jack Sacco grew up in Mountain Brook, and "Where the Birds Never Sing" is the true account of his father's experiences during World War II imaginatively told from Joe Sacco's perspective. It is a remarkable tale of this Alabama farm boy thrust into the great conflict of the 20th century. The first beach that Joe ever saw was Omaha Beach in Normandy. He had never shot anything more powerful than a BB gun when he was drafted into WWII, yet his experiences with the 92nd Signal Battalion are a catalogue of the European theater's pivotal battles and events: D-day, the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of the infamous Dachau concentration camp, even a post war visit to Hitler's Eagles Nest. Where the Birds Never Sing is an engaging story about a local man's small role in the cast we've come to call "The Greatest Generation."
Rating:
Summary: A Very Captivating and Worthwhile Read
Review: For anyone interested in the human side of war, this is an outstanding book. I felt I was walking alongside Joe Sacco from boot camp to his return home. This is the story of a young man drawn into pivotal world events and the mundane is juxtaposed with well-known historical events and characters. History texts necessarily collapse months and years into short paragraphs that tend to belie the true human costs of military engagements. Jack Sacco's account brings it home. Reading this book has only deepened my appreciation for the "Greatest Generation" and expanded my awareness of the immense sacrifice we ask of our military--combat and support units alike. When you consider that everyone who served has a story to tell and multiply that by the thousands who did and did not come back from WWII, it is a very sobering thought. Everyone knows someone who was touched in some way by the war; reading this story may increase your understanding of those family dynamics.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Captivating and Worthwhile Read
Review: I discovered this book by sheer coincidence, and since I am a fan of anything related to WWI and WWII, I was instantly struck by the subtitle. I found this book to be a relatively easy read. Jack Sacco writes the stories of the the 92nd Signal Battalion as the memoir that his father, Joe Sacco, never wrote. Culled most likely from years of hearing his father's war stories, and seeing the sometimes horrific pictures his father kept in his scrapbook, Jack Sacco has paid a wonderful tribute not only to his father, but also to the men his father lived, worked, and fought with. The characters are vividly painted, and seem to come to life, if not seem a little familiar to anyone who has seen or read anything relating to WWII and combat.
I was slightly disappointed that there isn't more about Dachau in the book. (Only one chapter is devoted to the men arriving at the concentration camp and the horrors they uncover there.) For such a critical issue, it seems that Sacco could have spent more time on the soldiers' discoveries and the reaction of the townspeople of Dachau. "They had to have known" about the horrors of the concentration camp located near their homes and I, for one, would have liked for there to have been more on this topic. Nevertheless, this is an engaging account of a soldier's experiences during WWII.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful insights
Review: I discovered this book by sheer coincidence, and since I am a fan of anything related to WWI and WWII, I was instantly struck by the subtitle. I found this book to be a relatively easy read. Jack Sacco writes the stories of the the 92nd Signal Battalion as the memoir that his father, Joe Sacco, never wrote. Culled most likely from years of hearing his father's war stories, and seeing the sometimes horrific pictures his father kept in his scrapbook, Jack Sacco has paid a wonderful tribute not only to his father, but also to the men his father lived, worked, and fought with. The characters are vividly painted, and seem to come to life, if not seem a little familiar to anyone who has seen or read anything relating to WWII and combat.
I was slightly disappointed that there isn't more about Dachau in the book. (Only one chapter is devoted to the men arriving at the concentration camp and the horrors they uncover there.) For such a critical issue, it seems that Sacco could have spent more time on the soldiers' discoveries and the reaction of the townspeople of Dachau. "They had to have known" about the horrors of the concentration camp located near their homes and I, for one, would have liked for there to have been more on this topic. Nevertheless, this is an engaging account of a soldier's experiences during WWII.
