Rating: 
Summary: first-rate historical novel!!
Review: For someone interested in long novels and history, this is a heaven-sent book, rich in imagination and historical facts. I wonder what prompted Mr Wouk to write this book. There is no match for it in the literary world !!
Rating:
Summary: first-rate historical novel!!
Review: For someone interested in long novels and history, this is a heaven-sent book, rich in imagination and historical facts. I wonder what prompted Mr Wouk to write this book. There is no match for it in the literary world !!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Herman Wouk does a incredible job of weaving his own characters into the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and America's enterance into World War Two. I also recommend the sequal WAR AND REMEMBRANCE
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Summary: Terrific book of historical fiction
Review: Herman Wouk will go down in history as one of the great storytellers of all time. His strength lies in his characterization and telling of acccurate history. With pre-WWII Europe as the background, Wouk recreates a timeless tale of an American Naval family caught up those turbulent and ever changing times. He covers all of the important events leading up to America's entry in the war and does it by having the reader visualize it though the eyes of regular Americans. If you are at all interested in historical fiction, are looking for an interesting addition to your collection of WWII books, or just want an excellent read, then buy this book. You will not be able to put it down and you will feel disappointed when it ends (which will lead you to the sequel "War and Remembrance")
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Summary: History with a personal perspective...
Review: I read Winds of War (and then its sequel, War and Remembrance) a few years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. Herman Wouk weaves in the story of the Henry family through the ordeal of Second World War. The reader gets a very personal look at World War II (on all fronts, including the Holocaust) through the eyes of this tight knit American family. Although it's a pretty big book, the pages fly by...!
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Summary: An archetype.........
Review: I've read many WWII-related novels and works of non-fiction over the years. Therefore, I'm somewhat surprised it took me this long to arrive at Herman Wouk. Winds of War is a sweeping, magnificent epic that captured me in a way few novels do. Herman Wouk tells the story of a fictional USN family as the events leading up to America's entry into war cast them hither and yon. London, Berlin, Moscow, Pearl Harbor, New York City, Rome, Manila, and Washington DC all figure prominently as do the leaders of each Axis and Allied country. Having read much about WWII, I especially enjoyed Wouk's flawless chronology and the detail with which it was adorned. Indeed, one could absorb a better understanding of the WWII event timeline from Winds of War than from many non-fictional accounts. I do most of my reading at night before sleep. Winds of War had me looking forward to bedtime on my commute home from work. I loved this book. I loved it's character formation, it's pace, it's geographical range, and it's towering level of suspense. Every ingredient required for a memorable epic is present in an impeccable weave. Winds of War rates 5 stars and more.
Rating:
Summary: An archetype.........
Review: I've read many WWII-related novels and works of non-fiction over the years. Therefore, I'm somewhat surprised it took me this long to arrive at Herman Wouk. Winds of War is a sweeping, magnificent epic that captured me in a way few novels do. Herman Wouk tells the story of a fictional USN family as the events leading up to America's entry into war cast them hither and yon. London, Berlin, Moscow, Pearl Harbor, New York City, Rome, Manila, and Washington DC all figure prominently as do the leaders of each Axis and Allied country. Having read much about WWII, I especially enjoyed Wouk's flawless chronology and the detail with which it was adorned. Indeed, one could absorb a better understanding of the WWII event timeline from Winds of War than from many non-fictional accounts. I do most of my reading at night before sleep. Winds of War had me looking forward to bedtime on my commute home from work. I loved this book. I loved it's character formation, it's pace, it's geographical range, and it's towering level of suspense. Every ingredient required for a memorable epic is present in an impeccable weave. Winds of War rates 5 stars and more.
