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Summary: tumbleweeds...a family at war...
Review: Captain Victor Henry of the US navy is seconded to the US embassy in Berlin where he and his high strung wife Rhoda are immediately invited to a diplomatic reception. They are introduced to Hitler and members of the nazi hierarchy and so this historical epic begins. Revolving mainly around their two sons Byron and Warren the story takes us from the bombing of Warsaw to that fateful december morning at Pearl Harbour. When Victor Henry submits a report to his superiors predicting a secret pact between Russia and Nazi Germany and is proved correct his presence is immediately requested at the White House. From then on Roosevelt is impressed with what he sees and asks him to be his informal watchdog in Berlin and to keep his eyes and ears open. "drop him a line every now and then". It is an assignment Victor Henry accepts with misgivings. The author weaves a convoluted tale of "Pug" Henrys meetings and confrontations with such historical figures as Roosevelt, Churchill, Mussolini and even Stalin. I learnt more here about major european battles and the background political drama than I ever learnt at college. It also captured the complicated politics of the time and explained the unlikly pact Hitler made with the soviets, their supposed arch enemies.It also dwelt in quite some detail with the intricacies of lend-lease which many americans were against at the time. Also with the fictional device of a memoir written by a retired wehrmacht general we are given a german perspective on the war and their reasons for its outcome. The germans Henry tells us laconically have a habit of blaming other countries for getting invaded by them. I had to nod in agreement at captain Henrys comment when asked by Roosevelt what he thought of Hitler & Stalin. Henry's reply was that from his perspective most presidents and primeministers were more alike than they were different. Aint that the truth. The story also includes the romance, anguish, pain and suffering of war and all that entails. I also liked how the author descibed the ambience of the time. The streets of London and Berlin and Washington. What woman were wearing. What people were eating. It all just helped to create a more effective story. Give it a go even if you havent read a historical novel before you just might be surprised.
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Summary: The Winds of War
Review: This book has a perspective unlike any other World War Two novels that I have read. Many books present the "American hero" perspective, not allowing for the point of view of the other nations in the war. Set preceding the war and up to and until the American involvement, it presents the story of and American Naval aid and his family in Germany, Russia, America, and other historically significant places. They meet Roosevelt, Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, and many other significant figures. One of the different perspectives in this story is a fictional German account of the war and the reactions to the war of the peoples in the different places they visit. This book has been thoroughly researched and most of the information about the war are accurate. If you enjoy this book, as I did, it is continued in War and Rememberence, by the same author.
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Summary: Historical fiction at its very best
Review: This is the first of two books recounting the story of an American family during the period just prior to and then throughout the Second World War. If we could take the real history away from it altogether, a compelling fictional drama would still remain. To mix this invented family saga in with that of the war, means that we have a novel of another order altogether.In this first novel, we are taken inside Hitler's Berlin and allowed to see the inner workings of the regime, as experienced by Victor 'Pug' Henry, a senior American naval attaché and the story's main hero. Slowly we are introduced to his family and we follow them as they become dispersed in different corners of the planet in preparation for the coming conflict. At the same time, we are given the necessary background to the American political arena of the period, as Pug becomes drawn into the unique role as the President's unnamed (and therefore secret) military aide. He is subsequently sent to all the major scenes of political influence in the Allied Command, a device which not only works well for the plot, but gives the reader a very wide reach, beyond what one feels is the normal grip of propaganda. It's another reason I like the book: it is about a war in which the truth was continuously bent during and afterwards by all and sundry (albeit for different reasons). It is good do be able to feel such confidence in the integrity of Wouk the author, as he reports to us through the eyes of Pug Henry. In addition to the ordinary (some would say, far from ordinary) events occurring in the lives of his characters, Wouk sets the stage for the second book's main story, which is that of the Jewish ghetto known as Theresienstadt. This is a major work of fiction and, I would argue, a major work of history as well. Our understanding of a period in which so much false information was produced, can only be enhanced by a work in which, right from the beginning, we are not asked to believe that everything stated is true. We are then left to see for ourselves what sort of world this was half a century ago, and the clarity and openness of the text leaves us in no doubt.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: I had never had much interest in WWII until a friend of mine told me to read " The Winds of War". After reading this novel I could not wait to read Mr.Wouk's sequal "War and Rememberance" These two books are among the best I have ever read. After having read more than 2000 pages of history I felt more moved than after anything I learn't at school. Please read "The Winds of War" and "War and Rememberance" and think of them as of reminders of days gone but not forgotten.
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Summary: Outstanding!
Review: This was one of the best books I have ever read. The characters are fantastic and the story moves along at a very intense pace.
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Summary: Supurb storytelling and good, sound history
Review: I read a brief serialization of The Winds when it was first published, and have only recently read the whole thing. What a marvelous work! I've read enough military history to know that this is accurate stuff, but far more than that it's insightful and well integrated into a whole, complex, riviting pattern. One of the finest of all books on the war, fiction or non! The naval personalities are clearly drawn from real people also. I recognize bits and pieces of several.
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Summary: Incredible, couldn't put it down
Review: Who would have thought a book of a thousand pages wasn't long enough! I was thrilled when the sequel came out. Loved them both!
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Summary: I wish you could still get Wouk's stuff in hardcover
Review: My paperbacks of this book, its sequel "War and Remembrance" and "The Caine Mutiny" are all dissolving--and sixty bucks for a box set of the first two is freakin' sticker shock. Herman Wouk is singlehandedly responsible for giving me a decent perspective of World War II, as an antidote to my father's chauvinistic "The Great Santini--The Previous Generation" approach. Through Wouk, we meet Navy officer Pug Henry, a "heluva fighting man" who seems a bit one-dimensional, but he's more than just a GI; he's a human being. His wife is intelligent but cynical and superficial. As for his kids, maybe the oldest son has chosen to emulate Dear Old Dad, but there's a kid brother who's an immature Joe College-type and a baby sister who's in the perilous territory of late adolescence. In the Wouk tradition (which, come to think of it, is also the American tradition), people whose flaws are seemingly insurmountable become heroes in their own way. In a way, Herman Wouk epitomizes American literature more than the more obvious choices like Twain and Hemmingway.
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Summary: Wouk is one of our best authors.
Review: I just finished a fine new novel, THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY, that many reviewers have compared favorably to Wouk's classic THE WINDS OF WAR. I'm one of the only three people in the country who'd never read THE WINDS OF WAR so I remedied the situation at once and found to my immense satisfaction that it was indeed an epic achievement. So I took this opportunity to say so. The end.
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Summary: DID PUG HENRY REALLY EXIST?
Review: Quite apart from the fact that, at 1,047 pages, this is the longest book I have ever read (just pipped "Gone With The Wind"), the greatest memory I have of reading it is the fact that I always had to have a history book within reach. The seamlessness with which Wouk weaves fact and fiction leaves the reader wondering whether a 'Pug Henry', if only as an amalgam of various people in the wartime Navy, actually existed. Overall, it ranks right up there with the best epics I have ever read and, thank goodness for Nairobi's little thrift shops! I can't wait to embark on "War and Remembrance", if I can find it!
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