Rating:
Summary: A harrowing journey from innocence to hell to triumph
Review: I just finished reading Mr. Sacco's book and am still a bit 'shell-shocked' from the experience. This is an EXCELLENT book. I read it in two days as I literally could not put it down. From the opening chapter the reader is caught up in the story of Joe Sacco (the author's father) and his journey from innocent farm boy to soldier to survivor. The narrative pulls the reader into the lives of these young men. You are virtually THERE with them as they go through training, cross the Atlantic, enter the invasion of Normandy, move through the hedgerows with the irrascible Patton and his Third Army, get bogged down in the wintry bloodbath of the Bulge, and arrive amidst the nightmarish scenes of Dachau. For anyone who ever questioned that war is sometimes a necessity, the deliverance of those tortured souls from the Inferno of Dachau will open their eyes. This book has everything - comedy, drama, action, adventure, romance, tragedy, despair, triumph. Jack Sacco has truly captured these scenes in vidid style; a simple naturalism that transforms the reader into an actual presence in the drama. It would make an excellent film, as the story is so visually well-told. I cannot recommdend this book highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Whole New Perspective on a Familiar Story
Review: If you're at all interested in the Second World War, you must read Jack Sacco's book. I've read plenty of history, dramatic family sagas, and scholarly nonfiction analyses from the perspectives of art, psychoanalysis, law and sociology -- but nothing so artfully bridges the historical account with the interpretation most often seen in the pages of a novel -- as Jack Sacco's new account of World War II called WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING. No nonfiction book since SCHINDLER'S LIST has moved me as much as this one. Written in the first person, WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING, viscerally involves the reader in a young solider's transition from innocence to experience. The book reads like a novel but it in fact chronicles the real-life adventures of the author's father, Joe Sacco, an Alabama farmboy who answered his country's call to serve. This book is a historically sound account with all the elements of great fiction including poetic descriptions, great dialogue, full-blooded characters and a romantic sub-plot! If you admire well-researched, dramatic nonfiction such as Band of Brothers and Schindlers List and enjoy beautiful literature such as Sophie's Choice and Mila 18 -- WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING will definitely appeal to you. But if you appreciate works like Art Spiegelman's exquisite MAUS which provide a unique artistic approach to what may seem like overly familiar material, then you should click here, get the Amazon discount, and buy WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING. You'll be talking about it the day after your start reading it and for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Superbly Written
Review: Superbly written! At once epic in scope and intimate in detail, WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING effortlessly transports even a casual reader on an emotional and unforgettable journey. Author Jack Sacco masterfully recounts the true story of his father, Joe Sacco, an American GI in World War II. Instead of using the tired genre of third-person documentary-style writing to tell the tale, the author speaks in the first person, through the eyes of his father. The result is one of the most powerful and honestly moving accounts of the human drama in World War II in recent memory.
The story begins in 1943 on a farm in Alabama, when the young Joe Sacco receives a letter informing him that he has been drafted into the service. From there, it seamlessly moves through his training with the 92nd Signal Battalion, shipping out to England (where the soldiers witnessed the stirring and famous speech by General Patton), landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, surviving the Battle of the Bulge and fighting their way across Nazi Germany to eventually arrive at the notorious concentration camp at Dachau by war's end.
The book, already powerful and moving up until that point, then takes the reader to a new level of realism as horrifying details of the camp are revealed. Considering all he had seen and experienced since landing at Normandy, the emotional response of the young Joe Sacco to the carnage inside Dachau may leave the reader near tears. Rarely, if ever, has there been a written account of the reality of the concentration camps so graphic, gripping or compelling. As if that wasn't enough, Jack Sacco has included actual historic photographs his father took during the dramatic liberation.
All along the way, the author crafts memorable and beautifully written scenes, from the terrors of battle to the tranquility of a snowfall in the forests of Alsace-Lorraine, from the sorrows of the death of a buddy to the simple joy of decorating a makeshift Christmas tree with gum wrappers. In describing the emotions of the men before leaving Dachau, Sacco writes, "Now, after a year of combat, each of us finally and forever understood why destiny had called us to travel so far away from the land of our birth and fight for people we did not know. And so it was here, in this place abandoned by God and accursed by men, that we came to discover the meaning of our mission."
This is not another book about World War II. It's an intimate journey into the heart of an American soldier, and as such, it is as triumphant as the men it depicts. Readers will not only delight in WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING, they will gain a new appreciation for the accomplishments of their own fathers, uncles and grandfathers who may have served in World War II as part of the Greatest Generation.
Rating: 
Summary: A riveting, first-hand account of military life
Review: This book is a compelling story about a young man who grows up on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama on his family farm and goes on to serve his country in World War II. Sacco made the unique decision of telling the story in his father's voice, which adds to the authenticity of the account.
This tactic also makes the writing come across as glib in places. While the elder Sacco tells anecdotes about bad food, and seemingly endless hours of drills in all types of weather, he glosses over some of these hardships as the story moves on. The book would have been strengthened a bit if the author had filled in some of those gaps for the reader. The liberation of Dachau gets surprisingly few pages, as one would expect this event to be the pinnacle of the young soldier's life.
However, there are a number of places where Sacco's first hand account proves very effective: The story is full of wiseacre remarks about the shape of a woman, and while these types of comments aren't acceptable in our time, in most circles, they add to the realistic feel of a group of young GIs serving half a world away usually without female companionship.
Sacco's account of the group dynamics in his unit is fascinating. There are a number of anecdotes about race relations in the Army. The elder Sacco seems to pride himself on having been more enlightened than some in his time, in part because he himself experienced prejudice. Finally, his account of falling in love with a young woman named Monique during a stint in a small French village on the border with Germany is truly riveting.
In sum, the book seems to serve as a realistic account of military service and of the horror of war. And while I was disappointed by the casual telling of the story in some places, one has the sense that the elder Sacco's sense of humor, combined with his ability to minimize certain aspects of his tough experience, helped to keep him going during some of the most harrowing experiences of his life. Indeed, the author's style provided plenty of comic relief. This book is more for those who like biographies rather than those who want a straightforward account of the facts and dates associated with these historic events.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best
Review: when i saw this book in a seondhand book store, i disregarded this book as another dry-as-toast novel with no emotion. But when i read the front flap, i decided to read. this book is flowing with emotion, and you expect it to have been written by the main character. but no, this book was written by his son, who received information of his fathers experiences over the years. growing up, the author didnt know of what his father had experienced until the age of thirteen. from then, the story became more and well known.
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