Rating:
Summary: "A Thriller"
Review: Many lives would not be the same if it was not for the Henry family. This story is a tale of love, action and adventure. This combination is what makes a good book. The story takes place in 1939, during the beginning of World War 2. It follows the Henry family. A family who was brought up on the Navy. The main character Victor "Pug" Henry a Naval attache to Berlin finds himself caught in the backyard of what will soon be one of the world's biggest leader and maniac. This of course is Adolf Hitler. In fact Victor meets Hitler, Stalin and Churchill and lets not forget he and Franklin D. Roosevelt are very good friends. While Victor is in diplomacy we find his youngest son Byron running for his life in Warsaw, Poland with love interest Natalie Jastrow the niece of the famous author Aaron Jastrow, who wrote A Jew's Jesus. While half of the family is over in the pit of things the other half is over on the home front. Eldest son Warren is training to become a flight aviator and sister working for a famous t.v. show host in New York. As you can see this family can be no more farther a part, but really this war will soon bring them together. This story begins with the invasion of Poland and goes all the way to the attack on Pearl Harbor. A thriller `till the end. The Winds of War is a winner.
I really enjoyed this book. It was probably one of the greatest books that I have ever read. It was a big accomplishment being that it was over 1000 pages. Even though it was a slow read and even a little bit hard to understand at time it still did no let me put it down. It is real easy to get into it because there is so much to think about that it is. All in all this was a really great book!
Rating: 
Summary: An Enthralling History Lesson
Review: Never a fan of war epics, and a pacifist to boot, I found myself thrust into the book after a friend coerced me to read it. After a couple hundred chapters of standard introductions and sluggish war rumblings from afar, the saga started to pick up. Two main characters are tossed in a simple Jewish countrytown in Poland as the Nazis attack unsparingly. Woulk waters down the blatant social commentary and WWII strategem with a winding plot that places protagonists in a lavish party of Goering's (Hitler's right-hand man), with a guestlist including Hitler himself, at the cockpit of a British fighter plane soaring across Berlin, and the private office of FDR, as he seeks for guidance. The subtle, romantic fumblings of lovers even squirm their way into the plot to complete a deliciously factual fiction.
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Summary: THE GREAT AMERICAN WORLD WAR 2 NOVEL(S)
Review: There are 4 components a writer needs to write: Style, Theme, Character Development, and Storytelling Ability. All writers have these traits in varying degrees, but no writer has ever been called truly GREAT without having an abundance of Storytelling Ability. This is paramount; if you can't hook the reader it doesn't matter how jazzy you write or how noble is your theme. You must be able to tell a good story. Our greatest, and most popular writers, have always understood this: Hemingway, Miller, Wolfe (both), Bellow, Stephen King. Great storytellers. Seated in the front row of this class is Herman Wouk, an enormously popular writer who, despite his Pulitzer Prize for "The Caine Mutiny", has never been considered great, in the sense that these others have. That's a true shame. Wouk can tell a story---and I mean a WHOPPER, an EPIC in the true sense of the word---like nobody else from his generation. "The Winds of War" is part one of his absolute masterpiece, a tsunami tale of adventure, tragedy, romance, death, birth...you name it, it's in there. The story of the Henry family, headed by Victor "Pug" Henry, a Captain in the U.S. Navy, as it spreads across the globe during World War Two. This is a virtuoso performance. Wouk knits the personal stories of the Henry clan together with factual history, using letters, quotes from speeches & books, anything he can think of to put you THERE, smack dab in the middle of the action. And you are there: you follow Pug to meetings with Roosevelt, Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, and on and on. Putting fictional characters in the room with real people is a huge risk, it almost never works, but Wouk pulls it off with charm to spare. You're in Warsaw when the Nazis invade, you're at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attack, you're in Rome when Mussolini declares war. Wouk sucks you into the narrative so completely you forget that Pug's travels are pretty damn impossible. Who cares? He's a HERO, it's his job to be in impossible situations, and Pug does his job like a champion. All of his characters are absolutely fleshed out, the dialogue is nearly ear-perfect, the historical events build momentum like no book you'll ever read...forget all the pretenders to the throne, from Mailer to Jones and all the little men in between. THIS IS THE GREAT NOVEL OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. This is good old-fashioned storytelling genius, the kind of book nobody writes anymore because Style has taken center stage in the last 50 years, sadly. (I blame Joyce) If more people would read this book, and its sequel "War And Remembrance", maybe we could get back to what writing---in fact language itself---was created for in the first place: TO TELL A STORY. Check out Herman Wouk, one of the greats.
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